[TR] Zion, Red Rock, and St. George Area - Many 4/14/2012

[mtep]

Trip: Zion, Red Rock, and St. George Area - Many

 

Date: 4/14/2012

 

Trip Report:

Haven't done the TR thing here in the past, but figured that this might not be a bad time to start. I'm just wrapping up a month of climbing in the desert and what's going to get done has more or less been done. Here's the beta for what we did while it's still fresh(ish) in my mind:

 

Started in Red Rock:

La Cierta Edad-Fun, short route. Has rumors of wide climbing, but there really isn't much. (or any really) Mostly typical Vegas 'protect the crack, climb the face' style movement. The last pitch has some excellent varnish on easy rock.

 

Inti Wantana to Res. Arete-Another awesome route. Super well cairned/followable approach. P1 friction feels hard in the cold of an early morning and the P2 crux is one harder, but very well protected move. After that it's nothing but fun, crimp climbing to the top of the pillar where you merge with the Res. Here the quality of the rock and climbing diminishes dramatically. It goes from classic to not-really-so-classic, but is worth it for the top-out. Descending First Creek is definitely the way to do it if you're walking off. It's straightforward, non-technical, and long(!).

 

Rainbow Wall-This route is everything you've heard about it. Go do it. Many of the pitches can be linked and the wall is steep enough that the raps go super-quick. No gear larger than a #2 necessary. (and you really only need 1 ea. of 0.75-2)

 

Dogma-Also really, really good. The approach gets confusing after departing the Res/Inti approach, but is manageable. The start of the route out of Willy's coulior is inobvious, but basically you start the only chimney system up-canyon of a short fixed line not long before the coulior ends. The first pitch should be linked with the second (you probably will anyway) as the bolted station is off to the left of the line and kind of hard to find. (we only did on the descent) On the crux pitch, expect to pull the hardest moves 5-6' above a bomber bolt. We rapped the route to avoid carrying shoes and, despite hearing rumors that it's heinous and long, found it to be relatively casual. It is long, but worth it for the weight savings. For those thinking about onsighting it as a descent from another line, it would be absolutely awful to do in the dark if you didn't know where it went. Especially the lower half.

 

Risky Business/Excellent Adventure-More rad, but heads up climbing. My partner got off route on RB's P3 and belayed at the base of the last pitch of EA. I failed to notice it at the time and ended up sandbagging myself into leading that pitch. It's really good and really scary. Insecure and committing slab climbing above four old bolts leads to a very run-out face. (the guidebook says there's a bolt here, but I never found it, despite spending a lot of time looking) Definitely type 2 fun.

 

Drifting-This route is killer! The approach is long, but well worth it. Make sure you go up the right gully. A party on Jet Stream that day reported that going up the Olive Oil approach gully is horrendous. (as you'd expect) The climbing is exactly as Handren says: sustained, but never really desperate. That being said it is definitely heads up in places and often has a lot of space between gear placements. P2 finishes with a traverse that will put an inexperienced second in tears.

 

Adventure Punks-Also good, but not as classic as I expected. I suspect that I just had really high expectations. That being said, it is really good and totally worth doing. It's also (like everyone says) not for the budding 5.10 leader. Brought a new #6, an old #5, a new #4, a wild country #5, and a rack of stoppers for the last pitch. Never used the 4, but was psyched to have the rest. Didn't feel the need for more gear than that.

 

Heliotrope-Mostly fun. The pitch after it leaves Sunflower is very run-out, but finishes with an awesome stretch of varnish climbing that is literally like climbing a ladder.

 

Lotta Balls/Black Magic-Classic as usual.

 

Epinephrine-Nothing much new to contribute to what's already been said. It's classic. The chimneys are slow. The upper section is fast. One note is that the rappel anchors on the last two pitches have been dismantled and aren't really viable options. (studs and empty holes) So if you're planning on rapping, do it at the base of the 2nd to last pitch before the 4th class ramp.

 

Zion time!

Shune's Buttress-So, so good! Splitter crack climbing from bottom to top. We started via the left hand option (which was awesome) and climbed the right hand option for P2. (also likely the better of the two options) P3 (the 10++ wide pitch) spat me off. It's really hard if you try and stack and comparatively easy if you just try to get into a lie-back asap. Brought a WC five for this and it was the perfect piece for the crux. (a four would work too, but I wanted that higher up) With a 70 (or a 60 and some very reasonable simuling) you can link from the top of P2 all the way to the base of the 1st 5.11 pitch up high (at the top of the chimney) in one long(!) pitch. This is definitely the way to do it as the two belays you skip both have terrible stances. When rappelling, rap from the belay at the base of the upper splitter crux. It's out to the side of the main corner and the other option will have you pulling your ropes right into the chimneys. (multiple chopped lines are testaments to why you don't want to do this)

 

Then it rained and snowed a bunch and we cragged around St. George:

The Underworld-Funky access to fun columnar basalt. I'd read online that it was comparable to Trout. Not so much. (still good though)

Chuckwalla-basically an outdoor gym with all that entails. Super easy access, steep bolted lines, lots of people.

The Cathedral/Wailing Wall-Really good, steep limestone. The abundance of perma-draws makes for fun, convenient climbing. This is definitely the place I'll be spending my time waiting for sandstone to dry in the future.

 

Back to Red Rocks:

Dream of Wild Turkeys/Sour Mash-I wasn't crazy about Turkeys. It was fun, but maybe not worth all the hype. Sour Mash was the other end of the spectrum: awesome movement on excellent rock.

 

Cloud Tower-Killer. Go do it. It's one of the best routes there. On rappelling: When I did this route last spring we had no problems, but I'd heard of people epic-ing a little bit. This year we had many problems and ended up chopping 20 meters of the end of one of our ropes on the last rap. Rapping with saddle bags might not be a bad idea. Other options would be to top it out and rap Crimson (which is saying something. I wouldn't recommend that over rapping CT lightly as Crimson is usually a massive cluster) or walk off. If I do rap the route again, I won't rap back into the 5.8 pitches (where we had to chop our rope) but directly down the buttress (off the tree that is the back component of the anchor and straight down the buttress). This beta probably makes no sense in this context, but you'll understand when/if you're there.

 

Frigid Air Buttress-Fun climbing. Opting for the squeeze up high in lieu of the stemming sneaker option was fun and very reasonable. We also did a pitch to the right of the line while waiting for the party in front of us to move up. It was fun 5.8/9ish mixed bolts and gear.

 

Photos here:

[mtep]

Forgot Ixtlan and Our Father:

Ixtlan's P1 is hard for the grade but well protected. You can walk a #6 up P3 and I wish I had.

Our Father is killer. P1 is fun and moderate, P2 has some heads up friction, and the last pitch is beautiful.

[billcoe]

Thanks for the Trip report Max!

[corvallisclimb]

I'm just wrapping up a month of climbing in the desert

 

Nice job Max, that is probably more pitches than I've climbed in like three years.

[Rad]

Sounds like an excellent adventure, thanks for posting.

 

The secret to great trip reports is...

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great photos.