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Our Routine…
Shitty weather during Memorial Day Weekend in 2011. 50mph wind gusts greeted us at the trailhead at 2am and so we slept in and woke up to these marginal conditions. Fuck (June 2011).
Set the alarm for 2am and hit the sack as early as possible. Wake up, drive to trailhead and get blasted by 50mph wind gusts while racking up on the side of the highway. Say “fuck it” and sleep in the car hoping to do something smaller, shorter, and hopefully less windy in the morning. There were of course variations on this theme…like back in 2008 (our first thought of doing Resolution Arete ) when we came to Vegas over Memorial Day only to find four days of essentially non-stop rain. Back then we did not even make the trailhead pilgrimage. Or the last time over Memorial Day of 2011 when after driving to Vegas from Portland we found not only high winds but also socked in Red Rocks summits at dawn. Three day weekend with one day available to do the climb meant lots of pissed off driving time through near wintry conditions in southern Nevada …
Finally…
Shirley leading the 5.9 diagonal crack on pitch 13 of Resolution Arete. This was our favorite pitch of the outing: fun climbing with beautiful exposure high above Sherwood Forest (June 2011).
Luck smiled down upon us in mid-June of 2011. We flew out to LA Friday after work as we could not find cheap tickets for Vegas. It was cheaper to fly to LAX even though the Southwest flight had a stopover at McCarran (did not know that ahead of time)…go figure. Finished driving back to Vegas on Saturday and had a do-nothing day. Well almost – we did procure some coffee and with the foresight of bringing a thermos with us ended up with a decent “breakfast” at 2am on Sunday. We were hiking a touch after 3am through a warm and windless night. A bit of cross country (it’s been a while since we’ve been there for Initi Watana ) got us above the red band and up into the White Rot Gully where we saw first light.
Pitch-By-Pitch Drivel…
Shirley at the semi-hanging belay below the aid (for us) roof on pitch 9 (June 2011)
At the base at 5ish and climbing pitch 1 by I think 5:30ish. I led pitch one, Shirley did two. I then combined three and four (numbering per George Bell’s topo) with some rope to spare (70 meter lines). A bit of route finding on the fifth pitch 5.8 face traverse followed by two scrambly pitches atop the lower buttress. This put us in line for the next distinct section of the route: a steep headwall about four pitches in height. I led the nice pitch seven with the fun 5.10- roof pull and Shirley put us at the base of the 5.11+/C1 roof of pitch nine. This unmistakable feature got aided and after the short 5.10+ pitch ten (two hard moves and then it’s over) we were on a good ledge with some lower angle terrain ahead. By this time we were rationing our water since it seemed we were depleting our supply faster than we were chipping away at the pitch count. It was warm. The next two pitches were pretty forgettable and we were soon at the base of the 5.9 hand traverse pitch (#13). Spectacular indeed! Fun climbing, good pro, and a beautifully exposed position high above Sherwood Forest . Shirley got the lead of this best-pitch-of-the-day and I took over from there to the top. Those final six or so pitches were OK although the last 5.8 pitch was a little chossy but I’m not entirely sure if I finished up the correct crack system. We were also quite tired by this point. A long simulclimb above put us at the obvious unroping spot where we happily switched to hiking shoes. Although we did not check, I think we topped out around 6:30ish pm. We were down to a sip of water each at this point and hoping to find a puddle or two in First Creek Canyon below. I was willing to eat mud if it had a hint of water content.
We started the hike along Wilson ’s summit ridge aiming for the backside saddle. Think we might have gone too far right/north as we ended up being cliffed out by a gully dropping down into Oak Creek Canyon . A quick skirting of the gully back up toward the ridge top solved the issue and soon enough we reached the sandstone-limestone saddle and started dropping into First Creek. We found some of the best tasting water we’ve ever had near the top of the canyon and spent a good 15 minutes filling ourselves and our containers with the cold, clean goodness. Darkness found us sometime during this libation. The ensuing boulder hopping descent was memorable to be sure. Something to be experienced at least once by all who love Red Rocks. I will not get into the specific details of exactly how long it took us (embarrassingly long) but lets just say that by the time we reached our car we saw that we would not be making our early pre-work morning flight home from LAX (~5 hrs away). Next time we go back for anything involving a Mt. Wilson top-out, we’ll definitely experiment with the Oak Creek descent option.
The “late evening” was rounded out by a pig-out at a Denny’s somewhere in Summerlin…ahhh, good old Denny’s: cookin’ up the nasty shit 24/7! After this grease feast we passed out till morning.
Beta…
Shirley at the top of Resolution Arete route (summit ridge of Mount Wilson) with a piece of Wilson's Horseshoe Wall showing in the background (June 2011).
Like many others, we’ve used George Bell’s famous (& very accurate) RA topo. Also, both Dow on summitpost (here) and Eric & Lucie offer outstanding written descriptions of the route including great/informative photos. All of these are excellent resources and in fact I don’t really think we looked at the guidebooks for this line till after the fact.
We climbed this line on June 19th. Blue Diamond forecast was calling for low to mid 90’s with 10-20mph winds (= a mild convection oven). This is late in the season to be sure however we’ve had some poor weather luck trying it in April and May – mostly it was the strong winds that just took the fight out of us at the trailhead (if it’s blasting 40-50mph down in the valley, well…) We had two nalgene bottles with us and a large platypus. This was just enough for the climb and we were happy to find running water high in First Creek Canyon on descent. It would’ve been (more) character building without it.
For rack, we had a few nuts (hardly used) and then doubles in 2 smallest Alien/TCU sizes and doubles in #3 and #4 C4’s. Triples in green Alien/blue TCU to #2 Camalot range. Excessive? Maybe but we’re conservative (chickenshit) and figured since we’re rolling all of our own belays…
To echo what so many others have said, we thought it was a good line. A full day’s worth of climbing (very full day for us if you include approach & descent) high above the desert with a very trad ambiance: two (1.5?) bolts in 20 pitches and a somewhat meandering line that limits the escape options.
Photos
Shitty weather during Memorial Day Weekend in 2011. 50mph wind gusts greeted us at the trailhead at 2am and so we slept in and woke up to these marginal conditions. Resolution Arete (5.10 C1 or 5.11+, 20 pitches) is indicated (June 2011).
Starting the lead of pitch 1 of Resolution Arete - a short 5.6 traverse to a nice 5.9 crack (June 2011).
Higher on pitch 1 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley following pitch 1 of Resolution Arete, a nice 5.9 crack. The main approach gully is visible below (June 2011).
Shirley leading pitch 2 of Resolution Arete (5.8; June 2011).
Starting up pitch 3 of Resolution Arete: a couple face moves to reach an awkward dihedral. We linked pitch 4 above with our 70 meter ropes (June 2011).
Pitch 4 (5.7 chimney) of Resolution Arete...linked with pitch 3 (June 2011).
Shirley starting up pitch 3 of Resolution Arete (5.9+ which we combined with pitch 4, a 5.7 chimney; June 2011).
Happy Shirley topping out pitch 4 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Leading pitch 5. Dihedrals to a sharp rightward traverse with some spaced out pro and 5.8 face climbing (June 2011).
Looking north from top of pitch 5 of Resolution Arete. Rainbow Mountain (with its yellowish Solar Slab face) is in the foreground; Bridge Mountain is in the background (June 2011).
Shirley following the 5.8 face traverse on pitch 5 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Leading pitch 7 of Resolution Arete - an easy crack to a fun 5.10- roof pull. Probably our 2nd favorite pitch of the day (June 2011).
Shirley starting up pitch 7 (5.10-; June 2011).
Shirley topping out on pitch 7 of Resolution Arete. The top of the low buttress (which the route follows for the first 5+ pitches) is visible below (June 2011).
Shirley leading pitch 8 (5.9) of Resolution Arete. The roof above marks the start of the next pitch and the crux of the route (5.11+ reportedly) if done all free (was C1 for us; June 2011).
Aiding the 6 foot roof crack on pitch 9 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley at the semi-hanging belay below the aid (for us) roof on pitch 9 (June 2011)
Shirley following the 5.9+ crack just above the (aid) roof on pitch 9 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Past the difficulties on pitch 10 of Resolution Arete. This is the short crux of the route if the pitch 9 roof is aided (which we did; June 2011).
Looking back at Shirley from just above the crux of pitch 10 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
The Horseshoe Wall on the east face of Mount Wilson as seen from top of pitch 10 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley topping out on pitch 10 with the Sherwood Forest below (June 2011).
Shirley starting up pitch 11 of Resolution Arete: an awkward 5.8 ramp with lots of rope drag for her (June 2011).
Shirley starting the very fun pitch 13 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley leading the 5.9 diagonal crack on pitch 13 of Resolution Arete. This was our favorite pitch of the outing: fun climbing with beautiful exposure high above Sherwood Forest (June 2011).
Shirley belaying be inside the nice chimney (5.7) that is the start of pitch 14 (June 2011).
Starting up the short 5.8 off-width on pitch 16 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley topping out on pitch 16 of Resolution Arete with Calico Hills in the background (June 2011).
Shirley topping out on pitch 17 of Resolution Arete (June 2011).
Shirley moving the belay along the Catwalk (pitch 17 per George Bell topo). We then climbed the left crack up left and out onto the face bypassing the large roof (June 2011).
Leading pitch 18 - a 5.8 face just above the Catwalk (June 2011).
Starting up the chossy pitch 19 (per George Bell topo), though I'm not sure if I picked the "correct" crack system (June 2011).
Shirley at the top of Resolution Arete route (summit ridge of Mount Wilson) with a piece of Wilson's Horseshoe Wall showing in the background (June 2011).
Tired but happy on the summit of Mount Wilson. The worst part of the day is yet to come: the descent down First Creek Canyon (June 2011).
Shirley hiking off the summit of Mount Wilson (left, reddish colored rock) after our Resolution Arete climb (June 2011).
Shirley taking a nice long swig of water at the top of First Creek Canyon during our descent. We've been rationing our water since pitch 12ish and so this was a pretty special moment (June 2011).
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