Coyote Tower

the coyote is both sacred character and trickster, and climbing Coyote Tower will reconnect you to eternal truths as well as your bag of climbing tricks. John Burcham put this route up in the late 1990’s, and to this day it delivers delicate smears, dreamy fingerlocks, solid handjams, thrutchy pods, powerful laybacking, and a soupçon of offwidthing, all at a sustained 9 (ish) grade with a mid-10 (ish) crux on pitch 2 to keep the crowds down. bring 2 ropes (or a Beal escaper) and a partner you can talk into leading odds (show them the pictures of the pitch 5 corner…). All anchors bolted and set up for rappel EXCEPT PITCH 2.

1- the price of admission. climb 3 separate micro headwalls with sparse bolts (and a #3 and #1 in pockets on 1st headwall to keep you off the vegetated ramp). this has been called 5.8 by many, but it may not feel 5.8 with some ankle breaking potential on friable rock. You will find a bolted anchor at top of last little headwall OR with a 70m you can JUST BARELY WITH A FOOT OF ROPE TO SPARE lead the scramble to the base of p2, about 40 feet up and left of the p1 anchors. There will be no bolted anchor here- small cams and RP’s will work, it’s a good ledge and there is great gear coming soon…. 5.8d+ and spicy

2- the crux. beautiful crack climbing from fingers to fists, but it is the steep pods that will call upon your inner trickster. with the 10c bit coming at you late in the pitch, save a #1, 2,  and 3 for the top if this is near your limit, or if you like your thrutching a bit cozy; 10c

3- tunnel to plank. climb up and right of the anchor tunneling behind the buttress, up to the limestone band, and walk the bolted rightward traverse. short, 5.easy pitch

4- surf the choss. navigate some choss with the help of a bolt, and get a small cam or 2 in better rock when it steepens a bit, then cruise on 5.9 and 5.fun terrain to the sandy, blonde, tilted blocks beneath the layback corner, .9

5-  lay it back for 30 or so feet of stellar, featured left facing corner to weirdness and funk surmounting some less than stellar rock with mantle and bolt. .9

6-  the money pitch. great pro. great feet. great exposure capped by the rarest of things, a 5.9 airy offwidth move to summit. glorious  .9+

Descent: single rope raps to p5,4,3 anchors. From p3 double rope to p1 and from p1 same to ground. The Wiled Horse/wily coyote beta= Leave 2nd rope at p1 anchors, have your first rap to it single strand from p3 anchors and send it up to the p3 chains and you don’t have to mess w 2 ropes above p1. the extra wily coyote brings one 70 and a Beal escaper, which is bomber (no matter what Google says)

Bell Rock Pathway Trailhead. Coyote Tower is the long slim tower formation that clings to the southeast corner of Courthouse Butte. Use the manicured trail system to get out to the main wash which leads around the back of the formation, and when you hit a manmade retaining wall look left for cairns and the path that takes you up a vegetated ramp trending up and left, this ramp will get you about 200’ up and at its apex, you can look up and spy the first bolt (look high for it)

No such thing as a standard rack!  many strongpeople advocate ditching the 4. Double rack .2-3 if you are cool, ditch some of that if you are way cool, spray about it below, and here is how to have everything you want when you want it, if 10c in Sedona is not trivial for you and you don’t mind extra weight: doubles .2-3, triples 1, 2, 3, and a 4, plus nuts. Dozen draws w half alpine.