New Route in Red Rock!

Above all other peaks and walls in Red Rock Nevada, Mt. Wilson looms the most impressively. I'd never climbed Mt. Wilson, but after climbing The Warrior on Cactus Flower Tower, I knew what route I wanted to attempt. From atop of the spire, I'd seen a line of cracks leading up for a few pitches from the Wilson/Cactus Flower Tower col, on the NE Face of Wilson. How better to try a new route on Mt. Wilson than by heading up a new line on Cactus Flower Tower to get there?

I was easily able to entice former Washingtonian Chris Weidner into joining me, and we began with a chimney just left of The Warrior. 

P1 was wide climbing, and just mossy enough to make me feel at home.

Roughly 1000' of great 5.9 crack climbing lead us to the final anchor on The Warrior, and the easy romp to summit #1. 

 

A belayed downclimb and one rappel landed us in the windy col.

Downclimbing to the col

The route on Wilson was only 3 belayed pitches, but the middle one had long and varied crack climbing that is THE BEST crack pitch I've climbed in Red Rock. 

Perfect cracks!

This route (we named it the Cactus Connection) would be an easy way to finish after any route up Cactus Flower Tower. There are certainly other obvious new routes available there too.

Here are a few photos of the new routes.

Chris Weidner posted info here:

Cactus Connection on Mt. Wilson

Blood on the Tracks on Cactus Flower Tower

 

It amazes me that one can still walk up to a feature easily visible from the highway in one of the nation's busiest climbing spots, and establish two new routes ground-up, onsight, and boltless in a day. 

Atop Wilson amid raging winds

We found a very casual descent from Mt. Wilson into Oak Creek, past Solar Slab, and out to our car.

1. Walk straight away from the Hwy for ~25 mins, staying on the ridge crest
2. Soon after the ground changes from red sandstone to grey limestone, hang a hard right down toward Oak Creek.
3. As long as you are descending a drainage near the limestone/sandstone interface (err skier's left) you'll be easily able to walk back to the car using just a single 40' rappel from a fixed rope roughly halfway down the wash. Everything else is mellow walking.