Ascent Notes for: Spider Walk - 5.7 Average Rating : 3.67/5

ah, I see a year to the day of Sonso. I too, just want to do the classics as a long time local. Yes, got rope drag,yes got route finding errors-climbed the short pinnacle P1 instead of gully behind-downclimbed/redue. The classicness comes from the shear drop and view into the Phoenix Valley.
with AMC, Ron A and Kevin P

A few updates and additional beta for the route:
• The top of ALL pitches now have great new solid anchors.
• The anchors at the top of pitch 3 are on the south-west side of the large bolder at the top of the chimney (they are very hard to find if you don't know this)
• Bring a large cam for pitch 4. I didn't have one big enough, but wished I did. Pitch 4 is the shortest pitch (90 feet).
• Aside from P4 this climb is run-out. If you place a lot of gear then you will experience extreme rope-drag. We had serious drag with very minimal gear placement.
• There are 5 great rappel stations (an extra 1 is halfway down pitch 1). When you rappel, keep in mind where your rope will hang. Leave your rope so that when you pull it you minimize the possibility of your rope sliding into potential hangup spots.
• The pitch 4 anchors are 1,020ft (311 meters) above the siphon draw trail (I brought my rangefinder to get some exact distances).

adventurous

I followed the description in the guide and never did find all the bolts. Replacements needed badly. The route is very runout, at least up to 40-50 feet between bolts at times, sparse natural protection, bring nuts, lowe tri cams and single rack cams. Place anything you can with long runners. The rock is generally ok, if not, you are probably off route. The second pitch trends up and generally right to the edge of the large crack and wanders up and left from there; found two bolts and one nut on this pitch. The finishing crack was good, sparse pro but not bad. All anchors ok now.

im pretty sure that the bolts on the first pitch have been taken out by rockfall. the thing feels like 5.9 now...no joke.

however, it was AWESOME, and beautiful...incredible exposure

very loose!!! it seems like all the rock falls out!! be careful of all hold....

Re "4th class scramble" to boulder: it is at least as difficult as most of the rest of the climb at @5.6. P1: 3rd bolt is actually "two" in the form of a rap anchor (L of route & not a belay anchor). Continue up to the low angle dihedral to belay notch w/ hole against serious rope drag (2' runners help minimize). P2: Route finding not too bad if you keep going up and right to bolt, thru shallow corner/thin crack, trend R up shoulder to bolt to base of chimney - easy terrain, but sketchy rock & sparse pro. P3: Straight forward up chimney w/ some 4th class (long pitch). Rock improves w/ height. P4: "spider walk" looks like it goes easy, but totally unprotected and very exposed. Straight up crack variation easily proed w/ good rock. Belay at top is slung boulder (not bolts as published). With careful rope mgt, pulling ropes on raps was easy. (two 60m ropes will reach ground straight down water chute from P1 notch belay).

2nd pitch is runout but easy on crappy gear; don't fall. The last pitch, using the crack. has some real cool moves.

Definatly do the crack 5.7 variation instead of the spider walk, it is probably the best rock on the whole route.
I would suggest doing other route further east instead of climbing these the rock is not really that solid. Pretty fun adventure non the less though

Great route! Nice runout on third pitch, not so bad if you don't mind old bolts. Topo in RCAZ is way wrong around the middle of the climb, but it goes - easy too! long chimney pitch and the 5.7 finish crux is at the start of the last pitch. Easy! Love it but hate pulling the rops down it.