PRINT: Rock Climb Days of Future Passed, Cochise Stronghold

Days of Future Passed

5.10b PG13, Trad, 400 ft (121 m), 4 pitches, Grade III,

Avg: 3.4 from 141 votes
FA: Steve Grossman, Dave Baker, Rich Thompson 1973
Arizona > Southern Arizona > Cochise Stronghold > E Stronghold > Rockfellow Group > End Pinnacle

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Description

Another Rockfellow classic. This is located on End Pinnacle on the west side of the area. Approach by skirting around the formation to the right from the approach. The climb is the first crack to the left of the large chimney separating End Pinnacle from the rest of the formation.

Pitch 1: Start up a groove to the left of the chimney, clip a bolt, and then either pendulum over to the main crack or free climb at 5.10. Once in the main crack, chimney up, and then use chickenheads to reach a bolted belay. The rest of the route is 5.8+ or so. The chimney is fairly secure but not really protectable - you might feel this is a bit R-rated. (140', 5.8 A0 or 5.10b if free climbed)

Pitch 2: Follow an excellent fist sized crack up until it ends at a hanging belay stance (120', 5.8+)

Pitch 3: Step directly left to a chicken head tie off, head up and right past three bolts to a welcome ledge (first non-hanging belay!). No other gear on this pitch (100', 5.8+R)

Pitch 4: Up past a couple of bolts to the summit. The start is pretty runout to the first bolt 25' up.

Descent: Rappel Magnus Veritas (two ropes)

Alternatively: Start from a pine tree at the east side of the summit, overlooking the fissure separating EP from the main dome. Two double rope raps take you into the big chimney. You need to go up through a hole to find the last rap station that takes you to the bottom on the side opposite the climb. This is all pretty hazy for me so be careful!

Protection

Recommended: light rack of stoppers, 1x 0.2-0.3, 2x 0.4 - #4

Optional: #6 or larger for P1, 1 extra #3 and 1-2 additional #4's would make P2 safer

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Haroon Kheshgi and Joe Terravecchia on the second pitch.

Patrick Price coming up the face on Pitch 3.

Climbers on Pitch 2.

Krzysztof Gorny on Pitch 4.

JB starting pitch 3, Days of Future Passed, Stronghold, Mar 1985. Photo by Paul Cornia.

Looking down the first pitch of Days of Future Past. End Pinnacle, Rockafellow Domes.

Pat follows on the textured rock of pitch 1.

Photo overlay.

Arriving to the airy summit of End Pinnacle, which is notoriously problematic to get down from. The log book said something along the lines of "Congratulations on getting to the top. Good luck gett…

Looking up at the first pitch from the ground.

Starting up the second pitch of Days of Future Past. End Pinnacle, Rockafellow Domes.

Days of Future follows the crack that splits the lower two-thirds of a buttress in the center of this photo.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

George Bell
Boulder, CO

I've done this route twice and it is a great adventure. There was an inspiring photo of this climb in Climbing Mag some time in the early 80's.

You can approach from the east or west. It's shorter from the east but rougher. You might think a pinnacle would have a pointy summit, but the summit is covered by very large potholes which may be filled by water, or even ice if you climb it in January. Even the descent is fun (figuring it out). Adventure climbing at its best. The runouts aren't too scary, go for it! Feb 6, 2006

Brad Schierer
Phoenix, AZ

5.10b PG13

also if you want to wuss out you can escape to Endgame and finish on that route. The real rated R part comes on pitch 4 when if you were to land on the ledge after the HUGE runout. Pitch 3 is necky but looks like a clean fall. Jul 18, 2006

Kole DeCou
Flagstaff, AZ

Double ropes are useful on this climb if you've gotem. This enables you to protect both the crux move and the entry into the slot without having to worry about hosing yourself or your follower.

I would have given this 4 stars except I absolutely hate hanging belays. Jan 10, 2007

Vince MacMillan
Dolores, CO

Pitch 1 and Pitch 2 are both 115 feet long (i.e. 70 meter rope will do the trick but you still probably want two ropes for the descent). Jan 8, 2008

Geir www.ToofastTopos.com
Tucson/DMR

5.10a/b R

This climb is outstanding. Great climbing, thoughtful protection, and visually striking. A topo for this climb can be downloaded by clicking this link:

toofasttopos.com/free/

Enjoy!
Geir Oct 14, 2008

John Hayes
Bend, OR

5.10a PG13

Interesting...when I first climbed this route 25 years ago, it was rated 5.9. The upper pitches are "pretty sporty" so watch what you are doing. One tip: It is possible (and desirable) to step out left on the scary, overhanging face out of the first belay alcove. It seems unlikely, but the chickenheads are perfect and it is a much better way to go than tackling the flared squeeze chimney above the alcove to get to the crack above(IMHO.) You can sling the chickheads for excellent pro'. Even the descent is an adventure which is why this climb is one of the great, classic adventure climbs in the Stronghold. Take a full rack, some extra slings (for slinging chickenheads,) and have fun! Jan 9, 2010

Matthias Gottmann

5.9 PG13

To be accurate, this route is (as advertised) 5.9/A0 or 5.10. The aid move can quite safely be freed.
This is my all time favorite climb, a fantastic adventure. I agree with John on bypassing the chimney out of the alcove and climbing chicken heads instead. Matter of fact, I climbed this route with John.
:) Apr 18, 2011

Catherine Conner
Phoenix, AZ

5.10c R

cool, cool route! I'm glad I didn't lead pitch 1 or 3, yikes-Mike K. did awesome-both the AZ Mikes who lead it that day did great! But I still loved it all, the chimney P1 was a grunt, hard (and getting up to it). The party before us, and Mike K., they all made it look really effortless-when I got on there, I was scared at that traversy section, and huffing & puffing blow your house down style in chimney. I was so happy to have lucked out with leading P2, what an awesome, stellar pitch! It's hard to consider P1 5.9... but maybe that's just me. Amazing classic route! We came back to the packs via inner passageway... (interiors), and that certainly left an impression... Nov 1, 2011

Bill Olszewski
Colorado Springs, CO

Great route, after the first 50' or so. The chimney (my apologies to those who like hard chimneys) really detracts from the quality of this line, and the offwidth just before the chimney isn't much fun either, unless you really like grunt work, ha ha. Once out of the chimney, Days of Future Passed is a 4 star route.

The delicate slab climbing to start pitch 4 feels more like .10a than 5.8 and lead falls on pitches 3 and 4 could be quite serious. 5.10a A0 R or 5.10d/5.11a R if you free the opening traverse.

Great summit, great views. We rapped from the top of End Pinnacle in 3 raps with one 70m rope and a little down climbing. A 60m rope will not make the final rap as our 70 just made it to the boulder with rope stretch. Oct 28, 2012

Jimbo

Last time I did Days I led the first pitch of Magna Veritas and then stepped over to Days. Probably R rated but more fun than the fat stuff. Oct 30, 2012

303scott

You can rappel the route directly climber's right of Days with double ropes. From the top, use the rap rings you clipped on your way to the anchor near the bowl and rap 90' to the third belay on days. Then rap the bolt line climber's right of Days. Easy to find the anchors, clean pulls and you end up at your packs. Don't know if a single rope will do it. Mar 3, 2013

Peter Adamson

It can definitely get a bit windy on top of end pinnacle
youtube.com/watch?v=mjyQNJM… Jan 23, 2014

Brian Prince
reno

Another recommendation to do Magnus Veritas P1... really fun pitch. Hard (10+), well protected slab and then fun jug hauling with not the best pro but easy, though steep! Belay at the end of the pitch is better than P1 Day's spot and it is easy to join from there

Also, for conversation's sake, I thought the scariest part was right off P2 belay... pretty thin and would be a shitty fall onto your belayer... eases way up after that Jan 6, 2015

George Perkins
The Dungeon, NM

Recommend a #4 (or 2 of these for a 5.8/5.9 leader) on p2.

On the raps, if rapping the face itself back to the start:
Note the Too Fast topo toofasttopos.com/free/end%2… has a couple minor errors which caused us some confusion. From the p3 ledge, it is ~100' to the 2 bolt anchor atop Days p2. It is ~130' to the p2 anchor on Magnas Veritas (our single 70m didn't reach on that rappel), so use 2 ropes for this rappel, and 2 ropes for the next one from Magnas belay 2 to Magnas belay 1. Nov 13, 2016

Geir www.ToofastTopos.com
Tucson/DMR

5.10a/b R

Thanks George! I will correct this in the book and in the free topo. :)

[EDIT 1/19/16] The updated topo is now posted. Nov 18, 2016

Austin Sobotka
Tucson, AZ

If anyone happens to climb this soon my shirt/sweater is (or was) stuck on the first pitch. Threw them down after the second and didn't quite clear the formation. If you find them and want to get em' back to me I'd be stoked! Oct 22, 2017

Squee G Roll

Beta: you can rap magnas with a single 80m rope! A 70 definitely won't reach unless it's a realllly long 70. Rap summit to ledge, then from ledge onto magnas (climber's right) in a rap that barely reaches, then down to P1 of magnas, then to ground.

It's strange to me that Days has the weird A0/5.10 traverse start, but I appreciate the history. Going directly up from the first two bolts of Magnas now feels more natural and about the same difficulty.

Another good option is to just climb P1 of Magnas, as others have mentioned. This gives you a lot better belay stance than the semi/mostly-hanging belay atop Days P1.

But in terms of fun climbing, I think the best way to climb Days is with the Jimmywanker/Great Gig start. Stay in the beautiful crack until it ends, with a distinct jut up and right. Continue in this crack and on big heads to get back into the main chimney feature of Days, and climb another 60' or so to the top of P1. Very fun pitch.

Also, linking pitches 3-4 doesn't buy you a lot since the belay ledge at 3 is so good, but I think it's more fun this way and keeps you engaged all the way to the top, with your belayer out of sight and a lot of rope out.

Climbed this way, you get three incredible and varied pitches. A++, would climb again. Jan 29, 2019

Travis Peckham

5.10b PG13

Getting to the first bolt on P.1 protects pretty well with a #4 camelot placed high in the initial crack. Otherwise it would be pretty scary. The initial chimney is difficult and unprotected. I have no idea how people call this kind of thing 5.8+, but I guess that's because YDS only used to go to 5.9. On P.3, the various topos I've seen say there are three bolts. My partner and I only found two. No idea if one is now missing, or if we missed it, but I did a solid 50' runout on reasonably secure 5.8 terrain to get to the first one. That said, 50' is a pretty long way to run off of the anchor and it required a bit of focus. P.4 was similar in terms of commitment; a bit less runout, but a little bit thinner.

We rappelled Magnus Veritas with two ropes, no problem. However, I wouldn't try it on a windy way. If the rope will pull straight down and not blow across the face, it really shouldn't be an issue. Nov 25, 2019

David Baltz
Albuquerque, NM

Did this again after Thanksgiving. I have always started on Magnus Veritas for the first two bolts, then stepped left into the OW. Probably 10b or so. I have done the entire Magnus P1 variation in the past which is recommended highly! Dec 7, 2021

pfwein Weinberg
Boulder, CO

Responding to the Travis P's comment above: I found 3 bolts on P3--the first one is perhaps somewhat left of what seemed like the most obvious climbing line and I'd guess they missed that one. Feb 5, 2022

Jon.R
Tucson, AZ

5.10b R

I didn't have (or own) one but it looks like you could place a #6 (or larger) cam on P1. If this is true, it would make P1 a LOT safer. Edit: a #7 makes this cozy apparently. P2 is also pretty runout with only 2 #4's. 1-2 extra would make the pitch a lot cozier.

We avoided the hanging belay on P1 by lowering 20' down to the P1 anchor of Magnus Veritas, which worked well. If the P1 anchor on DoFP is ever replaced, it should be raised up so that you can use the foot ledge in the crack that's roughly even with the anchor. Such an unnecessary hanging belay. Jan 29, 2024