Ledgy climbing in a shallow dihedral leads to a fantastic left-hand flake before climbing through the small roof with a finger crack through it near the top. Very strenuous and committing moves through the roof crux.    Then, good climbing in another shallow dihedral to the anchors.  

Special Ed

Drift Away

Twisted Feet

Lava Flows

Cholla Backstep

Waiting for the Sun

Open Season

Liquid Skin

Either Or

Unnamed 5.8

Hageemoto

Doc's Dangle

Leave It To Bob

Somebody Loaned Me a Bosch

Festival sin Peliculas

One for the Book

Connected

Toxic Socks

Games

Back to the Creek

Nice

Blind Faith

Fun in the Sun

Jam Time

Bob..it

Re-Connected

Esmerelda

Queso's Delight

Perhaps the best hard climb at Dead Cholla, this climb goes up an aesthetic prow.  Traverse in from the left to start, with some trickery involved to get over to the arete..  Hard, thin, reachy moves comprise the crux.  Near the top, I wound up in the shallow corner to the left, rather than on the face.

 One guidebook gives it 11+, the other one 12-.

The crux is the overhanging thin hands section.

Mindtwisting stemming up an interesting right-facing dihedral with fun moves the whole way.  Sustained in its technical difficulty. Opinions may vary on where the crux is: at the 2nd bolt, or maybe committing moves at the top?  More of a mental puzzle than anything else, but quite fun.

Another quality face and arête route on great rock involving some arête slapping and crimpy edging.  Start at the undercut rock with a bush in the crack on the left. Pull up over the undercut on positive flake edges and face climbing past a horizontal crack for your first piece. More face climbing with thin moves between nice horizontal cracks takes you past a couple of bolts before getting into the crux on the blunt arête.  

  Take time to ponder your route up higher and choose whether to stay just left of the arête, on the arête or just right of the arête or all three.

This crack is a nice-looking line, but ends up being much tricky than expected at its thin crux and dirty up high.  I suspect there was at some point a bolt protecting the crux (says there is one on the route in the books), but it is not there, and is going to be scary to lead as is.  Unfortunately, above the crux, the crack gets wide, dirty, and has many scary-looking wedged blocks in it, though it is an easier section.

Good short route on good stone. The crux is getting past the second bolt.

Reach up to a left leaning finger crack, place a cam, and lieback a burly move (crux) to a decent ledge.  Find gear here, and move up and right on face moves to the first bolt.  Sustained 5.9 face climbing follows the open book above, passing a 2nd bolt, then moving into cracks that progressively widen to small hands size as the difficuly eases.  Watch for loose pebbles just below the topout. 

  Another quality Dead Cholla crack, maybe just a little bit harder than Jam Time.

The crux is a very thin slab move with horrible feet. Cool moves past the crux and fun finger crack to reach the anchors.

A boulder problem off the ground and starting from the crack to the right allows one to reach a great incut ledge and mantle up to the first good rest ledge.  Next, move a little left of the arete, make a tricky move (crux) to reach the next good hold and clip the third bolt (avoid the temptation to reach over to 'Nice' crack to the left).  Continue from here on the right side of the arete using sweet pockets and positive ledges.   Fun moves, but a little contrived, as the more natural line, Nice, is within reach at the hard part.

The easiest route on the entire wall.  The crux is turing the lip.  A small cam will protect the upper section.  Could be climbed all on gear but the rope drag or long slings would make things tough.

Begin in a nice dihedral with decent pro to get you to the first ledge. Step right and head straight up a broken crack system to the anchors on top of the climb just left of Esmerelda.  

  I took the "name" of this in the Foley guide to mean it was 5.8, but would call it significantly easier than that. I thought 5.6, but Hanna following me suggested 5.7, so there you have it.

Sweet bolted overhanging crack/seam on a nice panel.  Above the last bolt, the climb exits to very easy blocky terrain for 15' and a 2-bolt anchor to the left.  Quite similar in style and difficulty to Special Ed.

Face climb past a reachy move by the first bolt.  Follow the bolts angling to the left, onto the less-than vertical face past some good but slightly dirty holds.   Not bad for an all-bolted 5.10 at Dead Cholla.

The crux is the overhanging bouldery start. Great climbing and thin finger jamming to reach the anchor.  

  One of the best routes on the crag.

Start as for Doc's Dangle, with a reachy move by the first bolt.  While Doc's Dangle soon goes left, following the natural line, 'Somebody...' continues straight up, past 2 very close bolts and strange pockets/sidepulls/tiny crimps.  The only problem is that it is so close to the route to its left that it is much easier to clip the bolts and move through the crux using holds shared with that route... so you might as well just climb 'Docs Dangle' instead and spare yourself the dilemma of having to concern yourself with what is "on" and what's "off".  or maybe I was just missing something.

Tough start, great moves! Just barely hand jam a right slanting crack to a small crack above. Good gear all the way.

Found in the Falcon Guide but not the Sharp End. Jam crack to a two bolt anchor.

The crux is stemming past the first two bolts.

Arete and thin face climb on the arete just right of Fun.  Interesting moves and the ever-present question to step around the corner or to stay on the side you're on.

Start just right of Corrido del Norte (#19 in Jackson's Guide).  

  Scramble up loose low angle rock and clip a bolt in an inset corner. Jam the overhanging finger crack (gear) to a ledge. Continue straight up past three more bolts to a two bolt anchor.

Stem your way to the first bolt.  Some may want a cam to protect this, but most will be comfortable as it's less than 5.9 to this bolt.  Intriguing stemming leads up the bleached dihedral above to a 2-bolt anchor.

A straightforward line that is easier than it looks. Makes for a nice warmup for this area. Straightforward climbing with plenty of positive holds and only a couple tricky sections.  

Jam your way up a finger crack to a hand crack through a crux section about 10' up, to more featured/broken crack climbing above and a 2-bolt anchor.   

  Good pro all the way.  5.10 grade is soft compared to 5.10 cracks at White Rock.

Hard move off the starting ledge. Crux is getting past the second bolt. Fun crack climbing leads to the anchor.

A quality arête route. Clip a very well-placed bolt just over the roof at the blocky start before going into the thin, technical crux of the route getting up to, and past, the second bolt.  Then enjoy fun face and arête climbing to the anchor.    The route steepens near the top but the holds are juggy making for some great position and moves.

Surely one of the best and hardest all trad pitches at the crag and perhaps one of the hardest on Taos basalt (at published areas, anyway).  Beautiful thin fingers/tips crack between Blind Faith and Lava Flows.  Tricky and sustained for a ways, it looks to have decent pro with small cams (though I didn't lead it).  Rated 11+ in one book, 12- in the other; I'll put it at 12a as it felt harder than the 11d's I did.  Smaller fingers are going to help on this one.The anchor doesn't have chains and is a bit below the lip.  Be very careful trying to grab these from the top or trying to rig this for a TR (I slung the pillar above to access the bolts).

Lots of sun early as the crag faces East.  Plenty of shade later.  It can get a little chilly on nights in the winter.  Most of the routes have chains at the top which can be reached to set up top ropes.  Many fantastic lines are on this quality wall.  A great mix of splitters and sport climbs as well.  Almost all the routes are in the 10-12 range.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Dead Cholla Wall