Syphilis Spire

Like its namesake venereal disease, this might not be something you want to share with anyone you love (or perhaps, only with someone you love). We ended up there on accident. It's not a good route, but it's a rad summit. There wasn't any evidence that it had been done before, and it isn't in any guidebooks (we consulted Phoenix Rock and the great and powerful Waugh), but if anyone knows any thing we don’t, please let us know. Bring your helmets, your choss dancing shoes, a bolt kit, some tat, an epi-pen, and a shot of penicillin for this one.

Pitch 1: Belay from the ground or scramble up about 15 feet onto a small ledge. We belayed from here, taking the corner past a agave on rope. Climb up and in to the mostly-unprotected chimney until you reach what appears to be the remains of an old beehive. There's a bunch of this mysterious, black, waxy substance all over the place (bee poop, maybe?), but there are actually a few “good” options for gear, so it isn't a bad place to set up the next belay. There were one or two bees buzzing around while were there, but the hive seemed like it had been long abandoned. That being said, I know nothing about bees or hives, so take what I say with a grain of salt. 

Pitch 2: Continue delicately up the chimney, taking advantage of any gear placements you find - there isn't much, and the rock quality goes from bad to worse as you near the top. Think bull in a china shop. Once the worst of the choss is behind you, breathe a sigh of relief and head across the saddle towards the radical-looking 100' spire that's now in your view. Sling a boulder (huge sling) and bring your partner up.

Pitch 3: Climb the north side of the spire, placing a few hand-to-fist-sized cams in pockets along the way. The rock is actually decent compared to the rest of the route, and the climbing is fun and easy. I slung the extremely marginal rounded top of the spire and belayed my partner up off my harness. It would have been nice to have a bolt, but I didn't bring the kit.  Enjoy the views of Sisyphus and Casper, Weaver's Needle, Zonerland and more from the top

Getting down:

Put a bolt in or sling the rounded summit cap and pray it holds like it did for us. Rap down to where you started pitch 3, then 4th class downclimb generally north to a large, healthy juniper tree (you can see it from the summit and observe it from the top of p3 if you hike north on the saddle). Scramble down to the tree by going towards where you topped out of pitch 2, find solid feet and traverse, then down climb a lodge to the tree. Rap off this down a low angle chimney over some thorny bushes into the wash at the base of Sisyphus. Breathe one more sigh of relief and bushwack back to your packs.

The route starts in a crumbly south-facing chimney on the western-most aspect of the Sisyphus pinnacles. When you are looking at the start, Casper will be directly behind you and to your right.

While you’re approaching, you’ll see the most obvious chimney. As you approach that chimney, this route is the chimney to the left that is slightly hidden.

Titons, nuts, standard rack of cams plus a #4. Long slings and tat.

One 70 meter will get ya down if ya do what we did.