| Spectrum Wall, 5.7-5.11a Mountain/Rock |
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| Spectrum Wall, 5.7-5.11a   | 
| Page Type: Mountain/Rock Location: Nevada, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 36.13190°N / 115.5016°W Activities: Trad Climbing Season: Spring, Fall, Winter | Page By: Dow Williams Created/Edited: Apr 19, 2008 / Mar 16, 2009 Object ID: 397459 Hits: 699 Loading... Page Score: 88.3% - 11 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Overview/Approach
Spectrum Wall is made up of the northern climbs along the lower east face of Bridge Mountain and is thus located down Pine Creek Canyon across from the north and east faces of Mescalito (Dark Shadows area). Spectrum Wall is basically the face of an 800’ buttress to the left of Brass Wall. It is easily identified by a huge left half arch in the lower half of the wall. The lower half of Spectrum is almost all black, meaning good varnished rock on the lower pitches. Most of the routes are capped by a huge sandy roof and none of the rock above is worth trying to climb to the top of the buttress itself, therefore all descents involve a rappel. Spectrum Wall has a minimum of six published routes (2008), the most popular of which (classic if you will) is the relatively new hybrid of Big Horn, 400’, 5.8, and Spectrum, 640’, 5.11a, called Birdland, 500’, 5.7+.
Park at the Pine Creek trailhead off of the Red Rocks loop road. Hike down the trail along the creek, past the old homestead and into the wash as it heads for Mescalito. When the trail follows the wash and meets up with the red rock band on the right, divert off the main trail and start ascending a fainter trail that leads back up and right to the Spectrum and Brass Wall areas. A deep half arch sits in the middle of almost solid black varnish on the lower wall. Another smaller arch sits below that arch to the left. Big Horn and Birdland start at a line that angles left to right up the face that the before mentioned arches lie on. Two distinct chimney/seams border this face on each side. Rawlpindi, 580’, 5.7, runs up the left seam and Brass Balls, 400’, 5.10d, runs up the right side with the other four routes in between.Route Description(s)The Routes are Listed Right to Left as you Face the Wall
Rawlpindi- 580’- 5.7/
The Big Horn- 400’- 5.8/ The fourth pitch of Big Horn would be a tragic pitch to miss if you are already climbing Birdland, far more interesting than anything Birdland has to offer. Big Horn is an all trad route with the exception of fixed stations complete with rappel rings. You can rap from the top of any pitch with a 70m rope except for the short 3rd pitch which I downclimbed. All three belays are made up of comfortable ledges. Supposedly you can climb several more pitches to the top of the wall, but the rock quality does not warrant such. Big Horn is a great alternative and/or addition if you are behind a slow party on Birdland.
Psycho Date- 160’- 5.10d/
Valore- 300’- 5.8/
Birdland- 500’- 5.7+/ Jerry Handren’s guide book calls Birdland “sustained for the grade”, but I only found pitches 3 and 5 to be much sustained. The top of pitch 5 does push the grade for sure, thus a 5.7+ versus 5.7. Birdland is an all trad route with the exception of fixed stations and one bolt protecting a slabby traverse on pitch 3. You can rap from the top of any pitch with a 70m rope. Most belays are comfortable even though the later ones are semi-hanging, thus solid rope management skills are essential. There is a short 6th pitch, but it is not recommended due to fragile rock and run out protection and does not reach the top of the wall. There is a huge sandy roof that stops most progression upwards. There is a great photo of the crux section of pitch 5 in Jerry Handren’s guide book,”Red Rocks, a Climbers Guide”. page 205. Expect Birdland to be popular on weekends. Although relatively new, the word is out and we climbed behind two other parties on a mid-week day in April.
Spectrum- 640’- 5.11a/ (photo)
Brass Balls- 400’- 5.10d/Descent off of SpectrumI recommend a 70m rope for all rappel descents on Spectrum. Most descents funnel into the bottom of Birdland where the rap stations are more than 100’ apart and a knot in double ropes would likely get caught up in heavily featured rock.
External LinksRed Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, BLM
Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association
DowClimbing.Com Red Rocks
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