Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.

All Locations > Nevada > Southern Nevada > Red Rocks > (10) Pine Creek… > Mescalito > Dark Shadows Wall > Dark Shadows (Full) (5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c)

Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.

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This is a view of the remaining top out of Mescalito, from above the last pitch. It's no joke! There's a cairn making where to start the ascent.

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Bryan K

Oct 13, 2023

“Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.”

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Descent options from Mescalito.

Dark Shadows Route Overlay.

Pitch 10: a crack leads to a roof. This is the crux pitch of the upper route.

North descent photo 1 - Walk along the wall on the left until you come to the saddle and large white bowl.

North descent photo 3 - Photo taken from the top of the saddle/white bowl. Follow cairns down into the bowl which snake back the direction you came a couple times.

A satellite view of the descent according to Handren guidebook. Took us 3 hours summit to car, but only required one rappel at the very end. Budget 1 - 1.5 hrs of sunglight to find the gully (after crossing the saddle) after which a headlamp descent is OK.

North descent photo 2 - Continue along the wall until you get to the saddle/large white bowl.

new bolt & old school

Great shot of the varnished iron rock on this route.

View of the corner/Pitches 3 and 4 from the base of the route

Pitch 5 ends above the pillar on the left.

This is a view of the remaining top out of Mescalito, from above the last pitch. It's no joke! There's a cairn making where to start the ascent.

Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.

Caption this photo:

Pitch 5. The left leaning crack above the roof.

Pitch 6 ends on the face after the leftward traverse. One bolt was missing from the anchor. I built a trad anchor in the crack below the bolt.

Mike, p3

Alex, p6

Old piton on Pitch 6.

North descent photo 5 - This is the final cairn we came to. This rap station raps off of the tree shown in the photo. Three raps with a 70m rope get you to the ground from here. 36.12472, -115.49886 were the gps coordinates that we got for this station.

Pitch 9 climbs twin cracks and then heads rightward to a big ledge at the bottom of a corner with a single bolt.

Looking up Pitch 7.

Pitch 6 climbs huecos on the right side past the marked bolt.

Pitch 8 passes the roof on the right side.

Pitch 6 traverses left from the piton anchor. Note the pod and dirty gully above - don't climb that!

Pitch 7 climbs cracks to a ledge below the roof.

Above pitch 10, follow broken rock for a couple of pitches to the summit cairn of Mescalito. Lower fifth class.

Pitch 10 roof.

p1 & 2

North descent photo 4 - Keep following cairns down into the bowl.

There is really pretty vegetation at the top!

Pitch 5 roof above above a bolt. <br>
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This is the first pitch above the 4-pitch "normal route".

Stinky and I on dark shadows.

Looking down from the top of the pitch 5.

Section of the Pitch 8 from below the roof.

Starting the descent from the summit via the south side. Follow carins....

Starting up Pitch 10.

We found the wrong gully!!!
<br>
There are a set of cairns that lead down as your heading west, we thought they indicated the first gully. They don't they are for people coming up off of the south face climbs. Ignore these and stay high. Don't follow purple!!

Simuling past another party on pitch 7

Glue in anchors at the top of pitch 5

Looking down from belay at pitch 3 bolted anchor

pitch 8 #OahuAlpineClub

This is part of the 'tight squeeze' on the North Gulley descent. The wide angle makes it look a little worse than it is, but it is still very tight. You definitely have to lay on your side to squeeze through. We had to pass the backpacks through separate.

Bolted rap station near the base of the gully descent on the south side.

Soloing to the top!

Alex, p3

Rap at the base of the gully descent on the south side. There are 2 bolted anchors. The first rappel is about 10m and the second about 25m. So you probably could do them with a single 70m, but to minimize chances of getting a rope stuck might be better to just do two rappels.

Single bolt at top of Pitch 9. You can back this up with an 0.4 cam.

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