There is nothing like the fall climbing season in the Utah
desert. Since moving back to Salt
Lake City, I had visions of taking weekend getaways to former roadtrip
destinations like Zion and Indian Creek.
I had goals to climb long multi-pitch desert sandstone routes, Shune’s
Buttress being one of them. In
late September, I managed to escape the bustle of Salt Lake City and my new job
as an ICU nurse. In just two quick
days, I was again reminded of the gifts that climbing and the natural world continue
to give me.
Shune’s buttress ascends the north face of Red Mountain Arch. The approach is less than 30 minutes and requires nothing more than walking up a few switchbacks and scrambling over a few rock outcroppings after getting off at the Grotto shuttle stop. The route consists of about 8 amazing pitches mostly in the 5.10 – 5.11 with everything from face climbing to finger cracks to offwidths. Here is the beta:
Pitch 1
There
are two options. My partner, Matias opted to lead the left variation. Basically, this isn’t a warm up pitch
and it is in-your-face 5.11+ climbing from the ground until the anchor 165 ft
later. It basically ascends a
finger crack in a left facing corner. The middle of the pitch relents a little
bit and there are some gear placements in the #3 camalot range. The final moves
are funky and techy face/crack climbing. Matias impressively onsighted this
pitch!
Pitch 2
Uneventful 5.9 chimney/wideness. About 100 feet to the next
ledge. There is also an option to
do a 5.10 finger crack to the right. I didn’t see it. I also didn’t really look
and the 5.9 chimney seemed like the most obvious way to me.
Pitch 3
This is the “5.10” OW.
Matias and I both struggled on this pitch and had a hard time moving
from inside to OW to a layback position so that you could pull over the
lip. I’m sure a climber with better OW technique
wouldn’t find it that hard.
Matias starting up the OW
Pitch 4
Another enjoyable 5.10 wide pitch.
Pitch 5
This pitch ascends a mellow 5.9 chimney with lots of face
holds. You finish by tunneling through a cave and then belay on a little
pillar.
Topping out on pitch 5
Pitch 6
This short pitch traverses through a couple moves of 5.11a
face climbing. I was gearing up
for some heady climbing and poor gear and was pleasantly surprised by the well
protected crux and lack of trickery.
Basically, you want to climb down off the pillar, the opposite way that
you ascended. You will see an old bolt. I didn’t clip the old bolt because well
it looked old and would cause some directional issues. Instead I awkwardly placed
a descent blue tcu in a small flaring crack. After climbing up a few feet there is a nice, new bolt that
protects the crux. There is a bit of run out face climbing to the anchor but it
is quite easy (5.7ish).
Top of Pitch 6
Pitch 7
This is the enduro 5.11+ crux. You want to traverse left and ascend a steep finger crack
towards a roof. Your belayer wont
be able to see you after the first couple moves. There are some pretty tough
moves leading up to the roof and then the roof is quite strenuous. For unknown
reasons, Matias set up a hanging belay right after the roof with all of our #1
camalots. His native language is Spanish. Mine is English so we must have had a
communication breakdown. I
wouldn’t recommend doing that. Instead I would suggest continuing up the steep
hand crack and heading towards a belay at a little alcove with 1 bolt. The
anchor can be backed up with a hand size piece or if your hand sized pieces are
all gone, you can get creative and back it up with 4” piece.
Starting up the beginning of pitch 7
Pitch 8
Mellow and enjoyable 5.9 face and crack climbing that trends
left for almost a full rope length.
Descent
The rappel begins to the climbers right of the route and is
a combination of double and single rope rappels to avoid all the rope snagging
blocks. We brought a 60 m 6 mm tag
line to save a little weight. We miraculously made it to the ground with no
issues!
Rappel 1: Double Rope to a hanging station
Rapel 2: Double rope trending climber’s left to the top of
the 5.11a traverse. Don’t head towards the pillar.
Rappel 3:
Single rope down the 5.9 chimney
Rappel 4: Double rope to the top of pitch 2
Rappel 5:
Single rope to the top of pitch 1
Rappel 6: Double rope to the ground.
Matias and I after the first rappel
Group Gear
Many cams and nuts. I believe we brought a double set from
green C3 to #3 camalot. We brought
triples from yellow tcu to #1 Camalot. We brought 1, 3.5 camalot and 1 slightly
bigger piece. I wanted a third #3 camalot but that is because I’m a wimp when
it comes to that size!
10 runners about half of which were the ange quickdraws and
the other half were shoulder length slings
60 m, 6 mm tag line
Small backpack with windshirts, food and water
Personal Gear
1 double length slings
3 attache 3D locking carabiners and 1 belay device
La Sportive Muira lace ups which fell apart on the first pitch!
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