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Cactus Flower Tower summit
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North Face - Cactus Flower Tower 
Warrior, The 

The Warrior 

5.11a

   

FA: 
Type: Trad
Consensus: 5.11a [details]
Length: 7 pitches, 1000 feet, Grade IV
Views: 2,527 page views

Submitted By: Brad G on Mar 14, 2008


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Pitch 3 of The Warrior is sick!
photo by Darshan A...



Description 

The Warrior is a very adventurous and unknown classic. It involves every type of crack climbing there is. Giving too much info will ruin the adventure aspect of the route so I'll keep it brief. Follow the huge dihedral on the north side of Cactus flower tower for five pitches, the last two go straight up the face. Rap the route to descend (two ropes required).

I hope you enjoy this seldom-climbed classic!

PS. This is less like Red rocks 5.11 and more like yosemite 5.11



Protection 

Protection: single rack of cams from .5" to 5". triples of 2" to 3"



Photos of The Warrior Slideshow Add Photo
The Warrior<br />Photo by Darshan Ahluwalia

The Warrior
Photo by Darshan Ahluwalia


Darshan runs it out on the chimneys of the first pitch

Darshan runs it out on the chimneys of the first p...

Pitch three<br />photo by Darshan Ahluwalia

Pitch three
photo by Darshan Ahluwalia


The first pitch

The first pitch

The beautiful Cactus Flower Tower

BETA PHOTO: The beautiful Cactus Flower Tower


Comments on The Warrior Add Comment
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By brent armstrong
From: Closer to RR than the Strip
Aug 4, 2008

Rob and Pat Dezonia established this route

By Michael Ybarra
From: on the road
Oct 28, 2008

And giving too little beta makes for a virtually useless page.

By Will S
Nov 13, 2008

Approach description and time? Descent? Bolted anchors? Rap the route? One rope or two? Agree with the above, a sorely lacking description not worth much besides showing off the OPs pictures.

By CatalonianCarl
From: dooshville
Nov 14, 2008

How much more beta do you need? Jesus man. Whatever happened to having an adventure. The description says rap the route with two ropes. Take a look at the flippin pictures, you might need a few big pieces. The two dimwits who put up the route share a single brain cell. If they can get up and off the route in one piece, then anyone can. If you still need more beta, just think of the route as a shorter, adult version of Epinephrine.

By Nick Barczak
Nov 20, 2008

Climbed the route on 3.17.2008. Nothing short of an incredible route, this was my first experience in RR. I agree with Brad about wanting to preserve the adventure aspect, but I'll put up a little info for people to peruse.....

Approach was about 2-2.5 hours. Dicey scrambling was involved, as well as navigating some serious foliage. However, it's easy to see the climb at all times and stay on target. All in all, definately one of the LEAST pleasant approaches I've done.

P1: ~150ft, 5.9. Tons of chimneying. Run-out, but secure. A large red friend will be useful, if memory serves me. A 2 bolt belay resides outside the chimney, at the point where it pinches down to a stemming dihedral.

P2: ~120ft. Technical stemming (5.10a/b?) gives way to a hand crack in the right-facing corner. Take this (with a little more chimneying) all the way to the alcove base of the awesome, obvious fist/hand crack corner. Gear belay with TCUs.

P3: ~100ft (5.10c/d?). Pretty obvious: layback and jam the corner up to a 2 bolt anchor. A pretty physical pitch. You'll need a couple fist pieces and a couple hand pieces.

P4: ~170ft (5.10a). Laybacking up to and around a small roof brings you to easier climbing in a featured handcrack. Follow this up and either move inside the "cave" and climb through (watch rope drag), or stay on the outside for some challenging offwidth climbing. Lacking a large green friend, my partner opted for the cave. Beware the towering mounds of bird guano. Its gross while you're climbing in there, but funny as hell while you're drinking beer later. Pop out of the cave and do some easier offwidth moves to gain a small ledge. Gear belay, hand size.

P5: ~160ft (5.11a) The big lead. A bit of laybacking and jamming takes you to a difficult section where the jams disappear. Using small gear to protect insecure stemming on mostly featureless walls gets you through to a section of tips and tough fingers. Eventually make the transition out right onto the face. Heady climbing on small but decent holds brings you past 2 bolts to the roof. Great holds brings you over the lip to an amazingly exposed 2 bolt belay with a great view of your packs 700' straight down.

P6: ~150ft (5.8+). The climbing never gets very hard, but this pitch has sparse protection. The only bolts on the pitch were about 35ft up off the belay (and oddly were side by side...a separate belay?). Continue more or less straight up for a long and worrying excursion into a vast wonderland of questionable holds, and a thought-provoking lack of gear. Eventually you find a 2 bolt anchor.

P7: ~150ft. Easy climbing via the path of least resistance up and right, then back left, with occasional gear brings you to the top of the climb. A few hundred feet of scrambling, and you can gain the summit of the tower. To get down, rap the route using TWO ropes. Even though some belays were gear on the way up, you will be using some rap anchors on the way down that are on the face, away from the dihedral (hope this makes sense).

I hope, by posting up all this information, I'm not spoiling the adventure aspect of the route for anyone who wants to do it. I guarantee this route is a full-value experience. Enjoy.

By Jon O'Brien
From: Nevada
Nov 5, 2009

I think the purpose of this website is information, thanks for posting it. those that desire the adventurous, information-free ascents won't be studying this page. BTW, insulting the first ascentionists of such a proud line is, in fact, out of line.