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December 29th: Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride on Summit Block Rock

Shirley rapping off the summit of Summit Block Rock.

This return to Sedona is meant to break up our trip up north to Moab into two, less painful sections. We return to our campground outside of town at about 11pm. We park, and jump into the sleeping bags in the back of our truck. The whole operation takes 5 minutes. In the predawn morning a tender knocking with the butt of a flashlight wakes me up – the fucking forest service Nazi is here to not only ask us for $18 (OK – there’s no self issue box) but to give a long lecture on how arriving after 9pm is wrong (not against the written rules, but against rules of nature)! Diplomacy (and the desire to crawl back into my sleeping bag) win over and instead of reminding the asshole about the other asshole who was running the generator on his RV till wee hours of the night couple nights before (“and where the fuck were you then?”), I say “Sorry officer” and fall back asleep. We wake up and head for the climb. It’s pretty casual and not really that memorable though definitely nice. Four pitches of well protected climbing on good rock and a cool spire summit. Later that night, we arrive in Moab.

Photos

Shirley and Blondie on approach to Summit Block Rock – visible almost at dead center of photo (look for bulbous summit block; December 29, 2005).

Summit Block Rock from the approach hike. Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride climbs this face.

Leading pitch one of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride just below the slightly overhanging limestone band (December 29, 2005).

Shirley topping out on pitch one of Dr Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride. She is climbing through the limestone band (December 29, 2005).

Green and orange – pretty much how we remember Sedona climbing.

Shirley at the pitch 1 belay on Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride.

Beginning the lead of pitch two of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride – mostly a nice 5.9 handcrack (December 29, 2005).

Shirley belaying me from a stance atop pitch one of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride (December 29, 2005).

Beginning the lead of pitch three of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride – a piton protected, nicely exposed 5.7 face traverse (December 29, 2005).

Shirley belaying the third pitch traverse from a sloping ledge atop pitch two of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride (December 29, 2005).

Daddy considering the third pitch of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride.

Beginning the lead of the fourth pitch of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride – up the backside of the bulbous summit block (December 29, 2005).

Pitch 4.

Shirley belaying from the huge ledge atop pitch three of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride. This is directly at the foot of the summit block of Summit Block Rock (December 29, 2005).

Shirley just above the 5.9 mantle move on pitch 4 of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride. Photo taken from summit of Summit Block Rock. I think the mantle is 5.9 (or easier) if you got the reach; if you’re on the shorter side, it’s much more difficult (December 29, 2005).

Shirley on the summit of Summit Block Rock after our climb of Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride. This is looking towards Sedona (below in background; December 29, 2005).

Shirley preparing to rap from the summit of Summit Block Rock. This is the view of the formation from roughly the NE. Photo was spliced from three separate shots using Cannon software (December 29, 2005).

Shirley rapping off the summit of Summit Block Rock. Fun free hanging section. Parent cliff is on the left; Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride route is out of the photo on the right (December 29, 2005).

Somebody sat out this particular climb at the base (Dec. 2005).

Dr. Rubo’s Wild Ride on the southwest face of Summit Block Spire (December 29, 2005).

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