Geronimo Grade II; 5.7****

    Gear Used:
  • 2 60 meter ropes
  • rack to 3 inches
  • slings
December 17, 2007

The Approach

Lacey and I flew to Las Vegas for a couple days of climbing in the desert and a couple nights of Vegas chaos. Of course the priority is always climbing, if the damn rain doesn't follow you from Seattle. We landed at the Vegas airport late on Sunday night with plans of climbing Geronimo in the morning and Birdland on Tuesday. Everything started out well until the weather had to rear it's ugly head.


Lacey hiking through the Nevada desert.

Monday ended up being a beautiful day as we hiked up the beautiful canyon to the base of Jackrabbit Buttress. The sky was blue and I was almost to hot in my fleece. We took a short break while we organized gear. At about the same time that I tied in the sun hid behind the mountains and left us in the shade. It didn't really effect us at first but we would soon understand the drastic change the sun makes in the desert.

The Climbs

Geronimo 5.7 ****

Pitch 1, 5.6 160 feet

I started climbing using plentiful face holds and using the crack for protection. This climb is loaded with jugs for easy climbing yet still varied enough to make it fun. I tried to climb pretty quickly as I was noticing the temperature was dropping pretty fast. My fingers were starting to get a cit cold on the sandstone. I belayed Lacey up for her first sandstone climb.


Lacey climbing the first pitch of Geronimo.

Lacey nearing the top of the first pitch.

Pitch 2, 5.6 180 feet

Last time I was hear my friend James lead this pitch. I remember thinking at that time that it would be a pretty difficult lead. It turned out to be really fun with great bulges to overcome. You follow a finger crack with face moves and plenty of small gear. I continued up a low angle corner for about 20 feet and then climbed onto the arete to the chains. The arete climbing was pretty exposed but easy 5.5.


Lacey climbing the cool arete on the second pitch.

We decided that we would descend from the top of the second pitch to make sure that we would be down before dark. I have had experience with the rope eating rock here so I figured we should be safe and give us plenty of time to get down. By the time Lacey started the rappel I was freezing! The temperature was defiantly dropping fast. We made it to the bottom with out losing any rope.

We made it back to the parking lot at about 4:30 and we were pretty happy that we decided to descend when we did. The gate closes at 5 during winter and the sun sets at about the same time. It would of been nice to make it to the top and especially to climb the 3rd pitch which is a great 5.7 varnished face climb.


Enjoying the desert on the top of the first pitch.

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