Adventure Punks Wall, 5.10a-5.11d

Overview/Approach

The Adventure Punks (5.10d) route itself is a soon to be Red Rock classic gaining in popularity. What lends Adventure Punks to potential classic status at Red Rock is the pure trad line it follows for 550’ on solid and sustained ground. Not to mention the approach utilizes one of the richer canyons in Red Rock, the south fork of Pine Creek. The water in June was running plentiful among the large boulders and mature trees. This is the same fork of Pine Creek Canyon shared with Cat in the Hat, but few ever venture beyond the Cat in the Hat area on Mescalito which serves as the entrance to this canyon.



There are two adjoining walls that make up the north face of Juniper Peak. Both offer steep well varnished climbing, the Challenger wall and the Adventure Punks wall. You pass under Challenger Wall first which has several well varnished and steep multi-pitch lines. In contrast, as of 2011, Adventure Punks wall has only one established long line, its namesake, which itself was established in 1983. Little to any development has occurred on either wall since 1986 despite potential. When I climbed Adventure Punks in June, 2011, Robert Fielding and a friend were completing a retrofit to the rap stations on this route.



Park at the Pine Creek Trailhead on the Red Rock loop road. Follow the main trail to Mescalito and cross into the canyon floor before you get to Mescalito and follow it up and into the left fork of Pine Creek, looking for a well-traveled trail up and right out of the drainage heading for Cat in the Hat. Follow this trail and drop into the left fork again at the juncture for the Cat in the Hat approach trail. Continue up a very pleasant canyon full of water and mature trees (2011) until you come to another fork in the canyon. Take this left fork and pass a unique honeycomb wall and continue beyond the Adventure Punks route itself (huge left leaning arch above). Cut back left on a large rock shelf and cut up right following cairns to the base of the route. For Adventure Punks start below the flake on the run out slab or follow my suggestion to protect this section first by starting left and then down climbing back to the slab section. The other three routes published as of 2011 are just to the left.

Route Description (s)

Routes are Listed Left to Right as you Face the Wall(s)

• Rooster Ranch-2 Pitches- 5.10c/



• Cocaine Tiger-Single- 5.11d/



• Johnny Switchblade-Single- 5.10a/



• Adventure Punks- 5 Pitches- 5.10d/
Adventure Punks follows a massive and obvious left curving arch/corner and ends before the pinnacle of the arch itself. The first pitch gets labeled “scary with no protection” in Handren’s guide book and is located off the deck. However, if you climb up an easy, but mossy, corner to the left, you reach a perfect .75” cam pod. From there I down climbed and traversed right almost to the ground and was essentially top roped for the slab section, albeit on a pendulum. Once into the flake, the climbing was quite varied and fun. There was never much strenuous lay backing necessary on the multiple flakes and loads of rest spots in between the moves. One topo suggests that the crux move on the pitch would be a traverse right to another flake/corner, however this ground appeared easy relative to the rest of the pitch. The second pitch is the least interesting one of the bunch. It starts out with one point of fixed pro which gets you into the arcing corner you will follow for the remainder of the climb. The third and fourth pitches are full on sustained 5.10 pitches and it could be debated which is the better lead. The third one stays with the corner whilst the fourth pitch runs up a finger crack out left. The fifth pitch is the business of this route, a 5.10d sustained off width crack. The width of the crack is not necessarily as sustained as the climbing itself. This pitch is quite varied and thus you will value your .3” and .4” pieces as much as your 5” and 6” pieces. The guidebook calls for double 4” to 7” for this last pitch, but I suggest double #4 C4’s” with a single #5 and #6 being adequate considering there are now two bolts (2011) on this pitch at the wider sections. I took a large big bro and did not feel the need to place it and had an extra #5 and #6 still left on my harness at the end of the fifth pitch as well. Dow

External Links

Over 300 routes detailed from first hand successful accounts by me or others at Red Rock Canyon. GET OFF THE TOURIST ROUTES and explore!

Great Outdoorsdepot.com

Outdoor Research Don't waste your money on silly branding...OR provides the most effective alpine systems at the most reasonable cost in the industry...not even a close 2nd

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, BLM

Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association

Images

View Adventure Punks Wall, 5.10a-5.11d Image Gallery - 1 Images