Woman of Mountain Dreams is one of the longest climbs in Red Rocks. Located on Mount Wilson, it ascends the steep north face of the Aeolian wall in 17 pitches and is approximately 1,700 feet high. You couldn't ask for a more compelling line. As described by Mountain Project, Mount Wilson is an arduous adventure in desert big wall climbing. The approach and descent for climbs on this mountain are long, on the order of two to three hours each way, and are not to be taken lightly. You're on your own out there. Nobody is coming to help you if you get in trouble. At least not quickly.
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| North side of Mt Wilson - Aeolian wall |
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| Woman of Mountain Dreams - approximate route |
I climbed Woman of Mountain Dreams the previous October and spent the night on top because we ran out of daylight. The descent the following day was fairly technical and took about five hours. It was a good character building experience. However, I was anxious to prove to myself that I could do this climb in a day and find a better way off the mountain. I knew that I could do it but there’s a difference between knowing it can be done and actually doing it.
The last week in September Joe and I drove to Las Vegas to have a go at Woman of Mountain Dreams. We made good time on the drive, reaching Las Vegas in about 5 hours. During the drive we decided to stash our gear at the base of the climb that day. This would provide two benefits; we would familiarize ourselves with the approach and lighten our load for the next day. Both would enable us to move faster the next day, when speed would be critical. The disadvantage was that we would have to do the long hike twice, and the first time would be in the heat of the day.
As with our adventure on Matthes Crest (see previous post), Woman of Mountain Dreams was big enough to pose a significant challenge and merited thoughtful preparation. We would employ our 'light and fast' climbing strategy to tackle this monster. Two major challenges that confronted us were water and daylight. There aren't enough of either this time of year.
I figured it would take us about nine hours to climb 17 pitches and about six hours for the approach and descent combined. That's 15 hours. We had approximately 12 hours of daylight at our disposal. There is about 30 minutes of twilight on either side of sunrise and sunset which provides enough light to see reasonably well. That would help to bridge the gap. Our headlamps would have to cover the rest. Descending from the mountain is tricky in daylight. At night it can be downright dangerous. There are numerous gullies that end in steep cliffs. Negotiating these in the dark is asking for trouble. I felt that we needed to get all the way down to the main Oak Creek drainage before dark to make it out safely. From there we could find our way by headlamp without too much difficulty. That meant we would need to do most of the approach in the dark. Having gone through this thought process I felt that we had a reasonable chance of successfully completing the route in a day. However, there wasn't much margin for error.
We arrived at the trailhead, about 1.5 miles south of the park exit, near midday. It was 90F and rising; too hot to be doing this. I pondered the sanity of our actions as we put on our packs. We are desert rats and have been out in worse, but would the benefit for tomorrow offset the suffering today? Would we be tired and dehydrated tomorrow and actually move slower? There's only one way to find out. Off we went.
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| Mt Wilson from old Oak Creek campground trailhead |
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| Approach beta |
We bore the heat of the sun for an hour as we plodded toward the access point for the Aeolian wall, white rot gully. One of the key features marking the entrance to the gully is a dark red bluff, barely visible from the trailhead. A faint trail traverses leftward along the base of this bluff and around the corner into the gully. There we received a much needed break as we entered the shaded enclave. It felt so good to be out of the sun!
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| Joe takes a breather below the red bluff |
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| Trail traverses left below this red bluff |
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| White rot gully |
Up the gully we went. Some fourth class scrambling was required, and possibly a fifth class move or two. If you're having to pull more than a couple fifth class moves in a row you should pause and look around for an easier path. It shouldn't be that hard. After the initial steep scramble up white rot gully it became a bushwhack, with occasional scrambling up or around large boulders. There were periodic cairns to keep us from giving up when we started thinking "...is this really a trail?" Expect to ask yourself that question several times before arriving at the climb.
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| Main gully above the steep scramble |
After 1.5 hours of hiking we reached the first minor gully off the main gully system, the home of Inti Watana and the landmark for access to Resolution Arete. This is a good landmark for a time check but the approach to Woman of Mountain Dreams does not go up this minor gully. It continues up the main gully to the top of the couloir. The trail is a bit faint but it's pretty hard to get lost. Just keep hiking and scrambling up through the scrub. It took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach the top of the couloir.
We stashed our gear there, leaving our pro, rope, helmets and harnesses, and a quart of water each. The last part of the approach was visible from there; a short hike down the west side of the couloir and a fourth class scramble (with a fifth class move or two) up a ramp to gain access to a large ledge where the climb starts.
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| Water stash |
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| Gear stash |
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| Ramp to the climb - approximate path shown |
We took a 20 minute break to cool down and re-hydrate before heading back down the way we came. I had consumed a half quart of water up to this point, which left only a half quart for the hike out. It would have to do. The hike down went quickly with the help of our friend gravity. As you can see from the photos below, the portion of the descent in white rot gully is pretty steep. It took us about an hour to get back to the truck, where we immediately began the re-hydration process.
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| Joe near the start of the steep part of the descent |
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| Trail goes through a cool tunnel |
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| It's steep near the end of white rot gully! |
We checked into our hotel, got cleaned up and had a good meal. I used to camp out at Red Rocks but in recent years I’ve taken to staying in a hotel. The city has expanded so much that the outskirts are very close to the climbing area. You don’t save a lot of driving time by camping out and a hotel provides the benefits of a comfortable bed, a shower, and coffee. I must be getting old.
We prepared our small packs that we would take with us on the climb with the essentials; a space blanket, a headlamp, spare batteries, a good knife, a small first aid kit, a wind-stopper jacket, a light poncho in case of rain, several power bars, an extra long sleeve shirt, stocking hat and gloves, and a quart of water each. It would be an alpine start in the morning (i.e., zero dark thirty) and I didn't want to have to think too hard at that hour. That's when mistakes are made.
We rose the next morning at 4 am, made PB&J sandwiches and were out the door by 4:30 am, grabbing coffee in the lobby on the way out. The drive to the trailhead was only about 25 minutes. Since our packs were prepared and we didn't have to organize our climbing gear we were able to start hiking by 5 am. The sky was back-lit by the lights of Las Vegas, making it possible to hike without headlamps. The temperature was cool but tolerable with a long sleeve shirt.
We arrived at the old camp area just beyond the Wilson Pimple after about 30 minutes. It was still pretty dark but the sky had begun to turn grey with the coming of morning. This area is probably the most difficult for route finding because there are many faint trails from the camp area up the steep slope to the base of the red bluff that marks the entrance to white rot gully. I've come this way enough to know not to worry about finding the perfect trail. We just worked our way up the steep slope and eventually found a faint trail with occasional cairns that led to the red bluff. Our timing was perfect with respect to daylight, as there was just enough light to see when we reached the recess of white rot gully.
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| Sun rising over the lights of Las Vegas |
We maintained our desired pace, reaching the entrance of Inti Watana gully after 1.5 hours and the top of the couloir in a little under 2 hours. There we retrieved our gear. The remainder of the approach was short; down the couloir to the base of the wall and up a fourth class ramp system with maybe a fifth class move or two. We didn’t rope up for this section. From the top of the ramp we took a left turn and hiked to a huge pine tree that marks the base of the climb. It was 7 am. Right on target.
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| Joe demonstrates full-on bushwhacking |
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| Last part of the hike to the top of the couloir |
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| Nearing the top of the couloir |
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| Joe on top of the couloir |
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| Yes, that is sweat |
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| Finishing the scramble up the ramp system |
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| Joe at base of climb under big pine tree |
We took a few minutes to get prepared for climbing, including our traditional roshambo (rock-paper-scissors) competition to see who got to choose which pitches to lead. The winner always chooses the hardest pitch. That's just how we roll. We almost always alternate leads, as it allows each climber to get periodic physical and mental rests throughout the day. I won and chose to lead the even pitches so that I could lead the crux Pitch 4. This finished, we racked our gear, flaked the 70 meter rope, and made sure our bullet packs were ready. For gear we had doubles of BD camalots through #3 and one #4, a full set of BD C3 cams, Aliens up to red, a set of Wild Country stoppers and a set of DMM offset nuts. We had 15 draws (most were two foot extendable), and two four foot slings each.
Joe started climbing the first pitch at 7:20 am. We made quick work of the first three pitches, which are more similar in style to Sedona climbing than Red Rocks climbing. They are somewhat awkward with mostly wide cracks and very few face holds. They do take adequate pro but are run out in a few places. This is the type of climbing that face climbers hate and old school trad climbers love.
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| Joe leading Pitch 1 |
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| A good gear placement stance |
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| Looking down Pitch 2 |
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| Tricky section on Pitch 2 |
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| Joe leading Pitch 3 |
There is a large ledge at the top of the third pitch where a short scramble through a bush is required to get to the base of the fourth pitch. The climb changes nature at this point, becoming very steep with mostly face climbing from there on out. This is more typical of Red Rocks climbing.
I led Pitch 4, which is the crux of the climb. It consists of steep face climbing on thin edges that are strewn across the face in no particular pattern. Because of this the line wanders right, then left, then right again. I felt that it was bolted rather well with very reasonable distances between bolts. The crux for me was in the first few moves, getting from the ledge onto the wall and above the first bolt. The hand and footholds were very small and the desert varnish on the sandstone was a little slick for smearing. I used a very small dish for a foot with an edge about the width of a quarter. After the first bolt it let up a little and became a route finding puzzle; more thought provoking than hard. Somehow I managed to get this pitch clean in my Mythos climbing shoes but it felt a little sketchy at the beginning. Edging shoes would have helped. The packs we were carrying, albeit small, had a noticeable effect on our balance on steep terrain like this. Joe followed and was able to get this pitch clean as well. This pitch slowed us down quite a bit. Our goal was to average 30 minutes a pitch (i.e., both leader and follower finished in 30 minutes) but it took me 30 minutes to lead and Joe 30 minutes to follow. We would have to make up the time in the upcoming pitches.
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| Joe following Pitch 4 |
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| Some delicate footwork |
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| Unlocking the puzzle |
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| The hard part is over! |
Joe led Pitch 5, which has a hard start but lets up after about 20 feet. Although you might think that pulling the mini roof (see photo below) would be one of the harder parts of the pitch it was not. The hardest part was getting to the first bolt. I led Pitch 6, which was mostly a fourth class scramble up a mossy corner to a slab, where it traversed left to a shrub-filled ledge with a small tree.
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| Joe leading Pitch 5 |
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| Just pulled the mini roof |
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| Joe making sure I'm awake |
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| Mossy start to Pitch 6 - jogs left just above the moss |
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| Joe on ledge above Pitch 6 - reading up on what's next |
Joe combined Pitches 7 and 8 into one long pitch, which saved us some time. Combining or "linking" pitches is an important strategy for speedy ascents. The philosophy is simple; minimize the amount of time that you are not moving upward. After both the leader and follower have completed a pitch there is a window of time where no upward progress is being made. During this time the gear needed for the next pitch is transferred to the leader, the rope is made ready so it will feed out clean, and possibly some eating, drinking and route finding discussions take place. This time period can range from as little as a minute for fast climbers to perhaps 10 minutes for slow climbers. For Joe and I a slow turn would be about five minutes. By combining two pitches into one we could save up to five minutes. There is even more time to be gained by minimizing the turn time between each pitch. By cutting four minutes off our turn time for each pitch (five minutes to one minute) we could shave over an hour off our overall time. That's a big deal! It pays to be disciplined during the climb and save lengthy discussions about how good that last pitch was until the climb is over.
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| Joe starting Pitch 7 |
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| Joe making quick work of Pitch 7 |
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| This crack takes good pro |
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| Joe at top of Pitch 8 |
I led Pitch 9, which was fairly sustained but not too difficult. There weren’t a lot of places for pro in the first 20 feet. I was able to place a small cam at the top of the shallow, left facing corner before traversing right to a thin crack. I placed a small alien in the thin crack, which was adequate to protect another committing move to nice hand jam. After that the crack offered good protection for the remainder of the pitch.
Pitch 10 starts at the base of two cracks that are about six feet apart. Joe ascended the crack on the right for 15 to 20 feet and then transitioned to the crack on the left. There are good, reasonable sized holds where he transitioned. It is tempting to continue higher in the right crack because it offers options for pro placement, but the higher you go in the right crack the harder it becomes to transition left. Once in the left crack the climbing was pretty straightforward. The only decision was whether to go under or through the bush in the crack where the crack curves leftward. The pitch ended on a comfortable ledge.
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| Pitch 9 starts at this corner - few options for pro |
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| Looking down Pitch 9 |
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| Joe leading Pitch 10 |
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| Joe nearing the top of Pitch 10 |
Pitch 11 has two options at the beginning. It starts beneath an obvious left facing corner with a beautiful crack in the #3 to #4 cam size range. There is a difficult looking roof at the top of the crack. This crack can be bypassed by traversing right around the corner onto a dirty, moss covered face. The climbing is much easier on the face, perhaps 5.7, but the rock quality isn't stellar. I chose to climb the crack, as any crack climber would.
The crack was really nice; a little larger than fists down low, narrowing to fist size. I used a #4 cam down low and walked it up as high as I could. A #3 cam size protected the rest of the crack. I was able to walk the #3 cam all of the way up to protect the roof, where a committing layback move was necessary to pull the roof. This felt like solid 5.10 to me. The next section of the climb also has a left facing corner with a small roof on top. Deja Vu! This section wasn't quite a hard as the lower section. I think the roof move probably goes at 5.10-. This section took a #3 cam and two #2 cams. I put in a #0.75 cam as well for good measure because there was some chossy rock on the face that you have to negotiate before getting to the roof. After pulling the second roof it still wasn't over. The pitch continued up a crack to a ledge with a reasonable sized pine tree, which serves as the anchor.
The second corner system can be avoided by climbing the unprotected face to the left. I'm guessing that this section goes at 5.8 because that's what Pitch 11 is rated on Mountain Project. However, I just couldn't pass up a good crack with a roof on top! Taking the path we did added another solid, well protected 5.10 pitch to the climb.
A word of warning about gear for this pitch; the beta on Mountain Project recommends taking only one #3 and one #4 cam for the climb. If you climb the cracks you're probably going to want more gear in that size range. I was able to get by with two #3 cams and one #4 cam. I would have used more #3 cams if I had them.
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| Small plane flying below us |
Joe led Pitch 12, which was the first pitch I thought qualified as being truly chossy. It followed a moss covered ramp left of the pine tree, then ascended a loose, chossy corner. The corner took good pro and by following standard Sedona climbing protocol (i.e., pull down, not out on holds) we managed just fine.
Pitch 13 starts off with an exciting traverse right, protected by a bolt, to an exposed arete. I don't have a photo of Joe or myself climbing this pitch but managed to find one on the internet to show the exposure. It was pretty awesome! I was tempted to stay low at the start to avoid a committing move or two before clipping the bolt. However, I found that stepping up about a foot allows access to great holds and quicker movement through the crux section. It's a head game but once you commit to the move it's not that bad. Once on the arete a thin crack appears. I was able to get a small piece of pro in this crack (a blue alien I think) to protect a few moves on thin holds. The climbing became easier as I moved higher and another crack to the left provided options for good pro. This crack became dirty and brushy toward the top, forcing me to move right to the run out face. The rock quality on the face didn't inspire a lot of confidence but it worked out just fine. I climbed with care, testing each hold while attempting to stay light on my feet and hands. Think about climbing like a cat with socks on its feet. Sure, go ahead and look it up on YouTube if you must. This pitch topped out on a loose ledge at a fixed anchor below an obvious corner.
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| Pitch 13 airy traverse - photo by Tim Wolfe |
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| Looking down Pitch 13 |
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| Joe after turning the arete on Pitch 13 |
Pitch 14 ascends a loose corner to a ledge with a pine tree. Although the rock quality wasn't great, being in a corner made it tolerable. Joe was able to stem most of the way up the corner and there were plenty of options for pro placement. As I recall, this pitch had the worst rock quality on the climb. There were good sized chunks of rock that could pull off if you weren't careful. Again, it was reminiscent of Sedona climbing so we weren't put off by it.
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| Joe leading Pitch 14 |
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| Close up of Pitch 14 |
The remainder of the climb was more scrambling than climbing. We combined the next three pitches into two. I didn't see any obvious path for Pitch 15 so I scrambled up almost directly above the pine tree and moved left, taking the path of least resistance. There were loose blocks all over the place so I took care not to knock anything off or to allow the rope to get snagged. I put in only one or two pieces to minimize rope drag, but the climbing was easy fifth class with some fourth class mixed in so pro wasn't really necessary. Rope drag began to get annoying so I found a tree to tie in to and brought Joe up. I had combined pitches 15 and 16, I guess. We stayed roped up for the last pitch but didn’t really need to. Joe walked and scrambled up the last hundred feet or so. Only a couple of fifth class moves (maybe 5.7) were needed to gain the summit. I followed Joe up to the summit, where we celebrated with our standard high five.
We did it! We reached the summit at approximately 4:40 pm, which was about 9.5 hours after we started climbing. It was a respectable time, about 34 minutes per pitch, but not as fast as I had hoped. On a long climb like this I like to have mini goals along the way to keep me motivated when I get tired and to prevent a loss of focus, which can lead to an epic. The good news was we still had almost two hours before sunset. I figured that should be enough time to get through the most difficult part of the descent before darkness was upon us.
We spent about 20 minutes at the summit enjoying the views while refueling and hydrating. I was glad that we had two liters of water each. Even if we got stuck and had to bivvy overnight we'd have enough water to get by.
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| Brian & Joe at summit |
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| Foot prep for the hike out |
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| US Geological Survey marker - proof we were there |
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| Brian's gourmet sandwich |
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| This is what 12 hours in a pack will do to a PBJ sandwich |
We started the descent at 5 pm. The descriptions that I studied had a lot of good information but, as with most descriptions, it's hard to capture all of the details. The landmarks described were few and far between. The first major landmark described was a white sandstone ridge, which lies far to the west (see photo). This was our target. When you look at the photo you may think "that looks like a long way over there." Believe me, it is.
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| View of descent looking west from summit |
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| Tim Wolfe's beta photo from Mountain Project |
We followed white sandstone slabs in a westerly direction from the summit. In the first 10 minutes or so we noticed a gully starting to form on our left with a few large pine trees in it. By angling to our left (southward) we were able to cross this gully before it became too deep. We descended some slightly steeper sandstone slabs to get into it and aimed for some small pine trees on the top of the other side that looked easy to reach. It was no more than a third class scramble to get out of the gully. If you go down this gully too far a steep headwall will prevent you from crossing.
I will add a cautionary note here. There are multiple drainage systems that can lure you down too early. If you go down the wrong gully you will either cliff out or have to put forth a major effort, including down-climbing and multiple rappels, to get down. I had this experience the first time I climbed Woman of Mountain Dreams and don't wish to repeat it. It was a lot of work and took us five hours to get off the mountain. I'm all for a good adventure with a little spice here and there but there's no sense in making it harder than it needs to be.
Once on the other side of the gully we continued in a westerly direction, descending white sandstone slabs for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably closer to an hour. As we got closer to the ridge we were aiming for we could see a drainage that would need to be crossed to get there. It was a relatively gentle descent but there were plenty of loose rocks to keep us on our toes. We still weren't quite sure if this was the correct path but little clues started to pop up. As we started up the west side of the drainage we noticed some limestone scree that was mentioned in the description that I had. Turning in a northerly direction, we followed a faint game trail which took the path of least resistance to the top of the ridge.
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| Descending into drainage before the ridge (from east) |
As we continued northward along the ridge it began to angle downward toward another gully with some pine trees. Large red sandstone rocks came into view and we tried to match them up with the photo we had in our descent description. It didn't quite match but the photo was taken from a different angle so we figured we were on track. From this point on the descent description made sense and was fairly straightforward. "Follow the ridge further back and drop into the big Ponderosa pine stand. At the Ponderosa stand descend to the right into a small drainage. After a few minutes you will come into an open section with a huge red tower that has a rock balanced on top. Traverse around the right side of the tower then back left onto the steep water worn multi-colored sandstone slabs."
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| Photo by Tim Wolfe |
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| Hiking down on west side of red tower with balanced rock |
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| Red tower with balanced rock and multi-colored slabs below |
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| Looking south up the gully |
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| Looking north down the gully to Oak Creek |
The sun dropped below the mountains as we descended the water-worn slabs. They were polished in a few areas, causing us to move slowly down the steep parts to avoid slipping. The last thing we needed was for someone to fall and get hurt. Neither of us had the energy to carry the other out.
We followed the drainage for another 20 minutes or so, passing a few small pools of water along the way. There were a few steep areas that we were able to negotiate by down-climbing. One steep drop had a fixed rope that we descended hand over hand for about 15 feet. This put us into Oak Creek proper. We were able to hike the rest of the way down Oak Creek, with some minor down-climbing here and there, without rappelling. That's right, we didn't have to rappel once on the hike out. That was a time-saver.
Daylight turned to dusk as we continued down the sand and gravel covered bottom of Oak Creek, negotiating our way over, under and around large boulders strewn along the creek bottom. Progress was relatively slow, albeit mentally engaging. This sort of rock hopping and scrambling takes quite a bit of energy and as time wore on we began to feel the effects. It was really hard on our feet with our light approach shoes. A brief stop to rest and refuel with some Cliff shot blocks gave us a much needed boost. Those shot blocks, which are basically sugar. caffeine and electrolytes suspended in gel, are amazing!
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| Tarantula in Oak Creek - out for an evening stroll |
We spotted a faint trail leading out of Oak Creek as the last bit of dusk gave way to darkness. The lights of Las Vegas and the moon provided adequate light for us to follow this trail, which grew wider as we continued on. In a few minutes we could make out the dark shadow that was the Wilson Pimple, a key landmark on the way back marking the jeep road that leads to the trailhead. Reaching the road, it was now just a casual downhill stroll back to the trailhead. Or so we thought.
