Heart of the Desert is a quality thin hands to fists crack in a left facing dihedral on relatively good rock.  The cruxes are at two wide pods roughly one-third and two-thirds of the way up the climb.  Don't miss several stemming rests and a knee-cam no hands rest in one of the pods.

To get there, park at the Courthouse Parking area, walk across the street to the trail and look left down Park Avenue.  On the left-hand wall, about a quarter mile away, you can make out the obvious dihedral of Heart of the Desert.

Heart of the Desert

Tilting at Windmills

Candelabrum-Hall of Flame

Cinnamon Rose

Sandbag

Weapons of Love

Red Zinger

Another Zinger

Climb Sand Bag to access the huge ledge that crosses Park Avenue East.  Two easy traversing pitches place you at the belay below the base of the route.  Thin hands are the order of the day for 140 feet to the anchors.

This climb is located just out of the parking lot on the left. It goes to the top of the formation. It has a very short approach. The crux is the first 20 some feet,... maybe the first 3 placements, which is a shame, because doing dicey aid right off the ground can be dangerous. You have to do something with these sort of blow out holes;....I used those funky-looking big-ol'pika hooks...(toucans, I believe they are called...).....they look wierd but they worked;...I would imagine regular hooks would be too small.....even though the Pika hooks worked;...I was scared non-the-less. (I borrowed them from Dana;..I had never used them before...) I suppose you could just climb the 5.9 Cinnamon Rose, which goes to the same belay, and then do the rest of the Tilting at Windmills......but then, you wouldn't really be doing "the route", would you? The rest of the climb seemed fun and easy. we rapped off to the left, I believe. I did this climb with Dana Adler, in March of 1997. Anyone else do this climb, and have more suggestions of how to do that funky start?

This begins on the bench of Dewey Bridge Sandstone, at the far left-side of the West Face. The anchors can be seen from below.

Climbs a sandy crack just left of the parking lot at the top of Park Ave.

The route is located at the very north east end of the south wall of Park Avenue. Park over by the organ and hike up to it via the Park avenue trail and then a ridge of harder rock above. Heart of the Desert is located on the same buttress but about 100 yds further to the west.

The route has a burley start move, then it eases off. By and large its wide hands to OW, but the OW is relatively easy as its low angle.

Both anchors on the route were added after the first ascent. According to Bjornstads book, the FA was done to the ledge above. However, the rock was so soft up there it would not hold an anchor. Over time, climbers added an anchor down lower in the better rock and this has been used for years. An even lower anchor exists below this one and before the widest part of the crack. When I replaced the anchors, I replaced both. The logic being that people would eventually put in another one down low and then we would still have a tat anchor uglifying the cliff (What the Park does not want).

If you want to do the original line, go to the ledge.

This route ascends finger cracks to hand cracks up a corner and past some loose rock to a ledge (5.8), all of which is pretty straightforward. There is an anchor far back on this ledge if you decide that this is enough for you.

If not, step back left into a funky OW/lieback where you will be glad to have a #5 & #6 C4, which from the ground it doesn't look like you do. Part of it gets amazingly tricky with how your legs get forced out. Wear long sleeves on both of your arms for this part if you don't want rock rash. Be ready for 4' of intense struggle.

After this, an optional but recommended #4 C4 protects an undercling before you launch off into an ever-funkier, ever-thinning crack that gives this route a 5.9+ (teehee) rating. The crack is flaring & irregular off-fingers to tips and beyond, with some face features to 'help out' - but the rock weeps sand and is soft. I broke off some decent sized edges with my feet as I kicked and slipped to recovery, so you should have fewer teasers in the way now. The crack pinches down to #0.2 cams for the last 6 ft or so in soft rock where the only viable moves are steep face climbing on friable rock. Cam failure here could result in a potential ledge hit or two, and I did see the rock crush and umbrella my #0.2s under causal testing before I shoved them in deeper.

The best part about the route is that the anchors on top are good. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Shimmy up until you feel like placing the #6 C4. A short while later, sling a less-than-inspiring chockstone and take on off up the wide. A #2 C4 can be placed shortly after in another chockstone flare, but then you have a ways on the crux where you have to choose between breathing and moving up vs. staying plugged in. Run it out to a nice sling on chockstones in a chimney after you merge with Cinammon Rose. Either a #0.3 or a #0.75 can protect the final chockstone move to the anchors. I recommend against tunneling deeper in the chimney for this as the rope drags across the chockstone in a nasty way.

Description

Protection

Routes in Park Avenue