Cloud Tower, which juts off the north side of Rainbow Peak, contains its namesake classic route, one of the best in Red Rock. The route features copious amounts of crack climbing at all sizes from tips to offwidth, making it one of the most crack-heavy routes in the greater Vegas area. The original route climbs 6 pitches and raps next to the main line. These raps require two ropes with a tendency for stuck ropes. More recently, a 3-pitch extension was added, topping out on the true summit of Cloud Tower. This allows one to rap Crimson Chrysalis instead, which is significantly more pleasant than the other option in addition to the decreased chance of stuck ropes. Four of us climbed the route as two teams of two, each with our own 70m rope.
Routes climbed:
| Name | Grade (YDS) | # Pitches | Quality (1-5) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Tower (route) | 5.12a | 6 | 5 | trad |
| Cloud Tower Extension | 5.12d | 3 | 3 | trad |
Peaks/Towers climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Tower | 5,920 ft | 40 ft | 36.11203, -115.48963 |
Gear
- 70m rope
- >60m tagline (only if not doing extension)
- cams: triples 0.2, 0.3, 2, doubles 0.1, 0.4-1, 4, 6 (6 for extension only)
- a few small to medium stoppers
- 12 alpine draws
Total Stats
6 miles
2,100 ft gain/loss
We started just after sunrise from a large parking lot at the end of the Red Rock Scenic Loop Dr, hiking 15 minutes west on a well defined footpath to connect up with Oak Creek Trailhead. One could start directly at Oak Creek, but this would involve driving about 40 extra minutes through the entire loop in order to save 15 minutes of flat hiking. From Oak Creek Trailhead, we followed the Arnight Trail for 1.5 miles north before heading west on some use-trails, boulder hopping along a dry creekbed for a short distance, then heading west up a ramp which led to notch just north of the tower. We descended a couple hundred feet of distance west from the notch to the chimney system that marked the start of the route.
The following pitch descriptions (in blue) are taken directly from Mountain Project, with my remarks below each one.
P1. Climb the squeeze chimney and up the hand crack in the left facing corner (5.8). Rather than stopping at the ledge (135'), we kept climbing up the corner above for another 100 feet or so (5.8) and stopped on the next obvious ledge. (5.8, 225')
A long easy warm-up pitch. I passed by many cut ropes which were lodged inside the cracks.
looking up pitch 1
Tom ascending pitch 1
P2. Traverse up and way left, past a tree, to the base of a beautiful splitter handcrack, climb it (5.10) and then trend up and left to the base of an awesome right facing, right angling corner. Another rope stretcher. (5.10, 210+')
Looking up pitch 2, with the next several pitches visible
P3. IMO, the crux pitch. Face climb discontinuous cracks up and left past a bolt into the corner, ascend the corner with Eldorado-like face climbing and stemming and then tips laybacking for what seems like an eternity. (5.12-, 115'; Rack: 1.5F, nuts, blue/black aliens, green aliens, 1F, 1.5-2.5F)
Very fun and classic! The first bolt was an ancient quarter-incher, but all gear after that was great and safe. I was barely able to hang on for the tips laybacking, but there was a decent stem rest before it for those who don't mind their calves pumping out a little.
P4. A long "easy" pitch (120', 5.10) that will be exciting if your rack is short on larger sizes or if your wide flaring crack technique is wanting. (Rack: I am embarrassed to confess having 3 each of 2.5-3.5 F, 2 4Fs and a 4 Camalot and using them all.)
Two 4s were more than sufficient for this pitch. We only had one 4, but there was one fixed halfway up the pitch which we clipped. Colin had plenty of rope left at the end of this pitch with not much rope drag, so he easily linked it into the following pitch.
cupped hands roof at the start of pitch 4 (try to back-clean gear under it to prevent rope drag further up)
P5. The Harding Slot of Red Rocks. The guide describes climbing a scary offwidth to the top of the tower at 5.10+. We climbed a short wide section (5.7) and then tunneled through the tower. The crux was squeezing through a taper for about 3 feet onto the west face. Not recommended for the bulbous or the claustrophobic. Some friends have climbed to the top of the tower as the guide suggests, while others traversed the tower (climbed right from the belay around the tower). No one has expressed great joy at the thought of repeating any of these options. (5.?, 45-50')
This was nothing like the Harding Slot. It was much easier and significantly wider in comparison. I did have to take off the pack and drag it through, but it was over in a couple minutes. There was no gear for the squeeze, but it was also close to impossible to fall out of it in a harmful way.
P6. After emerging from the birth canal, you are suddenly transplanted onto the west face of the tower at the base of a stellar Indian Creekish hand crack. Climb the flaring hand crack through several awkward bulges (5.11), while shedding as much clothing as you can remove. Potential radical temperature difference after the north face experience. Save a 1 camalot and some energy for the final hard moves to the belay. (5.11+, 110', Rack: (2) 1 camalots, (2-3 each) 2.5-3.5Fs)
P6. After emerging from the birth canal, you are suddenly transplanted onto the west face of the tower at the base of a stellar Indian Creekish hand crack. Climb the flaring hand crack through several awkward bulges (5.11), while shedding as much clothing as you can remove. Potential radical temperature difference after the north face experience. Save a 1 camalot and some energy for the final hard moves to the belay. (5.11+, 110', Rack: (2) 1 camalots, (2-3 each) 2.5-3.5Fs)
Who knew that another amazing pitch was waiting here after a series of already amazing pitches? This involved a series of bulges with a continuous corner crack. There was a tendency for the rope to push cams into the crack, as evidenced by the numerous fixed cams below each bulge.
Pitch 7 (Extension pitch 1) 5.12d, 80 ft
Several closely spaced bolts continued up the corner, protecting voodoo corner moves which were difficult to figure out. The bolts were close enough to pull through if needed. Colin belayed in an alcove right above this corner. It was possible to belay at bolts about 40 ft higher, but this was better for communication.
Pitch 8 (Extension pitch 2) 5.10, 120 ft
A monstrous offwidth rose above us. I started up it, placing hand size cams at the beginning. After a couple body lengths, the crack quickly widened to #6 and larger. Since we did not bring our #6, I was forced to run it out, risking a bad ledge fall. Eventually some holds appeared on the right side of the offwidth and I clambered up these, turning the lip and building a belay on a slab.
I belayed Colin up, and we unroped on the slab and scrambled up about 100 ft to a prominent notch with the summit of Cloud Tower to the left. The obvious route up to the tower was easy but with death fall potential, so we roped back up here.
Pitch 9 (Extension pitch 3) 5.7, 40 ft
This was a short 50 ft scramble to the top of the tower. I got only a couple cams in a horizontal at the start, but this was way more preferable to doing it unroped. At the summit, I braced myself against a rock and body-belayed Colin up.
unroping at the summit
view of the impressive Rainbow Wall
view towards Vegas
view towards rap anchors from summit
Descent
We downclimbed about 100 ft on the other side of the tower and located the rap anchors for Crimson Chrysalis. Several raps that were more or less down a straight line brought us back to the base of the tower. A single 70m rope was all that was needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment