Although this route has a 5.11a crux, the climbing is mainly runout face climbing on patina edges that sometimes crumble under bodyweight or less. Given this, the route will probably get harder over time as more of the holds disappear. You'll need a good intuition for route finding as well. This is a high quality climb with exciting moments that will definitely help you forget about the couple of less desirable pitches in the middle of the route.
This climb is far more committing than the trade routes in Zion; if you've only brought one rope, retreating after the first pitch will be difficult and costly. There are only 2 fixed anchors on this climb. Getting caught in the rain on this climb would be bad.
P1 (5.10, 35m) Follow obvious flake crack (starting wide then gets smaller) to a set of anchors. The crux of this pitch is turning the corner/roof of the flake.
P2 (5.9 R, 40m) Head right over loose blocks to a wide crack (you can see through it). A #4.5 Camalot is useful here. Layback with kneebars or offwidth up the wide crack (harder). The crack gets smaller and eventually peters out. Head slightly left once the crack disappears, on runout 5.9 face climbing (good rock) and past a bolt. Then head back right to a ledge and belay at bolted anchors.
P3 (5.9 R, 35m) Head up and right on face holds and moss past a bolt to a sandy finger crack. Watch out, some of the face holds crumble, and the moss does not hold bodyweight. The crux comes at the top of the crack. Then continue up mantling small bushes and such until you reach a sandy ledge and belay off a bush.
P4 (5.8/5.9, 40m) Climb up a loose groove filled with sandy, loose blocks while mantling bushes and the like. A flared, wide crack takes you up to a ledge and bolted anchor. This pitch sucks, unless of course you like sandy, vertical bushwhacking.
P5 (5.11a/5.9 R, 40m) There is a crack to your right (shallow left facing dihedral) with a bolt up high. Guidebook says this is 5.10. We'll call this a crux variation and we'll save the description for someone who's done it. Climb straight up above the belay through a small roof into a right facing corner. The rock is great here and there are some great face holds. Medium size stoppers and stemming get you through the 5.11a crux which is not too hard. Once the gear and holds disappear, cut left around the arête on a sloping horizontal break.
Continue heading up and left on face holds around several arêtes (5.9 R) until you reach a big ledge. Look left and there should be 5 bolts next to each other just above the ledge (perhaps a bivy ledge?). The guidebook gives the impression that you should follow the corner to the top and traverse left on a ledge to the belay. The corner, however , turns blank and there is no longer any gear. Go this way if you dare.
P6 (5.8 R, 30m) Follow the crack in a right-facing dihedral for about 20 ft. where it is possible to cut left on jugs to another right-facing dihedral (which does not reach the bivy ledge) with a bush. Climb over the bush and continue up this crack/dihedral to a ledge.
P7 (5.8 initially, then easier, 40m) Continue up this same dihedral/crack system to a big, broad, sandy ledge and belay.
P8 (5.6, 100m) Head up crack in the buttress (left of a big groove) above and into sandy, bush-filled groove (4th class). Scramble to summit.
IMPORTANT: Zion National Park rangers advise to take this climb very seriously. It is atypical of the area and contains longer runouts, more challenging route finding, and more questionable rock than you'll find elsewhere in Zion. It is home to every recent big wall rescue and the only actual climbing fatality in memory. Don't be the next.
Boulder, CO
Glenwood Springs, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
The 11a isn't bad and it's easy to A0 through. Oct 28, 2005
Glenwood Springs, CO
Moab, Utah
P1: didn't see any obvious 5.9 OW, so we took a short face pitch close to directly under the main part of the route. one bolt about 20' up to tree belay, 5.9.
P2: standard flake pitch, fun 5.10 to 2 old bolts with american death triangle.
P3: also fun. loose traverse right to old bolt to big flake, then runout face (past one bolt at the 130' stance). belayed at a short vertical handcrack above a ledge.
P4: where it got interesting. went up and left through mossy runout slabs, past a good ledge with wide crack to small ledge with a tiny tree to sling.
P5: up right through flaring groove layback to slab to the white/dark rock contact. climbed a dark, right facing corner with small bulge at the bottom. mostly sandy handcrack, small roof at top to belay ledge a little over 100'. 5.10ish.
P6: scary one. up left on breakable, sandy, mossy jugs/face with intermittent bad gear placements. if the earlier on route pitches were 5.9 R, this pitch was 5.9 X. went to 5 bolt belay ledge mentioned above (all 5 still there).
P7: right from ledge to beautiful orange right facing corner. tips to OW to hands. easier than it looked. at top, traverse left to ledge. 10+/11- range. quality.
P8: easy long pitch up obvious crack/face to big ledge at the base of the gully that the normal route finishes on.
at the top of the gully, just when you think you're done, there's a short (30' or so) slab on the right that takes you to the trail. probably not third class, but there was a black static rope piece fixed to a pin and running around a tree that made this part mindless, thankfully.
my advice --- do something else! or at least find the right route. Apr 29, 2009
Wilson, WY
Sandy, UT
Seems like I recall Conrad did a TR FFA of sorts. Dunno. Jul 10, 2009
Wilson, WY
Springdale, UT
supertopo.com/climbing/thre… Oct 28, 2012
McCall, ID
Oakridge, OR
The left-facing dihedral is likely a lot easier.
We got a late start and probably didn't get on P1 until noon. Had to walk the whole way out.
I found a skull fragment and I'm really hoping, in retrospect, that it's from a bighorn sheep. Nov 11, 2013
Grand Junction
all over, mostly Utah
It was certainly an adventure at the grade. By my recollection I skipped the crux and did the 5.10 right variation for no particular reason other than uncertainty about which way was correct. What I remember most clearly, however, was the section after the crux. Although the topo shows it to be part of the crux pitch, I recall belaying above and a bit left of the crux on a ledge below a corner with an ancient bolt nearby as I had no idea where to go next. My partner climbed up the corner but ultimately climbed a bit further up, left, down and a ways further left before reaching the 5 bolt ledge. The climbing felt at least 5.9, traversing and downclimbing corners on friable sandstone edges with no protection whatsoever for most of the pitch. It was wild following it and I remember thinking it was a pretty solid effort on his part and a mandatory "no-falls" endeavor.
We might've gotten off route a bit to end up with such a dangerous pitch, but this climb is serious regardless and ought not be taken lightly even if .11- is no problem whatsoever. As a whole it was a pretty cool adventure and ending the climb right smack at the top of the popular Angel's Landing trail with a lot of people around was kind of surreal and fun. It was not, however, a climb I would likely do a second time. Apr 4, 2021
Logan, UT
1. You could bail from the route at any point before p5 with 45m raps or less. The only non-bolted anchor before here is the top of p3 but there are plenty of bushes to bail from. You could maybe bail from top of p5 but I don't know since it traverses so much how that would go.
2. Expect near every pitch to be R. Even p1 feels scary because you are placing behind a pretty hollow flake. Don't come into the route thinking it's only one or two spots. Holds crumble from bottom to top.
3. Do not expect to cruise the 5.8 pitches. Same thing as before, the holds will still break. Leave enough time that you can be careful climbing any patina you find. While they are 5.8, I pulled two "bomber" holds that nearly sent me flying. Thankfully I was cautious enough from p3 that I wasn't trusting them yet.
4. This is not the route to push yourself or your partner. Take the warnings seriously because it is very different from other routes in Zion and took us way longer than we expected to climb this due to caution. Expect at least an hour a pitch even if you normally climb faster.
5. The right facing dihedral on p5 is really pretty easy. We almost didn't follow the beta because it looks harder but I would rate it 5.10 or so. Only a few real stemming moves and then reach for a jug. Nothing fancy.
Loved the route. Not something I'll do again for a while due to the seriousness, but fun nonetheless. Feb 8, 2022
Iron County
3 listed here was from the third ascent! Dec 4, 2022