Standing in the meadow below the SE Face of Warbonnet, staring up at Black Elk and Brown Cow, we got interested in a sweeping roof on the lower right side of the wall that led into what looked like a system of cracks and corners on the nose of the E Buttress. So naturally, we decided to investigate...

Approach as for Black Elk from the boulder field.  As you walk along the base of the blocky ledges below the main face, keep an eye out for an obvious grassy/sandy 3rd and 4th class gully leading up and right.  Scramble this gully to its end.  Pitch 1 begins at the top of the gully below the obvious curving roof of pitch 2.

Pitch 1: Climb the low angle face and flakes to a corner that leads to a ledge below the curving R-facing corner.  5.9+, 140'

Pitch 2: Climb the corner and roof past an ancient fixed pin.  Leaving the roof, follow an excellent finger crack that leads up and right to a ramp and grassy ledge.  5.10, 190'

Pitch 3: Climb straight up from the right side of the grassy ledge following seams that connect two roofs.  Head left out the upper roof.  Move past a slot to gain a right angling ramp and crack system. Belay off the ramp to avoid an uncomfortable belay. 5.10+, 90'

Pitch 4: Head up to the next roof.  Work your way out and left, and pull the lip to a balancy tips crack in a corner. Take the corner until it intersects a right trending ramp.  Bypass the ramp by making an airy move left  into the next left facing corner system.  Take this second corner system to a grassy ledge.  5.11-, 110'

Pitch 5: Take the blocky corner on the right through 5.8 terrain that leads to a hand crack.  Follow the hand crack up and then trend left, aiming for a grassy alcove below the upper-left of two parallel, right angling crack systems.  5.8, 160'

Pitch 6: Climb a thin flake/seam and then pull left into the fantastic hands and finger corner. Follow the crack system for 100' to a large ledge.  5.10, 110'

Pitch 7: Step left from the belay around a corner and wide ramp towards a steep chimney/slot. Traverse in (sweet!) and stem, jam, and thrutch your way up to the bottom of an innocuous looking overhanging handcrack. Pull the bulge and scramble up and left to belay below a gorgeous white R-facing corner. 5.10+, 160'

Pitch 8: Fire the steep, thin, white corner for 60'. Above the corner head up easier ground to belay on 4th class ledges. 5.11, 190'

From the top of pitch 8, scramble fun 4th class terrain to the summit.

Alternate Finish: From the top of pitch 8, skip the summit for now and scramble/downclimb the large loose gully behind the top-out of Who's On First. Aim for a chimney system at the base of a prominent semi-independent tower with a large curving off-width up the face. Scramble the chimney and then step up into a spectacular splitter hand crack to corner. Giggle for 200' as you climb one of the most fun 5.9 pitches you'll ever climb in the mountains. From the ledge on top, climb to the airy tower summit (f'ing cool) and then climb one more pitch along the crest to regain the main summit ridge of Warbonnet.

Side note: We found evidence of a previous ascent on pitch 1 and up to the curving roof on pitch 2 (fixed pin), but did not find any sign of passage above the curving roof.  If anyone has information of previous passage on or near this route, please leave a comment so we can properly credit those before us.

Who's On First

Northeast Face, Left

feather buttress

Drop of a hat...

The Plume: Broken Arrow, NE Face

Col du Ane

our route

Black Elk

Weather Or Not...

Blue Bonnet

Brown Cow

Roof of Tears

Golden Eagle Feathers

Black Elk was the "hardest route in the Cirque" for over 20 years. While technically not in the Cirque (see location below), it is one of the best routes in this area of the Winds. (Please note that the pitch lengths are estimates from memory and if anyone has better estimates, please post them in comments.)

P1 Scramble up ledges from the left side of the southeast face. Stay low when you have the option. The route finding for the very beginning of the roped climbing was a bit difficult. I actually tried climbing up too early in the ledge traverse and got completely hosed on some unprotected 5.11 slab that I had to retreat from. Rope up just before an orange colored section of rock (make sure you go far enough to the climber's right) and climb this to a large ledge (5.8 and not well protected). Next go left up a slabby right facing corner/ramp. Belay at the base of a very long, vertical, right facing corner. 5.8, 200+ feet, depending on where you rope up on the slabs. We had to simulclimb a bit to set up a proper belay.

P2 Climb the pretty right facing corner passing some small overlaps on fingers and hands and lay backing. Belay at a small stance. 5.10-, 110 feet. We didn't find the most comfortable belay spot here, it was semi-hanging.

P3 Keep going up the right facing corner up an incredible hand crack, awesome pitch. Belay at the top on a pillar/ledge that has a bolt on its right side. It's actually better to belay on the left side of this ledge as the next pitch starts from there. 5.10, 100 feet. P2 and P3 can be combined with a 70 meter rope.

P4 Climb up a gorgeous splitter hand crack that eventually turns into a small right facing corner. Pass a roof on hands, then one on fists and lay backing to a stance just above. Then it's just some 5.11 off fists for about 15-20 feet. Belay above this wide section in a pod or just above in a finger crack, depending on what size of gear you have left. Either way it's not a very comfy belay. 5.11a and 165 feet.

P5 Another great pitch. Climb a splitter hand and finger crack, making a fun crack switch right at about 40 feet to gain a right angling hand crack. Belay at the right side of a ledge at a finger crack. 5.10 and 150 feet.

P6 Make a difficult move off the belay to a right facing wall with a discontinuous finger crack. Climb under a huge chockstone on its left side and belay just past it. 5.9, 160 feet.

P7 Two options here. Either climb a right facing dihedral with bad gear (I got 1 good piece in 70 feet) and lots of vegetation to another ledge. Alternately there is a chimney/offwidth to the right of this. We did not do this option but it is described in comments below. IT seems like this second option is the preferred one, at least from the consensus of other MP users. 5.10, 70 feet for option one.

P8 Climb to the right of largish chockstone and continue up a fun gully/chimney with lots of options. 5.8, 180 feet.

From here scramble up ledges about 300 feet with some easy 5th class moves to the top.

A nice route on the imposing NE face of Warbonnet.  Beware of loose rock, both on the approach and on the route itself.  The views of the Cirque from the summit are spectacular.

this route up the north face is black elk's brother.  just as hard (i thought) and the feather crest pitch at the top...wow!

This is the line we initially had our eye on when we climbed what we called "Weather Or Not", but instead, I just had to climb that OW corner first...  The 3rd pitch took some cleaning and was still a bit grungy when it was free'd but it should clean up fairly well - that's the reason I only gave the line 2 stars.  The pitches above are great, and the exposure is even better - with nice crack climbing and some cool knobs on the face that come at just the right time.

P-1 & 2  Same as for "Weather Or Not"

P-3  Climb up and left over some flakes (sling for pro) and into a long crack/corner (hand sized cam deep in flake, or # 5 camelot).  This crack varies in size and quality and requires a lot of different techniques.  Belay on the high ledge just below the roof on the right wall, or split it into two pitches.  5.10A (A is for awkward) 190'

P-4  This pitch starts the headwall cracks.   Pull the small roof on some long moves past gear and a bolt, via handrail/seam to a thin crack.  Climb the crack and face with cool knobs past plenty of small wires and small cams to a belay out right on a small ledge (#2-#4 camelots).   5.11b/c  60'

Note: Could be combined into the following pitch but that is not recommended.  If you do, make certain your follower is solid at the crux roof start, as they will be well out of sight about 200' below.

P-5  Move back left to the crack/flake and climb past a couple of small but hollow features (one is mandatory to stand on) and into easier ground.  Continue up seams and cracks to obvious ledge and belay.  This is a really nice pitch that we regretfully did not clean the loose flake (low on pitch) from because we were in onsight mode.  5.10  140'

Note:  We also did a variation finish out right of the P-5 belay that climbs past a bolt (10+) and into a corner leading to the end of the headwall pitch of "Weather Or Not" and the 3 nut rap anchor.

P-6  Climb the easy crack and face to the anchor at the end of "Weather Or Not".  5.6  180'

The East Face of the Plume above Jackass Pass. The steep monolith's only weakness is an overhanging corner on it's left side. This is the crux pitch. A big 40 meter pitch, even with two no hands stances and 14 pieces of fixed protection. The corner is north facing. See topo.

3 pitch - “big wall” in soaring corners directly above true Jackass Pass, col du ane.  Belay up 5.4, "V" corner to reduce rope drag. Overhang with good protection, then beautiful but short finger crack corner onto slab with 8 meter- 5.6 runout or tiny stopper to 2 bolt anchor. Finish with Roof of Tears and Broken Arrow.

this may have been done, but acording to joe kelsey(book author) we were the first??

up the approach to gain the notch between the plume and warbonnet. up left of face, then up into big dihedral with huge chockstone.  follow right wall w/ crack above chockstone. where the dihedral starts to overhang, bust out right, around corner on horzontal crack.  then up easier ground to summit.   it would probably climb free at 5.11, but we were tired, and didn't bring any big gear.  needless to say, bring that big gear!

After finding that a couple of the other lines that we'd been eyeing had already been done, or at least partially, we settled on this one...  and it turned out to be quite an excellent route!  It doesn't climb the main section of Warbonnet, but it's nearly as long as the routes that do because of the lack of required 3rd/4th class scrambling at the start.  Pitch 3 and 5 are as good as any similar style pitch that I've encountered on my fairly limited ascents of El Cap.  I would highly recommend this route!

P-1  This pitch is not the highest quality, but it's not too bad either.  It's the only logical way to gain the wall above.  Climb up some flake systems interspersed with a short face section to a belay below the prominent orange colored short left angling corner.  5.9 ~ 180'

P-2 Climb the left facing/angling hand & fist crack to a short double crack system.  Follow the right one to a ledge and belay.  5.10 ~ 80'

P-3  Climb past flakes and into a fantastic left facing corner ("Drop Of A Hat" diverts left here).  The majority of this pitch is wide and requires at least one #5 camelot size piece to protect (if you walk it along like I did).  The last portion of the corner is not OW and protects with a normal rack.  Good face holds will appear at just the right time...  Belay on sloping ledge.  5.10 ~ 90'

P-4 Climb out right onto boulder and continue up the easy corner to a nice flat ledge in the large corner system.  5.8 ~ 60'

P-5  This is an excellent and exciting pitch!  Climb out left onto the double crack/flake system that splits the headwall.  The flakes are a bit hollow sounding in spots but protect fairly well.  Belay on a small flat ledge. I would have had a perfect onsight of this pitch but I opted to clip into a piece in an attempt to pull off a loose flake.  5.10 ~ 120'

Note:  It is also possible to bail off right at the start of the crux section; this is what we did the first time up due to the scary flake that I couldn't remove.  This variation follows a seam and ends up in the large corner system on another route.  Don't go this way if you wanna continue the route.

P-6.  Climb the excellent groove/dihedral to easier ground and a belay in the grungy ramp (that leads to top) at the rap bolts.  5.8+ ~ 190'

Finish up the chossy ramp system that leads to the  "top" and the standard descent or take the new rap route listed below (better option).

Edit:  We developed a rap route down this thing in Aug '12, making it a great half day outing. However, be advised that the rap route does not follow the lower portion of the climb, only the top 2 pitches - see photo.

From top, rap from bolts to top of P-5 and 3 stainless stoppers.  Rap from here almost 200' down and climbers right to a set of bolts on another (undocumented) route.  From here a shorter rap onto the ledge/chimney feature slightly to climbers left.  One more rap from 2 nuts and 2 chockstones to the ground at 200'.  Adjust your knot over the edge at this last rap anchor.

Start same as for Brown Cow.

P-1 Climb the low angle ramp to a stance below the splitter corner and belay.

P-2 Climb the obvious corner (left) via increasingly larger crack to some interesting moves around the large chockstones and up to a nice ledge and belay.

P-3 Climb the steep and amazing hand crack through the small roof where it turns to hands/thin hands (crux).  Continue up the amazing flake to a short traverse left and a 2 bolt anchor.

Either rap or continue up numerous variations.   The best one would take the upper half (pitch 6,7) of "Weather Or Not".  That would make for a great link-up instead of the easy corner.

This is in my opinion easily one of the best long routes in the area. Climb the obvious line about 100 yards climber's left of Black Elk in 9 or so pitches.

Giant arching Roof above true Jackass Pass, often appears to be weeping and have no finish. Walked under for generations.

3 pitch with big wall ambience in soaring corners and arches.

Pitch 1 above "V" belay has protection difficulties.

Pitches 2 and 3 pitches have excellent protection possibilities.

Original Finish: 5.10c X, is not recommended, way better to clip out the roof!

Start up the first pitch of Brown Cow. Traverse left into bomb-bay chimney by way of exciting 11b slab (high #4 camalot) or sketchy 10c flake and blocks. See topo. A bolt may be a reasonable addition to the slab variation. P6 ends at a prominent gully. From here you can scramble to the top of Warbonnet, traverse off the mountain, continue up the "Tail Feather" headwall, or rappel using Whether or Not anchors. Pitches 7 and 8 could be combined to make a stellar 5.13. P10 is a bolted slab on the arete. Do NOT cross the arete until the last bolt. The first ascent team core shot their rope doing so. Protection is available just after turning the corner. However, another bolt on the arete would be warranted to avoid slicing a rope.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Warbonnet Peak