 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
April 23 to April 26, 2002 I had been to the Grand Canyon several times over the years but never strayed far from the standard South Kaibab/Bright Angel corridor. The view from the south rim is fabulous, especially on a day when clouds throw long shadows into the canyon. Dominating the view from the south rim is the triangular summit of the Zoroaster Temple just to the right of the Bright Angel fault and is backed by the massive Brahma Temple. I had never thought of climbing anything in the canyon but for some reason ran into an article discussing the ascent of the Zoroaster. It started with a Sierra Club book entitled Adventuring in Arizona, ran through an issue of Arizona Highways of all things, and ended with a topo of the Northeast Arête route in Rock and Ice some years back. Since then I had more or less plotted to accomplish the ascent of the Zoroaster Temple. An exploration of the Clear Creek area with Dee Booth and Dot Reilly some years ago ended up with no new information since I had no real idea where the break in the Red Wall was. The project was attempted several years ago with Jim Curl but got no further than a bad weather report which cancelled the effort. This time was different. For the last three and a half years I had been working at a wireless start-up and in the last several months several events precipitated a sharp "refocusing" of the company's direction. About half of the company was "refocused" right on out of there. I was one of them. My euphoria at the thoughts of being able to hit the road for some extended climbing trips was short lived: I found a new job immediately. I decided that I was going to at least have a few weeks off. One of the potential projects was to go to the Grand Canyon and make a genuine attempt on the Zoroaster Temple. The first problem was to determine if the permit system would allow us to even get close. A few phone calls to the backcountry office were encouraging. It looked like a permit would allow us to camp in the Clear Creek region and then spend a few nights in the Cheyeva region. The weather looked promising. It was not too hot and not too cool. This is a double edged sword: the good weather was good for our attempt but it is also good for everyone else who was interested in backpacking in the canyon. The next step was to round up some companions for the trip. Jim Curl was easy. He had always been interested in this project and had also been "refocused" recently. The conversation with Maxym Runov went something like this: "I think I am going to get laid off soon and with the time off I was thinking of going to the Grand Canyon…" "I want to go." "…and climb the Zoroaster Temple…" "Cool. Even better. What's the Zoroaster Temple?" "…which will require hauling a bunch of water around and climbing six pitches of 5.6 to 5.9..." "Wow! Now I really want to go!" "…which ends in a pitch of 5.9 offwidth." "Whatever."
Hmmm. Maxym was not even remotely dissuaded so maybe I shouldn't try rounding up a lot of people. The conversation with my friend Bojan Silic, whom I climbed the Prow with and was also "refocused" with me at the same company went about the same as the conversation with Maxym. This meant there were four of us, which was about perfect since the strength and the climbing skills of the group were pretty good and four would allow for a good margin of safety. We decided to meet Monday night on April 22. I was going to be in Joshua Tree and would leave there Sunday evening and try and get the permit on Monday April 22. I decided to arrive early at the backcountry office Monday morning. At 7:15 AM I was second in line and feeling confident. Eight AM arrives and the ranger announces that there were twelve holdovers from the previous day so those of us waiting would start with number 13. That meant I was number 14 and my confidence evaporated. The two rangers called out the first twelve numbers. About five failed to show. This was looking better. I finally got to the window and asked for the desired Clear Creek permit plus the two nights in the Cheyeva zone. The Cheyeva zone is easy. There is always room there since there is no water there and only nuts go up into that region. Nothing was available for the Clear Creek zone. I was outraged. The conversation with the ranger a week or two earlier indicated there would be permits open in that region. Now what? The ranger mentioned that there was a site open at the Bright Angel campground at Phantom. It was the last one and the German lady behind me in line was also interested in going to Phantom. I took it. It turned out this is as good, if not better, than spending the first night in the Clear Creek zone. Armed with my permit I headed off to breakfast and a shower.
I spent the rest of the day goofing off. In the early evening Bojan showed up and about 12:30 in the morning Jim and Maxym showed up. This was sort of late and as a consequence we dawdled around Tuesday morning. At the stunning time of 11:35 AM we headed down the South Kaibab Trail. This is one of the most picturesque trails in the world. About 3 PM we all collected at a campsite at Bright Angel Campground near the Phantom Ranch. About 4 PM we decided to pack up our water and climbing gear and hike up the Clear Creek Trail and stash it in the Sumner wash. We took two and one half gallons apiece and chugged up the Clear Creek Trail. There is a small wash just before the Sumner Wash on the Clear Creek Trail and we stashed our water and gear behind a rock and raced back down the trail in order to be in camp by dark. We just made it. It turned out to be a long day and we celebrated with a beer at the Phantom Ranch dining room. I slept solidly and so did everyone else. We got a pretty early start Wednesday morning and headed back up the Clear Creek Trail. We passed our stash of water and gear. Jim, Bojan, and myself decided to shuttle our water and gear to the base of the Red Wall. Maxym chose to lug it all in one pull, which amazed us all. We headed up Sumner wash and stayed to the west and went directly towards the obvious chimney or gap in the Red Wall. There is a faint climbers trail that shows up as soon as the hiking starts to go up hill steeply. This trail got more obvious the closer to the chimney we got. The Red Wall is limestone and has been apparently varnished red since the underlying limestone is the usual gray. The Red Wall is everywhere in the Canyon and is impenetrable in most areas. We chugged our gear up to the base of the chimney and hid from the sun for an hour or so before heading back down to lug up our remaining water and gear. We then shuttled our equipment and water to the top of the chimney. This chimney had been advertised as class four and I suppose it is but it is only in short sections. The bottom section is passed by climbing out to the east (right) on the broken limestone and then traversing back left into the chimney. A short section of class four on the west side (left) got us past a chockstone and the rest of the approximately 200 foot long chimney is loose class three. At the top of the chimney is a very nice flattish section just up to the right. It is a fabulous bivouac spot. It is flat, and the view is tremendous. The long buttress of red sandstone coming from the Zoroaster is right above the bivouac spot and the Red Wall drops off on both sides of the bivouac spot. The long Sumner ridge leads off to the west. At night the lights from the south rim are easily visible in the far distance from the campsite. The weather had been holding but Bojan's weather radio indicated the weather was going to change soon. The next day was climbing day and the prediction was for showers late in the day.
On Thursday we got most of an alpine start. At least it was dark when we fired up our stoves. About 6:30 we were moving up and east along the large cliff of red sandstone. We ran into ducks immediately and followed them fairly closely. The ducks brought us right up to an apparently impenetrable sandstone cliff. It looked like it could be ascended in several difficult ways but Jim noticed the ducks folded back towards the west. Following these ducks brought us to the base of a modestly troublesome chimney. At the top of the chimney was another nice shelf and the ducks headed back to the east towards another chimney. The second chimney was easy class 3 and at the top of the chimney was a long flat ridge heading back towards the summit of the Zoroaster. It is very picturesque. The Brahma Temple is in clear view and the vast Grand Canyon itself drops away to the south. We followed this until we were blocked by another red sandstone cliff. The start to this requires another short chimney and then a long traverse on loose sand and sandstone above a fearsome looking drop off in some areas. This ends with a break in the red sandstone cliff, which is apparently the Supai band. Getting through the break requires two sections of class four. One section has a fixed rope in place but the other section does not. Above this is another section of loose class three red sandstone, which winds towards the main white Coconino sandstone which forms the main summit of the Zoroaster. We headed up through the red sandstone and eventually ended up at the base of the Northeast Arête. The saddle between the Zoroaster and the Brahma Temple is directly below the start. The start of the route is marked by an obvious red scar where the rock has recently fallen away.
After about 30 minutes of goofing off we started up the route. It is not particularly aesthetic looking and the topo is not very accurate. I lead the first pitch and linked the second pitch to the first pitch. Our 50 meter double ropes were plenty long enough to do this. The topo claims a point of aid is needed on the first pitch which none of us saw. This pitch was not any harder than 5.7. The end of the linked first and second pitch ends at a small tree with a bunch of slings and rappel rings. The next pitch is supposed to go up and right. If it does it isn't obvious. We ended up going left somewhat and ended on a nice flat ledge with more slings and rappel rings. This pitch was about 5.7 but was pretty scary. Exiting this shelf is a long pitch in a right leaning crack system which is not any harder than 5.6. This ended at a small alcove. Exiting directly above the alcove was an odd stemming section that turned into a short unprotectable section. This was about 5.7/5.8 and was also scary. It ended at another pile of slings, rappel rings and a bolt. This belay station was just to the left of the obvious overhanging roof above the route. Supposedly there was a two bolt traverse from this belay station to the west. There was only one weird bolt on this traverse which required going straight up past the bolt on 5.6/5.7 face and friction to get to a hole above a chimney and a move to the west to get on a shelf. The hole can be slung with a long sling. Bring a skinny carabiner or an old style oval without the tab, which identifies the gate opening to clip the bolt. This brought us to another nice shelf just to the right or west of the overhanging roof. This is where the final offwidth pitch is. It is about 5.9 in difficulty and we all thrashed on it except for Jim. The route descriptions indicate a #5 Camalot would be useful but it was not even close to being necessary. A #4 was useful. The offwidth section is fairly short and a hand or fist jam is available at the back of the offwidth. This ends on a sloping loose area. This is the end of the technical climbing but is not the summit. We stashed our ropes and gear and headed for the summit block. The summit block area is more limestone sitting on top of the white Coconino sandstone. There is a huge chimney on the east side of this block and that allows easy access to the very top of the Zoroaster. We climbed this and spent the next 30 minutes or so being amazed by the remoteness of the location and the views of the canyon. It was just amazing and I found it hard to leave. Near the south edge of the summit limestone we found a piece of pipe with a summit register of sorts. If the summit register was to be believed we were the second party on the summit in the year 2002.
We down climbed the limestone chimney and headed back across the white sandstone to the rappel station. We rappelled the route and in two hours or so we all ended up at the base of the route. There are rappel rings and slings at all the stations and they all looked to be in pretty good shape as of the date of our trip. Fifty meter ropes will allow you to rappel all the way to the deck on the next to the last rappel avoiding the supposed last rappel from the small tree which is just thirty feet up above the red scar. We headed back down the loose sandstone and rappelled the fourth class sections. As we scooted across the sloping traverse it started to shower slightly. This was apparently the predicted late day showers. They were very light and did not last very long. We retraced our route, pausing only to take pictures, and returned to our bivouac site about an hour before sunset. Our plan was to pack up our camp and return to the Clear Creek trail where we had stashed about two liters of water apiece. We were too tired and the hour was getting late. We all had a liter and half apiece left over so the option of staying another night in our bivouac spot was easy to choose. The winds came up that night as the weather front moved through.
We slept in somewhat on Friday morning, packed up our gear, and headed back down the chimney in the Red Wall. The fourth class sections were bypassed with two rappels and in short order we were back in the Sumner Wash. We headed back to our stash of water near the Clear Creek trail and then headed back down to the Phantom Ranch. We took a short rest at the Phantom Ranch and then headed back up the Bright Angel Trail. It was very hot near the river and I was thankful for the breeze blowing down the Bright Angel fault. The hike out was uneventful and I pulled to the top near the Bright Angel Lodge at about 7 PM after stopping for some last minute pictures. I was greeted at the top by a stiff breeze and snow flurries! I headed back toward the backcountry parking lot and was not feeling too happy about the thoughts of spending another night in the Mather campground in the cold. As I was throwing my pack into my 4Runner, Maxym, Bojan and Jim pulled up and announced that they had rented a motel room! That was good news. The next day Bojan, Jim and Maxym headed for home and I started meandering around Arizona checking out the climbing areas.
This was a fabulous trip. It was a big treat to climb something in the Grand Canyon and get off the beaten path followed by everyone else. We just made it in terms of getting a permit and we just managed to fit the trip into a reasonable weather window. Thanks to Jim Curl, Bojan Silic, and Maxym Runov for sharing my enthusiasm for this project. Some Statistics: First day: Hike down 5000 feet in 7.1 miles. Hike up 1500 feet in 3.5 miles to Sumner Wash and then hike back 3.5 miles and back down 1500 feet. Total mileage is about 14 miles. Total elevation lost is about 6500 feet and total elevation gained is 1500 feet. Second day: Hike up 3000 feet in about 4.7miles (to the top of the Red Wall). Hike back down 1500 feet in 1.2 miles and back up 1500 feet in 1.2 miles. Total mileage is 7.1 miles. Total elevation gained is 4500 feet and total elevation lost is 1500 feet. Third day: This is climbing day and the total mileage is about 1.5 miles in to the base and about 1.5 miles to return. The total elevation gained is about 2000 feet and the total elevation lost is about 2000 feet. Fourth day: This is hike out day. Drop 3000 feet in about 4.7 miles to the Phantom Ranch. Sit on the front steps of the Phantom Ranch panting in the heat. Hike 9.5 miles back up the Bright Angel Trail gaining about 4800 feet. Totals: About 38.2 miles of hiking, 13000 feet of elevation lost and 12800 feet of elevation gained. The elevation difference is because the trailhead for the South Kaibab Trail is about 200 feet higher than the trailhead for the Bright Angel Trail. Logistics:
There are three main logistics problems associated with climbing the Zoroaster Temple. The first is there is no water available beyond the Phantom Ranch which is at the bottom of the Grand canyon. This means containers are needed to carry water up from the Phantom Ranch and the time and effort must be allocated to move his water up to the camping area. The second problem is the weather. The temperature ranges for this project are amazingly large. The temperature at Mather campground the night I drove in from Joshua Tree was 29 degrees F. The temperature at the Colorado River when we started hiking up about 1 PM on Friday was over 90 degrees F. That is a huge variation. The best time for this project is in the spring or the fall. Fast guys could do this in the winter but the days are shorter. The last logistic problem is the Grand Canyon permit system. The Grand Canyon is very popular and the best climbing season is also the most popular backpacking season. For the water problem you will need to understand your own needs for water in a hot or warm environment. We allowed about a gallon a day and the extra stash at the Sumner Wash was overkill but that is only because we expected to use it for our last night of camping. I was slightly dehydrated and drank most of my water. The other extreme was Maxym who seemed to be able to cruise on considerably less. Keep in mind that the only water available will be what you bring up from Phantom Ranch. Supposedly there are pools below Sumner Wash that may contain water in the spring and fall. This year was a dry year and we saw no sign of water anywhere near Sumner Wash. We think we saw wet sand in a wash just at the top of the Clear Creek Trail as it broke onto the Tonto Plateau. Nobody was interested in climbing down to check it out and confirm this but the conclusion remains: water is a problem.
For the permit system the best solution is to get a permit in advance. The Grand Canyon permit system is user unfriendly. They charge you for the permit and then five dollars per night per person. If you plan to go in a time frame sooner than a few weeks then reserved permits are not available and you must go and get a first come first served permit. Don't count on going the day you arrive or even the next day. I consider myself lucky that we were able to go as early as we could. Our original plan was to get a permit for Clear Creek the first night, the Cheyeva zone (top of the Red Wall) the second night, and back in the Clear Creek zone the third night. It didn't work out that way. If you choose to camp in the Clear creek zone the first night you will have to move all your gear and water up to the Clear Creek zone the first day. I think that the Bright Angel Campground for the first night is a better option. The second night in the Cheyeva zone is easy. There is always room. The third night would ideally be back down in the Clear Creek zone but this requires a fast day when climbing so that there is time to get back down into the Clear Creek zone. As it turns out, there is enough time to get all the way from the Cheyeva zone back up the Bright Angel Trail to the south rim in a day even if the rangers find this somewhat unbelievable. The facilities in Grand Canyon village are fairly extensive. Don't expect a fully equipped rock climbing store like the one in Yosemite, but there is a fairly complete selection of back packing supplies which includes a complete selection of the various gas canisters, alcohol, and white gas. The backcountry office is now next to the railroad tracks in a building designed to look like an old railway station. There is a big parking lot here. A shuttle is available to bring you to the South Kaibab Trailhead. There used to be parking allowed at this trailhead but it has been removed. It is recommended to go into the Canyon on the South Kaibab Trail since it is shorter than the Bright Angel and much more picturesque. However you hike in it is recommended to hike out on the Bright Angel Trail since there is water available at three places and the parking lot next to the backcountry office is within easy walking distance of the end point of the Bright Angel Trailhead. This also removes the problem of having to wait for a shuttle. For early risers an express shuttle goes directly from the backcountry office to the South Kaibab Trailhead, however, the "milk run" works well enough. There are numerous motels at the South Rim and very good shower and laundry facilities for campers.
For a rack we brought a 50 meter double rope system, a selection of stoppers up to about .5 inches, one each green, yellow, and red alien, .75, 1, 2, 3 and 4 Camalots, a selection of slings and a few quickdraws, and two tabless old style ovals. The number 1 and 2 Camalots were doubled. We brought a #5 Camalot but it proved to be unnecessary. The double rope system or an extra rope is required for the rappels. Finally, there are a few other objective dangers in the Canyon. The first is the potentially lethal heat and water combination that has already been discussed. The second is the potential for an encounter with a potentially lethal critter. While most climbers are familiar with rattlesnakes, there also is the potential for an encounter with scorpions. These are apparently much more poisonous than the scorpions running around the Owens Valley. References:
Grand Canyon Backountry Office direct telephone line: (928) 638-7875 Monday through Friday 1 PM to 5 PM. Remember that Arizona is on Mountain Standard Time but does not go on daylight savings time so during the period when California is on daylight savings time the time will be the same in Arizona. Rock Climbing Arizona, Stewart M. Green, Falcon Publishing, 1999. This will likely be the most accessible reference. The route description is fair and the there is a topo but the topo is not very accurate. Zoroaster Temple, Robert H. Miller, Rock and Ice Classic, Rock and Ice #64. Year unknown. This is a brief description which also has a topo. This topo is different than the one in Rock Climbing Arizona but is not any more accurate. Adventuring in Arizona, John Annerino, Sierra Club Travel Guide to the Grand Canyon State, 1991. This has some word descriptions of the routes on the Zoroaster but no topo. Interesting since it describes more history in detail. Rock Climbing in the Grand Canyon, Bob Kerry, Arizona Highways, February 1994. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
