Not surprisingly, with Contagion being as popular as it is, Lake Mead Buttress has seen a burst of new development. Herd Immunity is the second fully bolted sport multipitch on LMB. This is a great route characterized by delicate vertical climbing using pinches and sidepulls that is quite sustained at the 5.10 grade. This aspect of the buttress gets morning shade, the length of which depends on the time of year; and sun until last light.

Beta revised as of May 2024 to consolidate the old described pitch 4 and 5 into one pitch as the developers intended.

P1: 100’ 5.11a (10 QDs) Climb the steep orange wall to an anchor at the lip of the massive ledge above.  [Please leave the lowering hardware on the anchor as this pitch can be climbed and lowered as a single pitch]

*Move the belay* 100’ straight up on the talus ledge to a single belay bolt at the base of the next pitch

P2: 105’ 5.10 (12 QDs) Climb the easy slab for about 50 feet until you reach the golden dihedral. Stem through the dihedral then pull over the overhang on positive holds to reach a decent belay ledge.

P3: 110’ 5.10- (14 QDs) Tech your way up the gray face above. Follow the bolts to another comfortable belay ledge.

P4: 130’ 5.10+ (16 QDs) The crux comes early on this pitch at the bulge. Continue climbing techy and sustained vertical rock passing a rappel anchor. Keep following more bolts up easier techy vertical rock to an ok belay stance. It is possible to back clean a few draws if you don't want to carry 16.

P5: 100’ 5.7 (7 QDs) You can move the belay onto the big ledge (additional bolted anchor) but it's kind of unnecessary. Climb through the choss to the summit. Worst pitch on route and you're not missing much if you decide to skip this one except the summit of course.

Descent: It is possible to rap the route from the summit back to the top of P1 with a single 70M rope stopping at every rappel anchor (make sure to stop at the intermediate anchor on pitch 4). From there, rap the first pitch of Land Before Time. If there are people climbing the route behind you, consider rappelling “West Side Story” or descending via the standard walk off descent. If you are planning on doing the walk off, plan to carry everything up and over the summit as the walk off puts you pretty far from the base of the route.

From the Base of Contagion, continue left past a short scramble to the prow, continue past the prow to your left and follow along the base of the wall to an obvious gully with a bolted face. This is the start to Land Before Time. Look about 70’ to your left to a steep orange wall, Herd Immunity starts in the center of this steeper wall

16 draws and a 70m rope