Mars Attacks 

Just an FYI, there was a rattle snake living under a rock ON THE TRAIL. I almost stepped on it. As your going up the base, right BEFORE you hit a T in the trail (where you would turn Right for Mars attacks), there is a snake under one of the bigger rocks on the trail. Be careful, you would not (and we did not) see it coming up..

This route felt hard and exciting for 5.8. The first pitch looks easy, but there is a difficult slab move on this pitch. The next pitch, the traverse seemed to be the crux and it is a bit heady and a bit pumpy, so very, very cool. Great photo potential here. I think the route feels more like a 5.9 on the first two pitches. The 3rd pitch is a super cool, very unique and fun crack/chimney pitch.

Mars Attacks is a great climb! From where you park your car, walk back to the road and then head north for about 350 yards to a small wash on your right. Take this wash to the path that will get you past the first little cliff to the shelf. You will approach the climb from the West.

The first pitch is harder than 5.8. I would say 10 slab easily. I heard that a key foot nub wore off from repeated use. The second pitch is a classic limestone band traverse around the prow. Third pitch is a full rope with wide gear placements. Not to worry, there are plentiful huge jugs that make this pitch a cruise. The fourth pitch is a crack to slab combination. Make sure you traverse right to the other set of anchors for your rappel!!

This rap will put you right over Big Corner, which is another great climb [10c/d corner]!!!

I'm not going to get into the technical aspects of this route. Its a must do if your out in Sedona. The third pitch had to be my all time favorite. It was a great chance to practice that crack climbing that I've been avoiding. I can't say enough good things about this climb.

FA John Burcham AND John Mattson.

Mars was a great route all around. It contains a wide variety of climbing disciplines. The first slab was nerve racking to a airy traverse. The 3rd pitch was aesthetically beautiful as well as one of my favorite cracks. Bomber hand jams, to fist to chimney, stellar at the least. If you plan on rapping the route, bring two ropes. You can rap big corner with one rope no problem. The anchors for the second rap are at the very end of a 60 meter rope. They are hidden below a bulge and you will not see them until almost on top of them. A true 100 Ft. rap.

Best climb I've ever done. This route has everything. Slab, traverse, crack and off width. Thanks to Jodie and the rest of the crew for taking my girlfriend and I on this amazing climb.

If you are good at slab (check) and your head is on for exposure (check), this climb is pretty much cake. Gear is bomber on cracks and sandstone provides great friction. I recommend.

I have done this route several times over the last 3-4 years and it doesn't seem any harder than 5.7 or 5.8. If you aren't good at slab technique the 1st pitch will feel harder, but that is because of your skill, not because the climb is difficult. It is a great route.
Ronnie

I rope soloed this in early Oct. I'd like to comment on the first pitch rating. After reading the varied opinions on the rating of pitch 1 I paid close attention to the difficulties and I climbed it twice(because I was soloing). I intentionally climbed 2 different "lines" at the crux section. I found one of them to be 5.9 and one to be 5.10-. The lines I took were both on par with the bolt location's and wear to the rock indicating that others had climbed there. Is there an easier path farther from the bolts? Possibly...but the "line" that is bolted is in the 5.9/5.10- range. It is very well protected however!
I've put my time in climbing hard slabs in a wide variety of local's and that's my 2 cents.

Also this is a very good route. The 2nd and 3rd pitch's are very classic!

Great route! I felt like the 3rd pitch was the crux though. Pulling through the little bulge with only the offwidth crack and no holds was quite exciting for me. Then I ran out of gear and had to run it out to the anchors from there- don't place all your big pieces before the bulge!

I felt the first pitch was about 5.9 (Sedona 5.8), no harder, but could seem harder if there was no chalk.

There are more bolts on the first and fourth pitches than on the route description: I think 5 on P1, and maybe 6 on P4. Both slab pitches are well bolted.

My partner and I had flashed 5.10 slab at Pinnacle Peak earlier in the week, a place not known for its soft ratings. We've climbed 5.9 and 5.10 sandstone slab/face as well. The slab pitches didn't seem a whole lot easier here.

Regardless of the rating, Mars Attacks is an awesome route.

Just did it again, for the fourth time! We were a little short on time so I ran the first and second pitch together without too much rope drag and with only one double length runner. Didn't seem to make it any more dangerous and made for one hell of a first pitch!

Regarding the rappel; I don't think you can hit the midway anchors with one 60m rope, two ropes are required. We did a single line rappel and the center marking for our 60m rope was about 15'-ish above the anchors. A 70m will be VERY close.

The second rappel is right around 190' from those midway anchors.

Like mentioned below, the midway anchors are hard to spot until you're almost on them. You'll see the anchors for a climb, Big Corner way on the left. First time I was going down it, I was heading to those griping about how far out of plumb they were and pretty much ran right on top of the midway anchors.

Fun route! The 3rd pitch great!

I must admit, the beginning of P2 and bulge crux on P3 of Streaker Spire seemed harder than anything on this route. A fun climb but everything is there as far as features go, you just have to know how to use them.

"5.8, my ass!," said my wife on pitch 1. "5.8, my ass!," I thought on pitch 4. Seriously, I've done some slab climbing and that 4th pitch through the well-protected slab section seemed quite a bit harder than 5.8. Ah well.

And I second a two rope rappel. We were on a 70m rope and it was a testy three-rappel descent. But the climbing was AWESOME!!!

I found the approach pretty straightforward. Even though I was off the trail, it still only took ~30min

I've always thought of the approach as straight forward and moderate; 30-45 minutes depending on your hiking speed.

I thought the approach was awesome. Beats the hell out of these S. AZ. approachs!!

Amazing climb..great route and beautiful scenery
Pitch's 2&3 are by far the best...Great varied climbing throughout

pitch 3 is one of the best pitches i have ever done.

I believe the first pitch was once 5.8, but sandstone wears with traffic, and there are crux moves that require incredible finesse using palm and finger friction on smooth surface to keep the feet from slipping off. For that reason, I would call it 5.9+ on the first pitch. The second pitch has one bulge move that requires some hunting and a long reach to get a bomber hand hold to secure a 5.8 move. Some may not have the wingspan to make this connection, bumping the difficulty to 5.9 or so, due to lack of good solid hand holds at a crucial point. Pitch 3 has one bulge that is a bit tough, near the top, 5.8, and Pitch 4 is definitely 5.8 with thin slab moves just above the bolt--but exposure makes it exciting. I give it a PG-13 due to the potential of pendulum and getting stranded on the 2nd pitch. Ascenders and planning ahead will prevent a crisis, because it is a long way down at the midpoint of the traverse--my guess is at least 150 ft. Awesome climb!!!

If you left the two fixed ropes on the rappel, I was the one that removed them, and left them coiled near the base. If you were planning to solo it and rap, I guess you're going to have to down climb.

Thanks Steve Pulver - those are my ropes. I was rapping in the dark and forgot that I had tied a knot in the end of both ropes so my partner didn't rap off the ends on the first rap, but I forgot to untie the one knot before I pulled the ropes - so the knot jammed at the top bolts and I had to unite the ropes and go single rope to the ground, leaving up both. I'll try to get there this Saturday

thanks again

Can you rappel off of the anchors after pitch 2 if needed? 1 rope or 2? Does anybody know?

Jeff, yes you can rap at the end of pitch 2. I have friends that did exactly that after the 2nd on the traverse took a nasty fall when a hold broke. I do not know if 2 ropes are needed; my guess would that they used 2 since they had them.

Make sure you hike the Fin trailhead located on the right side of the road(obviously) just before a three car pull-out on the left about .15mi past the Devil's bridge parking lot. Follow a small to increasingly more prominent wash up and eventually veering left following trail/carins up to the base of the wall. The Sedona guidebook shows the Devil's Bridge trail to be comparable and wrapping around to the base of Big Corner. It is/does not! First Pitch was maybe 5.8 back in the day when there were some features for your feet. Now it's a geko 5.11 smear-fest. I went left into the small seam after the third bolt at the white band of rock and climbed up to the limestone band where you can place a #1 cam and traverse right to the anchors(seemed runout 5.8). Second pitch was epically outstanding!! Third pitch was a long ~160' awesome trad pitch! Fourth pitch, couldn't do. It was getting dark. Try getting to the top of the fourth pitch to rap! Rapping from the third was a rope eating machine and turned into a mini epic. Second and third pitch were worth going back for!!

fun route. very clean and well traveled. I'll add a few notes:

Approach: i should have read these comments, to echo Clayton's post above, the trail we finally found starts approx 0.2 mi down the road from the Devils Bridge TH (~360 paces for me). This is a well cairned flip-flop trail that brings you in to the far left (west) side of the formation.

P1. ol'skool 5.9+ friction (bolts, one piece to get to anchors)
P2. exhilarating 5.7 with a couple of 5.8 step-arounds (use runners)
P3. 5.6 wild romp (130')
P4. awkward 5.6 crack to smear-ific 5.9

Rack: stoppers 9-13, hybrid aliens, C4s .5-4, (double 1-3) 10 runners/draws, 0ne camera for that pitch 2 photo that everyone else has.

Raps: we climbed with one 70m rope, and got down in THREE somewhat acrobatic raps:
Rap #1: 115' exactly to 3 bolt-anchors just right of Big Corners. Knot the ends. Pay attention to your left.
Rap #2: about 85' to 2bolts/1pin anchors in pod of P2 of Big Corner crack. Necessitates a leftward rappell/pendulum, but huecos/foot-ledge to pull you in.
Rap #3: about 85' down chossy P1 of Big Corner to Ground.

whee!

Sunday, March 13, 2011 - Partner left my Yellow #2 Cam on pitch 3. The party of 2 behind us (one guy from MN, the other guy lives in Tucson) cleaned it. Please contact me at (928)853-2124, I will meet you in Tucson to pick up. Thanks!

Challenging and runout slab on pitch one and a little on pitch three. Be wary if you are a 5.8 or 5.9 climber and you are attempting this.

Gerat route! Rock quality was pretty good throughout (a bit sandy on the traverse) and the position is great.

I thought the slabs were acurate at about 5.8. They are both pretty dang low angle and are just insecure (with bolts every 4 ft).

Dropped a brand new ATC Guide from the top, still feeling that loss!

Has anyone climbed to the true summit past the forth pitch anchors?

Traverse is pretty fun.
3rd pitch is awesome, really cool rock, some awesome formations. This is my favorite pitch i've climbed so far.

Bring a headlamp! learned this the hard way.

Please be super careful starting off the bolted belay going into the 4th pitch. Head right a few feet for the dihedral instead of the friction straight up, which has a soon-to-come-off giant flake of loose rock (someone probably needs to pry this off when nobody is below). The growing crack indicates this will come off very soon!

At the midway rappel anchors(if you are double rope rappelling) the bolt on the right is close to becoming a spinner, still usable but maybe will be a problem in not too distant future. Maybe there is a bolt setting savvy climber out there who is planning to climb Mars Attacks soon and could fix it?? pretty please??

I didn't see what all the fuss was about on the first pitch, pretty easy slab climbing with a couple difficult moves that are well protected. I definitely felt like the 2nd pitch was the crux-- exposure is excellent, and it's definitely somewhere you wouldn't want to fall on! Pulling around the bulge adds in a ton of excitement. Pitch 3 is fun an varied, leading to an easy 4th pitch with a kind of sketchy runout to the anchors. Watch out for the anchors on rappel, too, you won't be able to see them until you're on top of them. Great intro to climbing down in Sedona, but make sure you have some multipitch experience under your belt first.

You can still drive up the dirt road to the trail, you just want a high clearance vehicle - 4WD can't hurt (we had a rented standard jeep SUV). Alternately use the new trail head on Dry Creek road and walk in about a mile. The climber's trail behind about 0.2 miles down the road from the Devil's Bridge Trailhead. It is a VERY well cairned trail that skirts the approach cliffs to the left and then cuts right to the climb.

Rack: medium to big nuts, single set of small cams, doubles #0.75-#3. Just make sure to save a #2 and #3 for the crux bulge of P3. I brought #4 and didn't need it.

Raps were very straightforward. From the top anchor, move to the rap anchor (lookers right). Two double rope raps get you down. I was aiming for the anchor in the Big Corner, and then stumbled upon the actual rap anchor about 30' right of it.

There is absolutely nothing PG about this route. The first bolt is high off the ground, but super easy climbing.

You can do this climb pretty easily without a #4. I never placed anything bigger than a #3 C4