Zion Locals: Temple of Sinewava from Observation Point

Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the possibility of accessing the top of the walls above the Temple of Sinewava (ie the top of Monkeyfinger) by hiking up the Weeping Rock Trail to Observation point, and then descending down to the wall.

Has anyone been up there? The trail is about four miles, and then it looks like there might be some technical terrain (possible raps) on the roughly 1/2 mile descent down to the top of the wall.

I remember reading about a 5.5 passage up the "north ridge" to Observation Point, but of course I'm curious about going in the opposite direction.

pm sent. let me know if you dont get it.

I can't imagine it being faster than just climbing Monkeyfinger. That white rock can be really shitty.

Speed is not my concern - just want to know what it's like up there...

Its gonna be like all the other white rock in the park. sandy, loose, vegetated, and of generally poor quality. plenty of other more accessible places to confirm this. The views up there may be nice but expect a choss filled horrorshow not worth its while if you go out looking to climb. there is some decent white rock climbing out the east side if petrified sand dunes are your thing. aires butte, checkerboard, and crazyquilt are all nice jaunts.

I'm not looking to climb, views, etcetera. I'm just looking to get to the top of that wall without having to deal with technical terrain (raps are OK).

Josh Janes wrote:I'm not looking to climb, views, etcetera. I'm just looking to get to the top of that wall without having to deal with technical terrain (raps are OK).

It does beg the question: why?

I did a rap route not far upstream from where Mystery Canyon comes out. We climbed the Mountain of Mystery, and, thought there was a chance there was a decent canyon draining the big basin which would flow down into the narrows. Map kinda showed something. But...there wasn't. High angle rappel line, kinda sucked especially as we core shot our 300 foot rope on one of the rappels, and, we'd run out of water at 5pm the day prior. So, we got worked. Got the rope stuck for a few minutes too, which bumped up the stress level a tad. Ended up being a fairly featureless wall descent. Nutty.

Bunch of that terrain leads right over the top of fairly heavily visited areas, so, I'd be super careful about knockin' rocks off. And, that upper white rock layer can be super sketchy. Folks blow the approach to Mystery Canyon and end up in no man's land from time-to-time, usually getting rescued. Kind of in the direction you want to go.

I think they've had some weather down there too, so, might be snow/ice up high in the shade still? Might make it even spicier.

yo brian,
thats a sick trip i've been scopin' out that one for years, i'd like to see a trip report on that one.
as for a descent from observation point to the top of desert shield, eric draper is the only one i know who's done it, for photo ops, he said it wasn't to technical and joined the climbing party and rapped with then.

Josh,

I've hiked/climbed from the top of Monkeyfinger to Observation Point. It was back in the late 70's, which was the way you "descended" back in those days. I remember traversing south a bit to a steep slabby rib like section which required one pitch of 5.6 or 5.7. We reached the rim several hundred yards north of Observation Point.