Crux Pitch (5.3)

The crux (5.3) is this 40' face. It is exposed and definitely tricky as a scramble, and it is why relatively few climb this peak. Either climb the face or the crack in the corner on the left side of the face (or use a combination of both). Then there is a short exposed traverse to the right, followed by a Class 4 pitch of about the same length as the crux (seen shaded at upper right). From there, the rest of the way is easy. The crack is large, and I advise that it will only accept very large cams and hexes. It seems almost everyone just solos this pitch. There are rappel stations for both this pitch and the Class 4 one. You'll need at least a 50 m rope. (You can see mine-- a 50 m 8 mm one-- near the bottom of this picture; it was just enough to get me back to level ground.) Rappelling the crux is pretty complication-free, but I downclimbed the Class 4 pitch because following the rappel of it, I would have had to pull the rope through some brush and was afraid of the rope getting stuck. Red Rock Canyon NCA, NV-- February 2014