An El Malpais testpiece. (1) Begin with thin hands in a clean corner and move over a bulge (5.10+) continuing up the widening crack and passing a fixed pin to a final off-width and large ledge with bolt anchors. (2) Move up a thin fingers corner off the ledge to easier ground above.  Finish on the Dakota arete up and to the left.Descent: See Surfin' the Turf for the location of the rap route.  Can be done with a single 60m with some easy down-climbing at the bottom.

Overdrive

Unknown V2

Rotten Peach

Unknown V5

New Frontier

1096

Sword of Cimmeria

Easy Come,  Easy Go

Crack of Heraclitus

Surfin' the Turf

Icebreaker

Skull Cap

Mt. Cosmic Debris

Strensuous Curve

Unknown V3

Trudy Buns

Breech Baby

Screaming Yellow Yum-Yums

Make Off-Width Great Again

A Moment's Respite

The Mushroom

(1) Climb a chimney for 40 feet to a ledge. Traverse left on the ledge and ascend the crack  above (5.7)**.  This crack is the left side of parallel chimney/cracks.  When possible, move back right into the original crack and continue up turf to a belay at a small pine tree. (2) Scramble up and south over turf and boulders to the top of the buttress.  (3) Move up through some steep orange caprock for an exposed finish (5.6). 

** Tarantula VariationInstead of traversing left into the other crack, continue straight up (5.7+) until rejoining the standard route. 

  Descent:  Move south 50 ft(?) and downclimb 15 feet to a ledge with a large tree.  Two single rope rappels to the base.

Good crimps then a reach and tricky topout

(1) Climb the crack to a dead tree.  From here, the crack widens and steepens, ending in an alcove. (2) Move up out of the alcove and continue up the crack to the base of a thick flake.  Traverse right and climb a thin finger crack (5.8) to a belay on top of a block.

Sit start slap left then bump, cross and top out.   

  Good, but tough

(1) Climb the crack (5.10c fist) to a comfy belay alcove. (2) Continue up the crack, chimneys and winding path to the top (5.9).

This route was named after the famous climb in Yosemite.  (1) Up an easy chimney.  (2) Work up toward a seam in a left-facing corner.  Work through the crux corner (fixed Leeper Z) to gain a squeeze chimney and the ledge with a large tree.  Move the belay to the right end of the ledge. (3) Climb the flared chimney above past two bolts (5.8), through the overhang and belay on the ledge above.  (4) The final easy pitch works its way through the caprock.

A two pitch dihedral. P1: Offwidth and chimney for about 100 feet passing a large yucca en route.  Belay off gear atop a ledge below an obvious difficult spot (5.9+).  P2: Shinny/chimney the narrow section above ((5.10-), or undercling/layback right around a flake (5.10+).  Both variations get you re-established in the chimney above. Continue deep into the chimney past a bombay roof restriction, then exit above it on a sloping ledge, finishing up the hand/fist/OW crack to the summit.

Scramble up to the ledge below the dihedral.  Climb the obvious layback to the chimney.  The chimney is the crux.

(1) Begin on the face to the right of the crack and traverse into the dihedral at the 6-ft level (5.12-).  Once established in the dihedral, have the rack & rope thrown up to you. Sustained climbing leads up a hand crack to an alcove below a roof (5.10b).  Belay off a 5" cam or tube chock.  (2) Stem and jam out the roof and make hard moves to gain the dihedral above (5.10c) then continue up the moderate but large crack to the back of a cave and an uncomfortable belay below a huge roof.  (3) Traverse left under the roof on a narrow ledge to the lip, then climb an unprotected dihedral (5.10c) to a point where a move right leads to jugs and the summit.  

  Pitches two and three can be combined if you're feeling fresh and don't mind a bit (a lot?) of rope drag on the crux. 

  Descent: walk off. 

(1) Climb a low-angle dihedral on the west side leading up to a notch and belay below the massive prow.  (2) Move up to the base of a ramp which diagonals right directly below the overhang.  Layback up the exposed ramp (5.10) and turn the corner to find a large (and welcome) block which gives access to the summit.

Start in alcove next to large ponderosa, climb up the corner to a small tree growing out of the crack. From here the perfect splitter offers good crack climbing up to the crux roof where a little grunting and utilization of small face holds get you over the roof to wide lower angle climbing above. Walk off right down large sandstone slab

The rock is surprisingly good.  There are two routes on the west side (one 5.10 and one 5.8 if I recall), and one on the east (5.7?).  Descend off the east side.

Note: This route is unrepeated since the first ascent due to the horror stories about the lack of protection.  Modern large cams and Big Bros may reduce the risk considerably.   

  (1) Layback the left crack (hardest near the ground) to the point where you can step over to the right crack (at about 90 ft)and finish up less strenuous terrain to the ledge.

Curious to find out if anyone knows if this has been climbed before.

There are two ways to start. The east side start climbs an overhanging hand crack (5.9) on the north end of the spire.  The West side start climbs a steep slab (5.8).  Both starts end on top of a large flake on the west side.  From here climb the face, clipping a drilled angle, then move around to the north side and finish up on the east side of the summit.   

  Rappel off two drilled angles.

Climb up into the pod and place a piece of gear deep inside with a sling to protect the moves pulling the roof.  Reverse out of the pod (Thus the route name).  Get ready for a crack that goes from #2 C4 to #5 or 6 C4.  Beware loose rock near the top, and bring some gear smaller than a #2 to protect the roof at the top.  Enjoy!  It's as good as it looks!

Climb the finger/hand crack for 45 feet to a ledge (5.9+). Traverse right on the ledge and thrash up a wide crack (5.9) and around the corner.   Descend by tunneling down the back side of the spire.

Begin up the initial chimney of Surfin' the Turf but at the first ledge head off climbers left up the obvious off-width system.  There are three right-leaning sections.  P1 ends at the top of the second (crux) where a bolted anchor may be found (115 feet).   P2 continues up the last section (5.10) on to a large ledge.  From near the top of the shelf, begin the choss.  This is the R section as all pro from here on is questionable (except the last stopper which did hold a fall).  Work up a right angling ramp past some dubious placements and continue traversing right across ledges working up where possible.  Pull an exciting bulge then continue to angle up and right to a final overhanging corner.  Load up the crack with pro and work up the loose corner to the top and a belay off a tree (140 feet).  Descent: A 70-meter rope from the slings on the tree will barely reach the top of P1 from here, with a second full rap to the base.

(1) Three sections of liebacks (5.9) lead to the top of the butress. (2) Climb the arete to the summit (5.7 PG-13).

The left roof variation is 5.10.  The right side is 5.10+.

The El Malpais climbing area extends for twelve miles along Hwy 117 on the easern edge of the lower Grants lava flow from which the name was taken.  The climbing is on soft sandstone and is comparable in quality to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  The area was first explored, starting in the Fall of 1975, by David Dahrling and David Baltz who had established thirteen moderate trad routes by December of 1976.  Further action in the late '70s by Paul Horak, Mark Dalen, Charlie Ware led to additional routes, as well as visits by such out-of-state luminaries as Andrew Embick, and Earl Wiggins.  Because of the intimidating nature of many of the lines, the area has seen very limited development since, in spite of the enormous potential.  The vast majority of the established routes are crack climbs, entirely unlike the uniform cracks of the Indian Creek variety, but of a more varied and technical nature.  Due to the soft rock, bolts and other fixed protection are rarely encountered, but nuts and cams work well. There is also excellent bouldering, the approaches are short--at most fifteen minutes from the car--and the climbing season runs from February through November. 

  One note about local ethics:   The Malpais has traditionally been a 'ground up' area.  What few bolts and fixed pins that exist were placed on the lead.  Due to the soft nature of the rock, the wilderness area partially covering the major walls, and Acoma reservation, sport routes are strongly discouraged.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in El Malpais