The Odyssey  5.10a

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Type:  Trad, Alpine, 5 pitches, 300 feet, Grade II Consensus:  5.10a/b [details] FA:  Gary Hicks Season:  August to February (due to closure) Submitted By:  George Perkins on Oct 26, 2007 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (5) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Climbing the awesome steeper-than-it-looks-in-this...

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The Shield is seasonally closed. MORE INFO >>> The Shield is only open from mid-August through February for peregrine falcons even though they are no longer protected, so you'll have to plan accordingly. The Knife Edge is open year-round. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment Juan Tabo Canyon is subject to annual access closures from March 1 to August 15. MORE INFO >>> The USFS-imposed closure applies to UNM Spire, the Prow, the Ramp, and the Shield (but not the Knife Edge). The Needle, and its south and east approaches, are unaffected. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

This 5-pitch climb finds a proud clean face and striking arete on the top of the Shield; however, a loose exit pitch detracts from the overall quality and may be horrifying for those not expecting it.

It's a good finish to the Procrastination/ ChopSuey routes too, if you've got time and motivation when you reach the upper reaches of the Shield.

Pitch 1: A short and dirty right facing dihedral 5.8 with some of your own gear for pro. If starting from Procrastination, from the belay at the base of the black wall, angle up and right 5.7R directly to the top of the first pitch. If you approached by rappel, it's probably best to just skip this pitch and start with pitch 2.

Pitch 2: Move up and right a few feet from the belay, clip bolt, then fixed pin, then angle up and left on thin 5.10a traverse to the arete (crux). 15' of easier arete to 2-bolt belay. All pro is in place. Quality.

Pitch 3: Awesome 5.8 arete with jugs (all pro in place) to a 2-bolt anchor just left of the arete. Excellent climbing. You can easily link p2 & p3 with a 60m rope, but don't run out of runners.

Pitch 4: "The Eiger pitch" Cracks, flakes, and fins with continuous fixed pins close enough to back clean easily. Not as loose as the name suggests, but still heads-up for knocking stuff down (5.9). Stop at a 2-bolt anchor.

Pitch 5: Move right around the corner and continue up dubious blocks, keeping an eye out for fixed pitons, which are sometimes hard to find among the many blocks and cracks they could be in (5.8). All pro is fixed on this pitch too. A fixed pin is present as a directional at the top. Pitches 4 & 5 can be linked with a 60m rope, be sure to backclean or skip pitons if running out of draws is a concern.

Location 

The striking arete left of the Cyclops Eye is the goal of this route. You can get here by climbing Procrastination or adjacent routes to the Speed Bumps.
Alternatively, you can rap the route in from the top, single 60m rope probably ok. Make sure you're over the Odyssey when you start the raps. You'll need to leave stuff at the 2-bolt anchors, but you can pick it up on the way back out. Static line might help to tie off a tree at the top to set the first rappel.

Rappel-in approach details, Courtesy of Lee B.
To find where to rap in. As you hike along the trail at the top of the Shield heading NW, when the trail comes into an clearing and there is a slightly twisted mostly dead tree about 10-15' tall at about 10 o'clock, I also placed a 10' long dead log perpendicular to the trail on the left at this point, head off the trail towards this tree then down to the top of the cliff. This should put you at a small healthy tree about 6' tall and about 10' from the edge of the cliff on a section that sticks out slightly further than the rest. If you look to your left you should be able to see the steep blocky stuff that Escape from the Cyclops traverse through and looking to your right you will notice that the wall is more broken and less steep. Using the young healthy tree or a larger tree about 30'+ back you can either rap to your left which runs down a nice little ramp into a dihedral and has a pin on what would be the left wall of the dihedral as you are looking down and at about shoulder height if you are standing at the bottom of the little ramp, which is Cowboys Delight. Or rap to your right which should be The Odyssey. All rights and lefts are as you are looking out off the top of the cliff.

Protection 

All pro is fixed pitons and bolts for the top 4 pitches, so you'll need only runners/draws. 12 is plenty if not combining pitches, if linking you'll need more (like 18?), or skip pitons/backclean sometimes. The first pitch would require a few small to mid size cams or nuts, but if rappelling in, it is recommended to skip this dirty first pitch anyway and start with p2. If you climbed up to get to this route, you've got enough stuff.

Photos of The Odyssey Slideshow

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Following the 5.7R slab pitch variation that takes...

The Legendary Davito Hammack on the sweet arete du...