Phalanx of Will

Is there any particular reason that this isn't on MP? I found some info on it over on Summitpost.org, but as it's a limestone sport climbing area it is conspicuously missing from this site.

Does anyone have good beta for the area and the drive in? Is 4WD still necessary to get to it?

Thanks!

I would say to go ahead and post it on the site but if it's in AZ you never know what kind of shit storm may follow.

Any shit storm will arrive from the north. It is as arizonan as Colorado City (in southern Utah, really).

Here is rockclimbing.com description (putting it squarely in Utah's backyard):
rockclimbing.com/routes/Nor…

That was just in a video with alex honnold.

Mark S wrote:That was just in a video with alex honnold.

Nope, it's in AZ. You can't really get to it from AZ though, as it's isolated by the Grand Canyon. St George really is the closest city. It's in Todd Goss's guide book. Note the title is "Rock Climbs of Southwest Utah & the Arizona Strip". The Arizona Strip part is the northwestern tip of the state. It includes the Virgin River Gorge.

Getting there is a beast. Goss reports that it's one of most inaccessible locations in the lower 48. I got on google maps, and followed his directions as far as I could get, and I just got over the border into AZ before he lost me. If you really want to get there, then buy the guidebook, and pray you will get there, but then realize you probably won't make it. Hope this helps.

I remember the video, and I immediately grabbed my guidebook off the shelf to see what he was climbing. Can't really remember anymore, as it was a few weeks ago.

Yeah, the directions I found on this page get rather hard to follow on a map after crossing into AZ.

This seems like it's in about the right spot but I can't really tell if that's the correct canyon or not.

Actually: Is this it?

g.co/maps/8gvk8

I don't think it's either. I'm feeling much more confident about this location: g.co/maps/mp5mr

I would talk to a climbing shop near St George if you really plan on going there.

I used the directions given in the Todd Goss guide book. We arrived at the crag on the first try. You basically are in a dried up creek bed much of the way. I would really recommend 4wd as with my Tundra we scraped bottom a couple of times. I also recommend going there it was super cool.

Using the todd goss book I also found it first try, def need a high clearance vehicle though.

Kenny is right on track, I believe its:

36.926996,-113.463026 If you just google the GPS it will put you on the road, if you enter them once at google maps it labels the point in the canyon south of the road... odd

Kenny's map is the right one. Where Sunshine Trail crosses the dry creek and hairpins back to the left, you continue right down the drainage(Dutchman's Draw) for another half mile or so until the Phalanx appears on your left. In the map Kenny showed, the Phalanx shows as a dark shadow on the North side of the drainage. A large dark colored boulder rests below it.

We found it on the first try as well but I was with an extremely seasoned traveler (he lives in his van). 4x4 is definitely needed. There were a couple of times we stopped and moved rocks and dirt to build up the road enough to make it passable.

The climbing was amazing. The location was remote. The scenery was gorgeous. The guy was handsome. The beer was cold. Doesn't get much better.

This place is pretty cool. It developed a reputation for being chossy but I think that's because it was like most new limestone areas.

The easy side of the tower has some cool .10's and .11's with even easier starts. So if you wanted to take someone who wasn't that great of a climber they'd have a lot of fun on the .7 and .8 starts of the .10's. The .10a first half of the left .11c was one of the best .10a pitches I've done in a long time.

The coolest part of climbing there was the constant chert bands with their seashell impressions and positive holds of all sizes from hand jugs down to teeny pinches. Super cool.

There is hardly any info on MP about the "Strip" crags. The Virgin River Gorge is on here, but with very few routes. I don't see any reason not to post these areas, but then again I don't know if there are any access issues. I don't think anyone has been up to the challenge of adding them here on MP.

Out of curiosity, how long would the hike be without a high clearance vehicle? I have a mini-van, so there is really no off-roading in my future. How many miles from the cliff would you be if you only drove on relatively flat, easy tread and then stopped?