Type: Trad, 300 ft (91 m), 3 pitches
FA: FA Eric Bjornstad Tony Valdez 1985
Page Views: 1,161 total · 4/month
Shared By: Steve Bartlett on Oct 31, 2001
Admins: slim, Andrew Gram, Nathan Fisher, Perin Blanchard, GRK, D C

You & This Route


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Warning Access Issue: RAIN, WET ROCK and RAPTOR CLOSURES: The sandstone around Moab is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Also please ask and be aware of Raptor Closures in areas such as CAT WALL and RESERVOIR WALL in Indian Creek DetailsDrop down

Description Suggest change

This is a fun route (well kinda), with three 5.9ish pitches, and a nice summit. The original route starts on the far west end of the formation, and basically follows the easiest-angled line.

Start on the southwest corner. Climb a funky slabby feature, bouldery and runout, past some overlaps, into an obvious dihedral. The dihedral features good gear, fun stemming and secure jamming. A strenuous finish lands one on a ledgy ramp. We belayed up and right, on a nice ledge, under a large perched block.

Pitch 2. Start by negotiating (yikes--laybacking!) the block. 2023 EDIT: This block is now gone ... This may be harder than 5.9 now? This is spooky, as it looks barely attached, and its removal would have unpleasant consequences. Once you leave the block behind, meander up and right (we stayed just below the crest), on high quality 5.7ish face climbing, with little or no gear (get it where you can, and leave long slings to avoid rope drag) until you reach easy ground and the base of the final pillar. This was a rope-stretching pitch.

Pitch 3. On the last pitch, we took the left crack (it looked easier). This turned out to be real nice, varied jamming and stemming and mostly good rock. The wide section in the middle is not as hard as it appears!

Descent. There was no sign of previous rap anchors on the summit. We tied off a block or used a thread, and used extra webbing to reach the edge of the top (bring some spare webbing) and rappelled the north face. Two 200' (60m) ropes made it to a large ledge with no obvious anchor possibilities, from where we located (eventually) a feasible downclimb to the ground. This descent was exactly as described in Eric Bjornstad's guidebook. EDIT for 2022: Sounds like there's now a bolted anchor on top and a set of intermediate anchors (see comments below). 

Protection Suggest change

bring a selection of cams from small to offwidth size. Maybe one or two of each to 4" or 5", heavy on the hand/fist-size stuff. A few large wires. Extra webbing and slings.

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