Sat, Feb 17, 2018
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Etymology |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Map | GPX | Profile |
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Rainbow Mountain previously climbed Fri, Mar 11, 2016 later climbed Mon, Feb 17, 2020 Rainbow Wall previously climbed Mon, Nov 23, 2009 later climbed Mon, Feb 17, 2020 Terrace Canyon Peak previously climbed Wed, Mar 23, 2016 |
There is some confusion with the naming of Rainbow Mtn. The 52Peak Club and PB both call this summit "Rainbow Peak", while the USGS, LoJ and Purcell in Rambles & Scrambles prefer "Rainbow Mtn." I chose the latter designation. Further, there is another point west of Rainbow Peak that PB refers to as Rainbow Mtn, though it has little prominence. And so it goes.
We were in the Las Vegas area with plans to do some scrambling in the Valley of
Fire east of town as well as some in Red Rocks on the west side of town. My
interest in Red Rocks was to do the Cleaver Crack route on Mt. Wilson,
something
that had eluded me on my first effort a few years earlier. The second day was
going to be a reclimb of the SE Route (aka, The Best Route Ever) on Rainbow Mtn
which Tom was keen to do since he had missed out when I'd joined Courtney
Purcell two years earlier. Our group of five had grown to a group of ten over
the past few days and with Iris missing out due to Chinese New Year (which she
had somehow forgotten about), we had nine when we started out from the Oak Creek
TH off Scenic Rd soon after 7a, a large but capable group of scramblers.
We were hiking maybe 20min, having nearly completed the trailwork to get
from the parking lot to the creek when Tom suggested maybe we could do The Best
Route Ever today instead of Cleaver Crack. We'd been talking about the expected
change of weather coming the next day with exceedingly high winds, and Tom
really didn't want to miss the opportunity to do the Rainbow Mtn route
a second time. I stopped the train and suggested we take a vote, though with
little discussion beforehand, only some of us even knew what the differences
were. Adam and Dustin had joined us for Cleaver Crack without even knowing what
our plans were for the following day and were caught by surprise. A first vote
was 3-2 in favor of continuing to Cleaver Crack, with a healthy number of us,
myself included, abstaining. More discussion regarding the weather and the
route choices had the vote change in favor of The Best Route Ever. It wasn't
the best strategy-planning method, but it worked. We carried two 30m ropes
with us along with a selection of harnesses, helmets and some slings &
carabiners - enough, I felt, to get our party up the harder route we had now
switched to. I had GPX tracks for both, so figured we could do either today.
Off we went.
When they asked me where the Rainbow route started I pointed vaguely to the SE
Face and waved my hand, "Somewhere up there." My strategy was pretty simple -
look for ducks and follow the GPX track as needed. In the steep terrain the
route goes through, the GPX track had gotten a little chaotic - not a true
representation of the route, but I figured we could make it work if the ducks
proved ambiguous or non-existent. Our conga line headed up from the
trail soon after the second vote was taken, laughing and amusing ourselves and
each other pretty much the whole day - this was a fun bunch of skilled
scramblers so I wasn't worried much. We found
the start of the
scrambling marked by ducks and
headed up the more technical stuff just
after 8a. We would spend the next four hours making our way to the summit of
this very
enjoyable route.
As hoped, the ducks were enough to guide us, though
we periodically resorted to the GPX track when we saw the ducks branching. These
were various options on the route, inevitably reconnecting higher up, but it
didn't hurt to be a little cautious in checking. There were more than a dozen
handlines encountered enroute - some thin steel cables, others
actual ropes, none particularly reassuring. Talking with Dustin up in the front
of the pack while we were searching for ducks, I came to find that he's working
on making a career of mountain guiding and had already spent the previous
summer working for RMI on Mt. Rainier. "Oh good! You're in charge then!" I
joked in trying to remove myself from any sort of responsibility. This was the
first time any of us had met Adam and Dustin, the pair joining us at the last
minute via an email exchange I'd had with Adam. Dustin proved immensely capable,
helpful and great fun, too. In a few sections, a couple of our party asked for
a belay which Dustin managed with considerable skill and rather graciously. At
the crux, a near-vertical, narrow chimney, we had to haul our packs up
separately. Dustin was key in getting everything through in an efficient manner,
directing operations from below while
Tom hauled the packs from above
before passing them to Scott and I nearby. Getting nine folks up such a
complicated route could have easily taken hours longer. I was greatly
pleased with the group as a whole. Often finding
multiple ways around
obstacles, they were a fairly confident and skilled bunch that made
the scramble great fun.
With all of us atop Rainbow Mtn by noon, we lolled around for about
20min, signing
the register, having lunch and even posing for
a group shot. With so
much daylight remaining, we decided rather than taking the quicker descent off
the east side of Rainbow Mtn, we'd extend the outing by visiting the higher
Rainbow Wall as a bonus. There was some discussion as to whether we'd get back
to the cars before the 5:30p closing time for the Scenic Loop. Dustin seemed
the most concerned while I was at the opposite end, poo-poohing any suggestion
that we'd get back late. After much back and forth, we agreed that calling in
to the ranger station to report a late exit (perfectly allowed per the park
rules, as long as you call in before 4p) was a safe bet and Dustin dutifully
took care to report all three vehicles. The scramble to Rainbow Wall is a much
tamer affair than the Best Route Ever,
easy class 3 for the most part,
with some
moderate route-finding to be had. We spent just about an hour
traversing between the two along the enjoyable,
connecting ridgeline. We went up and over the PB-designated Rainbow Mtn,
finding no register and not giving it much love or attention. The more
interesting feature, I thought, was the dark-colored rock mass between
PB's Rainbow Mtn and Rainbow Wall. I recalled climbing atop this with Matthew
years ago when we were traveling the other direction, finding ourselves cliffed
out and having to retrace our steps around the east side of the feature. As we
approached it, I studied the side that had stymied us, wondering if there was a
way up that had eluded us. Indeed, there was, in the form of a narrow ramp
rising up through the cliff on the east side. It was a bit sketchy in one
particular place but it worked, well-enough so that it enticed both
Dustin and
Scott to follow me. The ramp ends just below the
summit mesa but it was an easy climb out from that point. Concerned that we
might not be able to climb off it, Dustin ran ahead to check out the descent off
the NW side. I didn't have the heart to tell him I already knew it would go and
nstead turned to take a few more pics of Scott as he was
exiting.
Dustin had a smile and thumbs-up for us when Scott and I joined him a few
minutes later - the NW side is a walk off. The others, with the exception of
Matt who had paused to video Dustin and Scott from below on the ascent, were all
well
ahead of us on their way to Rainbow Wall and we hurried to catch
them.
While we were hanging out on
the summit of Rainbow Wall
I began to think about our options to get down. The easiest route is to head
west and descend the Oak Creek drainage from its head, class 2-3, the same route
I'd used with Matthew when we first ascended
Rainbow Wall. I wondered if there wasn't a rappel route that we could use to get
off Rainbow Wall to the north to reach Gunsight Peak, visible on that side if
one walks a short ways down from the summit. Tom reminded me that the
rappel I had in mind was between Gunsight Peak and Ramp Peak further north, a
route the two of us had used in 2016. Rats. I wandered down the north
and northwest sides of Rainbow Wall to see if there was a scrambling route to
be found, but it seemed mostly cliffs wherever I looked and I soon gave up that
idea. After signing the busy
register, we gathered our stuff and headed
off
the west side of Rainbow Wall in the direction of Oak Creek.
As we were about to drop into the Oak Creek drainage along the trail we had
picked up after exiting the sandstone ridgeline, I paused the group as another
option came to me. Only half a mile to the northwest lay Terrace Canyon Peak.
Tom had not visited that one from the 52Peak Club list and was eager to pick up
another bonus. As it wasn't yet 2p, it seemed we had lots of daylight and the
extra peak would only add about half an hour's time. Everyone was game and off
we went, going over the saddle between the Oak Creek and Pine Creek drainages,
then along a sort-of use trail to Terrace Canyon Peak, almost a level
traverse from the saddle with no significant elevation gain or loss. After
reaching
the summit I
spied a few duck heading off the NE side of Terrace Canyon Peak and remembered
a fun class 3-4 scrambling route that Patrick and I had used on that first visit
two years earlier. "Anyone up for returning this way?" I asked after we'd signed
into the register. Now 2:15p, doubt crept into the collective mind of the group.
There were a few that had had enough but didn't want to exactly admit so, or
perhaps just didn't like the prospect of descending the easier route down Oak
Creek alone. Once someone announced they planned to take the easier route, there
was a cascade of others expressing relief and agreeing to join him. In the end,
there was only Scott, Tom, Matt and myself eager to do the descent down into
Pine Creek and return via the longer route.
And so the four of us headed off with about 3hrs of daylight remaining. Easily
enough to get off the difficulties and down to Pine Creek, maybe not enough to
get back to the cars. I was happy to have let Dustin talk us into reporting the
late exit to the rangers. The route is great fun, with sustained class 3
scrambling that ventures into some class 4 territory, particularly near
the top where
an exposed face must be descended. There is a cool,
exposed ledge that cuts across a cliff face in the middle of the route
and a tricky crack to be downclimbed near the end. The top of this crack has the
only handline on the route - Scott attempted an old-school rap with it, wrapping
it
around his back and leg but mostly making it look more dangerous
than it is. Below the handline, the crack drops through a chockstone that makes
for
a tight squeeze with a very reachy bottom to fall into - not all
that dangerous, but it provided a great deal of laughter and chiding as we
watched each other work through it. A little less than two hours saw us to
the bottom of the route and down to the bottom of the
Pine Creek drainage. We still had another hour to negotiate
the boulder scramble that is Pine Creek, then a last half hour to
return to the vehicles at the Oak Creek TH. The sun had set before we'd found
our way to
the trail system that would take us back
to the TH,
though there was still plenty of light
to see by. With Matt out in front and myself in the middle, I happened to look
back to see Tom and Scott behind me with their headlamps on, though obviously
unneeded. I forgot to comment on this upon our return, much to their dismay,
since they had only done it for my benefit. Some months earlier I had heckled
Iris for using her headlamp unnecessarily on a Death Valley hike and they had
not forgotten it. I'm happy to be able to provide so much easy amusement to my
friends. And with that, another successful day in Red Rocks was in the bag...
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Rainbow Mountain - Rainbow Wall
This page last updated: Mon Feb 10 07:51:40 2020
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