Beginning of the last pitch on the Shield. This was the most fun pitch of the climb.

On the summit of the Shield in the Sandias. Photo facing Northeast.

Etan (es331) leads the last pitch up the Standard S route of the Shield

I snaped this from the La Luz trail when the fog cleared. Jim is a little over 2/3rds up the climb. My brother Carl is on top.

I snaped this from La Luz trail. Jim and Carl, my brother, are on the second pitch. Jim is barly visable at the belay point at base of the tree in the middle of the cliff. The 1st pitch starts at the lower left of the photo

Jim snaped this photo of me after we climbed the 1st pitch of Occasional Freshmen but ended up on the 2nd pitch of Redeener

From lower la cueva, a view from our campsite the day before our climb.

Started after a 2 hour bushwack on the east side of the toe. Here rob climbs the wide gravely first pitch

Here rob climbs the corner on the third pitch. Passing an ancient ring piton he placed a nut and ran out the final 35 over akward 5.7/8 climbing. I opted for the more straight forward and aesthetical knobs tothe right. Killer pitch.

here I am way up at the top combining pitches 4 and 5 with a little simul climbing. I called this the enduro pitch because all it seemed I was doing was stemming smears on the side walls. Very tiring.

after a bit of 4th class soloing, we started the final 500 ft to the summit

Rob combined pitches 10 & 11 for one long 225 ft pitch 7. My expression is exactly how i felt

Rob joining me on the summit as the rains bears down.

Here is a hand drawn topo I drew after being confused by so many others of the route. I look at this one and can only think it is confusing also. O well. Descent from the summit includes 3-4 raps with a 60 m

Pitch two rap by ryan swartz his first big rap in Sandias He climbed on second this was his first mulit pich climb In Over your head School

This is Sandias sunset. Everything glows dark pink orange for a few seconds then time to hike out. RIO Grande and ALBUQUERQUE down below.

Grey Huey tops out on the 5.8 variation, the last 5th class pitch of the climb. We thought this variation pitch was the best pitch of the climb. A low angle dihedral with good jams that finishes up as a blocky vertical good holds finish, all with adequate gear placements and good rock.

Tadz works up Pitch 2. There is a spitter crack 30 feet to the right which you can not see in this photo. My guess is that it goes as 5.9 but did not dot he variation. This variation, combined with many others would likely make the route awesome

Just finding the route was the hardest part. We racked up and started off on a bushy gully. Two pieces of pro in 30m.

This is the view from my moms back yard. Not bad at all.

Well the last roped pitch had a bit of everything. Bushes, cracks, funky dirty ledges, anything you can think of on a backcountry classic.

Chris and I made it to the summit with all of our limbs. We were only missing my helmet (damn tree).

This is what the tram looks like from the top of the Thumb. If you've ever ridden the Tram you know that's pretty damed high.

This was the last bit of technical down climbing, the rest was boulder hopping and the 2 mile walk back up the mountain to the car.

During one of my frequent rests on the hike back up to the car I noticed the remains of a fossil trapped in the limestone that makes up the top layer of Sandia Crest.