Tom Grundy's Granite Mountain Climbing Page
In the fall Dawn and I planned to head down to Granite Mountain to climb. It took a while for a synchrony of both of us being able to go and a decent weather forecast. Finally on Sunday October 24th, we headed down. The drive was a bit longer than ideal for a day trip, but we made it. The approach was long but uneventful except for 3 tarantulas we saw cruising along. Then we had to leave the trail - first we did this too early, but then gave up with the spiky bushwhacking and headed back to the trail. We got on the climber's trail up higher, but lost that a few times (or took variations) on the way up to the crag.
view of Granite Mountain from the approach
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Tarantula cruising along
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Hostile (but tasty) flora along the path
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we went up the dihedral about 2/3 of the way to the right
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There were a lot of climbers and dogs there, but we managed to get on what we wanted with almost no waiting. We went up some variation of "Classic", although almost every pitch seemed to be on something else. First Dawn led up "Crack Lover's Variation", then I did a pitch of "Slammer Jammer" then Dawn did a pitch of what others said was "Classic", but it didn't match our old description. Then I traversed out to the end of the flying buttress and back and then headed up "Beaver Cleaver" to the top.
Dawn at the top of pitch 3 (from out on the flying buttress)
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Dawn at the top of pitch 3 as viewed from above
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There we had a fat pill to celebrate before rapping back down. The first rap may or may not have been over 30 M. In any case it was a close thing and we did some single rope rapping rope tricks to get down. The next 2 were no problem. Then we packed up and headed back (stopping to pick some prickly pear fruit) to get out of the parking before they closed the gate and made the long drive back to Flagstaff.
team orange helmet with visors enjoys a summit fat pill
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