Tonto - 5.5

headed down the trail w/ Sonny about 2:45 pm. the trail was not too hot, the base of the pitch was nice and shady with a light breeze. Perfect conditions for climbing, plus no one else was there!

Finally got on this route (it's popular) and it was well worth it. Fun first half and easy traverse right and up.

This is a fun 5.5, with a nice purple C4 size crack (sometimes smaller, or a little bigger) to work with during the first half. Didn't need anything any bigger than a #2 gold C4, although I could have placed a #3 at one point. Climb up the crack until you can traverse right then zag up and left around a big dark horn to top out. Nice relaxed belay spot if you step over the chasm at the end. Fun mix of face and small crack moves till the traverse, then it gets very easy.

When I was there someone had left a purple C4 in what I would consider the crux, about a 1/3rd of the way up. Crux was a *little* bit hard if new to crack climbing, but not bad if you just remember to climb for a second rather than worry about being on lead. You'll be through it soon enough and back on really easy ground.

Very safe, but kind of a long route compared to what I'm used to. Better quality rock than a lot of the other sandstone Red Rocks routes I'd tried. A new leader might want a bigger rack; just perform the usual calculation: length of route / comfortable distance between each = number of pieces.

Easy rappel, but we needed to use the 70m for a single rope rappel - 60 is just a bit short, same deal for a TR. Preferred this rappel to a number of other rope-eater/snagger options nearby like Ok,Ok,Ok.

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John lead and I followed then I top roped and Rappelled