A blitz trip to Zion. I texted Tim early in the week wondering if he could pull off a hurried trip to Zion to climb a route that’s been on my ‘itch’ list for year. He was down – despite both of us recovering from the winter flue. What could be better than a couple of sickos wandering their way up a rotten ridge on the outskirts of Zion?
The trip down was uneventful and we found ourselves collecting a minimal rack at the trailhead wondering how hard the route would actually be. Our goal – Cowboy Ridge – was reportedly pretty moderate and I was thinking we could easily blitz the route and be back to Salt Lake in record time.
The approach was straightforward enough – about two hours at a leisurely pace – and soon we found ourselves at the bottom of the ridge, staring at the massive SW face of Kinesava. Despite years of climbing I’ve never done well with heights and my stomach dropped at the pending exposure. The pending exposure was big.
But luckily(?) the route either followed the wide ridge-crest or hung to the right (east) side of ridge, which was much more genial. We made somewhat quick progress, scrambling up and around and over the various ridgeline obstacles. Route finding was the biggest challenge which also seemed to eat up time. Mostly it was deciding whether to climb obstacles or avoid. It was a careful balance to match the alpine ideals of ridge climbing and not spend too much time on unneeded problems. But soon enough we were scampering up the halfway chimney…. which I suppose was 4th class(?!).
The higher we got the bigger the exposure on both sides of the ridge. I momentarily felt that old Zion tinge that meant things were spicy. In 2004 I spent a season working for the park and wandered all over the place getting scared. This briefly felt like old times. I was just wearing old running shoes – so at some point just prior to the ‘crux’ we decided to rope up and I appreciated the extra security. We eventually found the amazing 5.7 hand crack that was the key to the summit. I somewhat botched the ascent since I didn’t want to lead with my pack on and ended up hauling both of our packs from an awkward stance. The crack was sandy and mega-exposed off to the left but another couple had just soloed the sucker in approach shoes – so I didn’t have a good excuse to whimper.
Through the crux we made quick work to the summit even though my head was still reeling with the exposure. The summit was an amazing spot on the edge of the Park – looking upcanyon to many previous exploits and adventures. It had been over a decade since I had truly spent quality adventure time in the park – so it was good to be back in my childhood dreamland.
A Bit of Beta:
As is apparent online, this is an easy solo for some. For me I would have appreciated the following insight:
- Go light. We were overkill on nearly everything.
- Wear approach shoes. I opted for running shoes thinking hiking trumped climbing but would have appreciated better grip in many spots.
- When in doubt on the lower ridge, just drop and circumvent on the east side of the ridge.
- The chimney was easy except the last move. If you are unsure haul the packs up from an easy stance above.
- The 5.7 pitch is somewhat hidden not allowing scoping on approach until you are at its base. I kept staring upward trying to assess the route and couldn’t place the crack on the route.
- If you are worried about leading the 5.7 pitch doubles on camalots from number 1-3 would be handy. Or plan to bump up pieces as you move.
- Running it out to the tree belay above the 5.7 pitch is probably the safest option. But communication with your second is difficult and there is a lot of rope stretch. I lower belay would be possible – but I didn’t have the right size pieces.
- From above the 5.7 pitch it returns to 4th class – but the exposure is more consistent and we roped up for one more pitch.
- We wandered around looking for the descent for some time. Use the pictures on Mountain Project (pic, pic) to align and you should be good. Once on the descent it tends to traverse back ‘skiers right’ (south) as much as it descends.
