Solar Slab - Upper Tier

BETA PHOTO: Solar Slab Wall

Description 

The home of some beautiful, airy climbing! The routes here all work their way to the spacious shoulder at the top of the Solar Slab Buttress. Several descent options are available. Many parties choose to rappel using the bolted stations on the Solar Slab route and the face immediately to its right (east). This requires two ropes and takes you directly back to the base with no walking. On the downside, this can tempt one to avoid the very top of the route and thus miss out on the full value experience. You would also miss the beautiful hike through the Painted Bowl.

The usual Painted Bowl descent begins by walking west on an improbable, exposed ledge system in the red (not tan) rock. After some scrambling, the ledge ends at a bolted anchor. If you have two ropes, you can do two long rappels straight down to the Painted Bowl. (Skip the set of anchors 40 feet below the start.) With one rope, do short rappels diagonally west (climber's left) onto a large ledge. At the west end of the ledge is another anchor at the the top of a steep chimney. This takes you to a brushy ledge with a pine tree. A rope stretching rap from the pine tree leads into the Painted Bowl. Walk down the Painted Bowl and go right (west) along a slabby ramp system until you reach the streambed. If water is running high in Oak Creek, you can avoid the wetter upper section by rappeling out of the Painted Bowl using the bolted stations by Plate of Fate (see the Black Orpheus Amphitheater section).

There are also a few descent options in the gullies on the eastern side of the formation, but these are not universally popular.

Getting There 

These routes all begin several hundred feet off the deck. Access by climbing any of the routes on the Lower Tier.

The Classics

Featured Route For Solar Slab - Upper Tier

Heliotrope 5.8 R  NV : Red Rock : ... : Solar Slab - Upper Tier

This is an excellent route straight up the middle of the Solar Slab. It lies to the right of Solar Slab and to the left of Sunflower, but is independent of both lines. The climbing difficulty does not exceed 5.8, but pitch 4 features some old-school slab runouts.Pitch 1: Directly above the top of the approach gully, there is a black, left-facing corner. Pleasant climbing follows the corner to the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch on So...[more]   Browse More Classics in NV

Photos of Solar Slab - Upper Tier Slideshow

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BETA PHOTO: Gully choices on the eastern side of Solar Slab	BETA PHOTO: Upper Solar Slab Wall 1) Change Up (5.9) 2) Arch E...	solar slab at sunrise
Solar Slab Wall - upper tier. Dec 26, 2008.