Annals Of The Former World

From Midgley bridge, the south flank of Mt Wilson offers a large array of stone, but previously no route climbs all the way up this escarpment. Annals of the Former World weaves a line up nice cracks and patina faces through the entirety of the Coconino and Toroweap formations to the highest summit in Sedona. The first two pitches were originally climbed around 2000 by John Doskicz Et Al.
 
Pitch 1 | 5.9 R | Lace up your Methos and smear up a slabby ramp and seam past 3 bolts to an anchor by some healthy agave. While easy, a fall getting to the second bolt would likely deposit you at your packs. Thanks John…
 
From the top of P1 unrope and hike up the loose slope above, moving right to a short bit of easy 5th class to a ledge below the obvious hands corner. There is an old drilled angle for the belay.
 
Pitch 2 | 5.11 | Push and stem your way up the corner to the hand crack and turn on autopilot. Climb past a bolt and the lower angle corner above which deposits you on a cactus ledge, continue up, minding to not feed the agaves, to a second dirty ledge and a rap station.
 
Pitch 3 | 5.11 - | PG-13 | Push your way up and right, traversing to a bolt, keep moving up and right past two more bolts and into a small left facing corner. Climb left on the patina arête with pro in the thin crack. When possible move back right and continue up the thin crack on great rock to a ledge and a bolted belay. Exciting and excellent!
 
Pitch 4 | 5.11- | Head up the crack, clip a bolt and pull out the roof. Stem your way up the corner past some great fingers to some easy hand crack and a belay on a small ledge on the right. Do not belay at the rap station on the left of this pitch about 2/3 up.
 
Pitch 5 | 5.10 | Climb patina past 6 bolts to a ledge. Traverse right on the ledge to a wide corner with a hand crack on the right, then past a bolt which takes you to a comfy ledge below a splitter and a rap station..
 
Pitch 6 | 5.11 | Head up the great looking Toroweap finger and hand splitter and up to a sofa equipped party ledge.
 
Pitch 7 | 5.0 | Belay move. Walk right over blocks to an anchor. Take a 0C3, .4 C4, #1 and all the draws/runners with you on this pitch but leave the rest of the rack at the top of the splitter.
 
Pitch 8 | 5.11 | Head up the bolted arete to a massive ledge and a rap station on the highest ledge. 9 Bolts.
 
Pitch 9 | 5.11 | More Sportz Action. Take off your shirt and climb up the wild exposed arete to the summit and a bolted anchor. Enjoy the view!

Approach as for Super Crack Tower, however, instead of leaving the wash and going up and right to Super Crack, go left and gain a shallow ridge. This part can be brushy is you don’t go the right way and is the crux. Higher the ridge becomes more open and grassy, and a game trail can be followed until the towering wall of Annals of the Former World can be seen. A left trending ramp climbs through a short 3rd class cliff band down and right from the start of the route. Total approach ~75-90 min.

Doubles 0c3 - #3
Single 000,00,#4
Extra #1
Small (2x BD #4) - Med Nuts
6 Draws
4 Runners
70M Rope

Rap with a single 70m rope. From the summit rap back to top of P8. Rap left down a loose blocky corner to the top of P6, the second should run the rope through a notch in the arête to the right for a cleaner pull. Then rap straight down to top of P5. From here rap ~40’ to a ledge with a bolt and traverse the ledge left over blocks to an off route station under the roof. The 2nd should clip in to the ledge bolt, pull the rope, then tie in and be belayed over. You cannot pull from the next station under the roof!! Three raps down and left past 2 off-route stations will take you to the top of p2. Two more raps straight down off the dirt ledge past an off-route station will take you to the dirt ramp. From here ski down to the top of P1 and make one last rap to your packs.