If you’re climbing Ship Rock in Navajoland, there are a number of accounts and route descriptions you can avail yourself to. Problem is, it’s impossible to describe this mountain and the route in terms that are easy to understand, remember, and visualize; it’s just too big and different. Probably the best is The Frito Banditos Climb Ship Rock. The pictures in Desert Towers are indispensible. Nevertheless, here are my recollections that stress those things that I was not prepared for, and which I wish I knew beforehand.
Access: Lots of ink spilled about the 1970 ban on climbing this mountain. The closure was due to an accident that seriously injured two climbers, not religious considerations. It’s true the land belongs to the Navajos, and they are entitled to do what they please with it. No doubt the pale face has given them the shittiest land they possibly could, never suspecting that climbers would want to go back and enjoy what was deeded away. I’ve written what I think about acetic religions that proscribe enjoyment of creation elsewhere (see Devil’s Tower Closure Proposed by NPS for Religious Reasons) and I don’t need to kick that dead horse. We were assured by two Navajo climbers who have themselves broken the prohibition that they would be thrilled to have us give it a try and clean up some of their detritus. So I’m going to give Indians the right to take money from stupid pale faces in casinos, and I’m not going to rub their noses in my disregarding their ban on climbing Ship Rock. I’m going to go about my business quietly and hope nobody notices. I don’t want to see the place deluged with climbers, but those who do feel the call to climb it, I say proceed with due caution and be self-reliant. Do not call for help, and have back up plans so you can self-rescue in the event of a rope incident or injury. If you get caught, take your lumps and show respect.
Take Redrock Highway 13 west from Route 491 about 6 miles to the dike that runs north to the rock. There is an open cattle guard just on the east side, and you drive through this on a dirt road that any passenger car can handle. Stay on the east side until you approach the peak, and take the last opportunity to turn left or west to cross the ridge. We camped just to the east of the ridge in a depression where we felt we could not be readily seen. In the morning we drove north toward the mountain, crossed the ridge, and parked behind a berm about 100 feet from the actual end of the road. The car was invisible except from directly west, and there are not too many people in that direction. You then hike about 1/2 mile north, rising as you go, so that you are just past below the Crow, which is black basalt.
P1: The start of the climb is found at the opening of the Black Bowl, which is on the NW corner of the peak. The entrance is to the left of the Crow, and to the Right of Spinnaker Tower, and is identifiable as the confluence of two types of rock. Spinnaker Tower is welded tufa, and the Crow is black basalt. Climb up between the two, and when you can go no farther, look to your left and there is a recessed cave with cheater rocks piled up at the mouth. Rope up, and if you are part French, have your partner put a knee on the rocks to give another couple feet of reach. Using such a technique the pull onto the face is probably 5.8, and with no aid other than the rocks it’s more like 5.10. You can get a couple of small cams in at your waist that might hold, and then move up and left to easy ground. Another small headwall that accepts a cam is just below the belay anchors. 100 feet.
P2: After you bring your partner up P1, you can scramble up the canyon about 50 yards to where you will see a plaque on the right for an early fatality; just what you need for confidence. At this level, look to your left and go up the staircase of solid rock at perhaps 5.2. The rock is compact and doesn’t present much in the way of protection, but the ease suggests that it’s not really needed. Belay anchors are at the top on the right. 100 feet.
P3: Coil your ropes and scramble up the bowl, keeping to the left against the wall. You will curve up and end up going south to the base of the south wall with two parallel cracks ascending to the Sierra Col featuring lighter rock. You can rope up at any time, but you’re just scrambling and dislodging stones to injure your follower. Continue up a chossy ramp to the right, and set up a belay when the rock gets steep. There’s an immediate corner you turn to start back left, or east, ascending toward the Sierra Col. The crack accepts larger cams, but is of very poor quality. The climbing is very easy, but there’s danger of pulling hand and foot holds. At the top of the crack you will be confronted with a choice: belay here from a fixed pin and perhaps a girth hitch around the rock, or continue across the Colorado Col and up to the Sierra. Because of communication and rope drag, we stopped and belayed just before the first Col. 75 feet. This is the belay pictured in the photo above.
P4: The scene here is one of the most appalling specters in climbing. The Sierra Col is about the size of the back of a horse, with huge drop offs right and left. On the far wall are two bolts. The route goes across the Col, to the left, and up to the Colorado Col, about 50 feet distant. When we were there, there was a descent line rigged from the upper Col to a belay stance just above and around the corner from the lower Col. The move from the two bolts left onto the ramp is very blank, and looks like 5.10 if not worse. What we did was set up a belay at the fixed pin just before the crossing, have the leader cross, clip the two bolts on the far side with slings, and then use pockets to descend left (past an unused fixed pin) until he could stem and grab holds on the face to the left. This involved going down about six feet, and the large holds on the far face then allowed an easy and confident way to get back up to the ramp to the upper Col. Easy climbing with perhaps one piece of gear at the headwall and you’re at the Colorado Col and its belay/rappel anchors. Perhaps 100 feet total.
Ascent Rap 1: A short scoot down the ramp into the Rappel Gully deposits you at the most famous set of bolts in America. At this holy spot the expansion bolt was first used to help climbers. Now there are at least three 1/4 inch bolts mashed down and perhaps four larger diameter bolts with funky, dated hangers and attendant mank. Put your ropes (two!) through the rings, and decide if you really want to finish the climb. If you descend and pull this rope, you can’t get off the mountain without completing the climb. Make sure you have time before darkness falls, and zip down the rope to the large chock stones in the gulley.
AR 2: Work your way down the stones, and on the left wall you will find a single bolt rappel anchor, which will, with another two rope rappel, deposit you at another single bolt anchor.
P5: Clip this anchor, and belay your partner across the face to skier’s right, climber’s left (south.) There are bolts and pins here and there, and if you follow them, you will ascend to a crappy shelf with a scary reach around to a fixed pin, from which you must be lowered 20 feet to a large ledge where there is a belay anchor. Rumor has it that by going low you can avoid the scary reach around, but at the expense of having less pro and the prospect of a real swing if you fall. One account had the party going low, and having to climb a 5.9 crack to get to said ledge, but as we went high, we don’t know. The traverse was nerve wracking, but no more than 5.8. Taller climbers will bum out more at the reach around, as it’s a crouching move with a good, but not too solid, handhold. The pin you lower off of is of dubious quality, but held 200 pounds and some bouncing from us.
P6: Walk to the far end of the ledge, and as you go, look up and admire the famous Double Overhang the first ascensionists aided with ice screws in 1939. There is a bizarre belay anchor in the cave at the far end, with one bolt in the tufa and one in a cobble stuck in the tufa. Reach around the far corner to clip a bolt, and do a single 5.8 move to easier climbing, another bolt, and a belay anchor straight up below the small cliff.
P7: Some accounts say unrope and walk, but it was pretty steep going. We climbed roped, but largely unprotected, up the drainage. The route map in Desert Towers shows the route going to the right and around some features by the north wall, but we went up the fall line, probably to our peril. The angle eases, and you can walk to the base of the fin separating the South and Main summits.
P8: There’s a small gulley to your right ascending to the base of the Horn pitch. You can rope up now, but the moves are easy and if you fall, you just get jammed in the crack. At the top you set up a belay for the wildest part of the climb. The route goes up the arête formed by the Ramp up which you’ve climbed and the west face which must descend over 1,000 feet at this point. The route is marked by bolts and pins, and the moves are stout at the beginning. All footholds have been knocked off, and so it’s pretty smooth until you can get a left hand over the block and the right in the crack where the protection is. Move up to the bolt, and then right over very small holds, including two monodoigts! Scary. We linked this short pitch with the next, which starts 15 feet past the top of the horn up a ramp to the right. The crack is marked by three fixed pins. The moves are rated vintage 5.9, because there’s nothing for the feet and not much for the hands, except a seam between the pins. It made my French side come out. Even after you pull yourself up there’s not much to grab on the flat to relieve your suffering, but once the whale beaches, you’re home free.
P9: A short trip up over easy ground to the right brings you to some large blocks, on top of which there’s a ledge going left. Rope drag prevents linking this with the last pitch, even though it’s short and easy.
P10: The final pitch starts at a belay anchor of ancient tat found looped between two rocks at the far south end of the ledge. The leader proceeds across the sloping rocks and steps left into a crack leading up to the final scramble. The rappel anchors can be seen through a gap in the blocks to your right as you go, and the sight of them brings both joy and anxiety. There’s plenty of room just below the summit block. The register is under a rock at the western extremis of the summit area, just north of the actual summit. It was placed there in 1962 to replace the original, which had apparently seen its day. We were party 501, having missed the 500th by four weeks. I incorrectly noted it as Third Sunday of Easter season, when it was actually the fourth. The 500th climb had been on Maundy Thursday.
Descent Rap 1: All descent raps except number 7 are with two 60 meter ropes, minimum. Look east, and just to the left of the way you came up is a cleft that lets you access the rappel anchors. There are two bolts high on the east side of the cleft in which you are standing. When you descend, make SURE you see the next set of anchors off to your right, skier’s left, west, where the sun’s setting etc., before you drop over the sharp roof directly below you which WILL saw your ropes in half if you have to pendulum right to get to the anchors. One of the reasons we were invited by those Navajo climbers to climb the peak was to retrieve two grievously damaged ropes they had abandoned at this point doing just that. How they got down I do not know. When you see the prow below you, make sure you move right to land in the proper spot.
DR 2: Drop straight down and land on a large, sloping ramp. All these belays are hanging, and rock pours off the face at the slightest touch. Partners will hate each other by the time they get down.
DR3: Make sure your ropes track over the edge of the ramp to your right, not down through the crack separating the ramp from the face.
DR4: One more hanging rappel stance and you’re on the “ground” at the top of Long’s Couloir. Turn around and gape at the north side of the Sierra Col.
DR5: Scramble down the hill until you come to steep ground. At the left edge of the talus there is a rappel anchor on a block of rock facing north.
DR6: Anchors on the right hand wall are all you can reach with a double rope rappel, but there’s a lot of resistance when you go to pull the ropes. Another set of anchors beckons from about 50 away, and are probably accessible without protection, though we didn’t use them.
DR7: As the canyon narrows, a double bolt anchor with a single sling is found on the north side of the slot. This can probably be done with a single rope.
DR8: The last rap is done from anchors hidden from view until you’re about to fall into the void. A double rope anchor allows you to make it all the way to the precious flat earth at the base. Your packs and comfortable shoes await you back to skier’s right, about 100 yards away. Took us 5.5 hours up, including wasting 45 minutes trying the center of the bowl on P2, and 2 hours coming down. No problems with gendarmes or restless natives. Had a couple beers to prepare ourselves for the long drive home, and thanked the Lord who calmed the very cold, consistent wind we woke up to. “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and waves obey him!” Matthew 8:27
