Really fun route that is perfect for a casual outing in Sedona. The route climbs mostly at 5.8 and only has a 10 foot section of 5.10 on the first pitch. It is quite easy to pull through this section using 1 or 2 black diamond red c3's to keep the grade at 5.8 if desired . If not the 5.10 move is fun and well protected. The climb stops just a few feet short of the top of the tower. The FA was done all the way to the top but the rock quality at the top significantly decreased so the anchors were placed below the summit. It is possible to climb up to the top and then down climb back to the third belay without much issue if desired. 

  Decent    The decent requires to ropes. From the third belay rap back down to the 1 and to the ground from the first.

Mrs. Robinson

Gillotine (right)

Henchman

Tweaker

Dark Ages

Gillotine (left)

Excalibur

South Chimney

Jester

Transylvania Trip

The North Face Route

Royalty

Gargoyle

Mid-Evil Times

Tweaker is a bolted seam/dihedral with easy access and sustained psychological climbing from bottom to top. This route carries a dash of Sedona spice in terms of rock quality. Visiting sport climbers beware.

 Burly boulder problem off the ground, then a long stretch of adventurous crimping and stemming followed by some airy face climbing on textured rock.

Pitch 1 (5.9, 90'): Layback and jam thin cracks and creaky hanging flakes up to the big ledge. Two-bolt belay.

Pitch 2 (5.8, 60'): Climb past stacked chockstones into a cool offwidth, pulling into a gorgeous crack that goes hands to fists. Place the #4 and step left to an airy ledge with two-bolt chain anchor.

 Unrope and scramble 4th/5th-class to the summit if desired.

Descent: Rappel the route.

Henchman is a short steep offwidth with two cruxes in its 40 feet of hard climbing.

Pitch 1 (5.10+, 40 feet): Grunt up the flared fists 20 feet to a stance, face climb past a freaky detached flake to another stance and then leavittate through the steep fives finish. 

The neat thing about this route is that, after you set your belay on the ledge, you can actually shimmy down the back of the chimney (where it's widest) and retrieve your cam(s) from the final section! Thus saving the rope from getting pinched in the cam lobes.

Pitch 2 (5.8, 40 feet): Darn, the "splitter" above the midway ledge is nothing more than a knifeblade seam. Step right and finish on the chimney as for Jester. Rappel 80 feet from the two-bolt chain anchor.

This offwidth crack has a number of burly heaves including some blue-collar action down low and a crux bulge on hand-fist stacks up high.

 Rap from two-bolt chain anchor. Or proceed to the summit via easy 5th-class, if desired.

Pitch 1 (5.8, 60'): Ramble up a short junky chimney to a small ledge. Layback a solid varnished crack into a dirty gully and slog up to a nice belay ledge with two-bolt anchor.

Pitch 2 (5.8, 60'): Same as the original Gillotine. Climb past stacked chockstones into a cool offwidth, pulling into a gorgeous crack that goes hands to fists. Place the #4 and step left to an airy ledge with two-bolt chain anchor.

 Unrope and scramble 4th/5th-class to the summit if desired.

Descent: Rappel the route. I believe the second rap goes down Gillotine (right) but not 100% sure.

Excalibur is the brutal wide crack splitting the middle of the central south face, glaringly obvious from the Village of Oak Creek.Jam the crack through a variety of sizes (mostly wide) and negotiate a pair of bizarre roofs. There is a bolt at the second roof. An optional 5-7" cam protects the final 5.6 move right below the chains. Good belay ledge.To get down: Rappel 120 feet with two 60m ropes or one 70m rope.To continue on to the summit: Scramble up and right past the large tree to the southeast edge of the formation (near the top of Royalty). From the Royalty anchor, pivot back west and scramble up the ridge, encountering a short 5.6 crack somewhere along the way.

This is the easiest way to the top of South Castle Tower. Unfortunately it's a bit of a booby-trap death-route due to the fact that the chimney is filled with, choked by, and flanked by gigantic loose blocks. Not recommended. Here documented for reference and so that nobody gets suckered into it.

Jester is a fun pitch broken by a big ledge into two parts: an overhanging splitter and a runout chimney.An overhanging thin-hands splitter feeds into the corner, followed by a crux layback to the big midway ledge. Wiggle up a fun easy chimney (no pro for the first half) past a roof/cap to the two-bolt chain anchor.

This is a multi-pitch variety pack up one of the tallest crack systems on the formation. The pitches are all about the same difficulty, more or less, but quite different from one another. The crux boulder problem is harder than anything else, but I believe it’s doable for the 5.9 leader. Overall grade is probably best described as 5.9 V1. This route has all bolted belays and all day shade. Use caution as the route is still cleaning up.Pitch 1 (5.8+, 70'): Approach pitch can be fun with the right attitude. Climb the mossy/sandy right-leaning ramp past gear and 5 well-camouflaged bolts. Two-bolt belay on ledge between junipers.Pitch 2 (5.8, 60'): Ramble up sandy lumps to the short/sweet offwidth. Two-bolt belay in alcove.Pitch 3 (5.8, 60'): Quest up the cavernous chimney to a wild roof exit. Two-bolt belay on ledge.Pitch 4 (5.7+, 70'): Walk right along the ramp and climb the left-facing offwidth staircase. Two-bolt belay on ledge.Pitch 5 (5.8, 70'): Just right of the belay anchor is a left-facing chimney with a splitter fist crack beside it. Jam and stem this arrangement to a ledge with two-bolt anchor. Be careful of loose stones in the chimney.Pitch 6 (5.9+, 70'): Follow the finger crack up to a two-bolt boulder problem on amazing patina crimps. Walk 10' right to a varnished handcrack which steepens for a heroic finish. Throw a fist pump from the finishing jug! Craft a thoughtful belay using horizontals and a bomber thread.Easy scrambling along the ridge takes you to the summit.Descent: From the top of the route, walk 20 feet left (east) and find the two-bolt chain anchor. Rap from here to the P5 anchor, then rap the route. With a 70m rope, you can skip the P2 anchor.

This is the easiest and safest route up the South Tower of Castle Rock. We did it in 4 pitches to reduce rope-drag as the 1st and 3rd pitches are meandering in nature. Pitch 1: rope up to climb a series of ledges that are mostly 4th and easy 5th class but with one crack requiring a 5.7 hand-jam - probably the most technically difficult move on the route. Traverse up and left, do the short 5.7 handjam crack, then traverse back right as high as you can go to the obvious ledge below Pitch 2. maybe 130 feet Pitch 2: Here you are faced with your choice of two off-width cracks separated by a blocky column. Take the right-most crack which has lots of great holds and features. Although there's some loose rock at the top of this pitch, there's also plenty of solid stuff. Take your time and test each hold. Belay at two-bolt anchor taking great care not to dislodge the many loose rocks on the sloping ledge. Great Pitch! maybe 70 feet, 5.6. Pitch 3: Traverse left, up a short crack then back right up to the biggest ledge just before things get steep. Anchor with cams in any of the many cracks available. 5.5, 50 feet. Pitch 4: This is the money pitch - great protection and awesome 5.5 climbing on chickenheads and cracks with the valley yawning away below. Move right from the belay ledge and follow the cracks and chickenheads to a classic summit. Sling the large juniper God put there just for climbers for your belay. 5.5, 60 feet. Note: If you're the kind of climber who doesn't mind running out 5.5 on loose rock over a yawning abyss, you could run pitches 3 and 4 together, placing gear only the at beginning of the 4th pitch to avoid rope-drag. I wouldn't recommend it though. Not a classic perhaps but a good route and an excellent moderate outing depositing you on a classic summit.

Nice long moderate corner of mostly laybacking with plenty of rests. The choice warm-up for the crag, and a fine way to summit South Castle Tower.See photo for the start (it looks improbable). Place a finger-size cam (orange metolius is perfect) wayyy above your head before bouldering into an incipient right-leaning ramp. Continue up the ramp past a fist jam about 25 feet to a major ledge break and then, after extending your alpine draws, step out into the main left-facing corner for a long stretch of laybacking and jamming.Rappel from the two-bolt chain anchor or scramble west along the ridge (one short 5.6 crack step for which some folks might want a belay) to the summit of South Castle Tower.

Gargoyle is a tall, varied crack pitch with hilarious patina holds all over the place. Mostly all-day shade with late-afternoon sun in the summer.

Gargoyle (5.10-, 110 feet): A big natural X-shaped streak marks the start with wicked cool pods in an angular, right-facing corner. A 25-ft layback brings you to a big ledge (this is the base of the rappel). Look out right for the lone bolt, and edge out past it on a thrilling rail traverse. Turn the mini-arête and now you're in the main crack system which has some marginal rock initially. Higher up, you'll find abundant face holds and the crack takes a slight leftward lean. Follow it all the way up to the Gargoyle Ledge with two-bolt chain anchor.

 The good climbing ends here, and a two-bolt chain anchor allows you to rap 80 feet to safe ground. The optional summit pitch is nothing to write home about - in fact, it detracts from the overall route experience - but it gets ya to the top if that's the desire.

Optional summit slog (5.6, 100 feet): Walk left, squeeze through the varnished chimney, stroll into the upper amphitheatre, and bee-line it for the summit on broken cracks. This pitch is "alpine style" so runner all yer gear. If you go to the summit, then you'll want to rappel the North Face route. The raps kinda suck on that one.

Mid-Evil Times is the left crack on the central south face of South Castle Tower (Excalibur is the right one).Scramble left along the ledge past Excalibur to the base of the broken crack. Climb past weirdly seated chockstones into a good handcrack interrupted by an evil crux boulder problem in the middle (one bolt), then resume the slammer hands. Two-bolt chain anchor in the alcove.We recommend rapping from here. If you wanna go to the summit, climb out the roof via a short fierce boulder problem on ridiculously sugary rock. There's a good tree root for belay up there (seriously).

South Castle Tower, or simply Castle Rock to some. It's a classic fin-type formation in that it appears as a spire from two aspects, and as a butte from the complimentary two. Routes abound on the broad flanks, mostly on upper Sycamore Pass sandstone and lower Coconino sandstone. Looming directly above the Village of Oak Creek, this is a great hang. The climbing is pretty fun too, thanks to a smorgasbord of moderates. Short approach, iconic summit, fun routes, decent rock quality, year-round sun/shade options... what more could ya ask for? A wilderness setting?! hah!!

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in South Castle Tower