Coyote Rock/ Greevers Needle 2400′
Distance: 1.0
Elevation Gain: 300′
Crux: 5.4
Trailhead: N. Idaho Rd, Apache Junction. No services
Companions: Holly and Colin
Coyote Rock a.k.a. Greevers Needle is an unofficially named spire in the Goldfield Mountains near the Superstitions. It’s latter nickname is thanks to the group of local climbers that developed the area in only the past several years, the small 100+’ spire features a number of routes ranging from 5.4 to 5.9 in difficulty. I hadn’t climbed on Superstition Rock since my outing on Weaver’s Needle nearly one year ago, and was looking forward to introducing Holly to the gritty pocketed rock throughout the range. One of her coworkers, Colin, was up for a day of climbing as well (despite a rappelling incident during an outing on Toms Thumb one month prior) and Greevers Needle seemed like a good choice given the proximity to his home. We met him at his house and reached the ‘trailhead’ for Greevers Needle off Idaho Rd in Apache Junction. There were actually a number of cars parked there when I arrived, and I thought we might be sharing the crag with some other groups. In actuality, there were just a few families out for a morning hike exploring the canyon, and we would have the area to ourselves all day. The Needle was in view from the start, and we hiked a good trail up the canyon directly towards the needle. The trail followed the direction of the canyon veering east towards a subpeak unofficially named Minion Mountain.
This would be our first stop for the day. The low angled slab had three unnamed routes sharing a three bolt anchor at the top, and would be a spot for us to warm up and for everyone to practice rappelling before the more serious rappels on the Needle. I scrambled up the right side and found the three bolt anchor tucked into the rock face. After quickly making an equalized anchor off the two bolts with a safety tether to the third, I rapped down to the others. We climbed on top rope one at a time up the pocketed face, the rock still a bit loose having not seen too much traffic since the area was developed. When Colin got to the top, he untied and tossed the rope end down to me, then I headed up while Holly belayed. At the top, I belayed Holly up to join us, then the three of us practiced rappelling with an extender and autoblock.
At the base, we repeated the sequence one more time until everyone was comfortable with the process and ready to have a go at Greevers Needle. Packing our things, we rejoined the trail as it continued up-canyon, and crossed the wash towards the Needle past some large boulders. There were a number of braided use trails, none of them great, and we contoured along the north side to reach the base of the low 5th class approach pitch.
No one liked the idea of soloing it, so we roped up at the base while Holly belayed me up the 30ish feet to the ledge below the main spire. The approach pitch was easy with many ledges and pockets, although protection would have been a bit difficult had I really needed it. A large boulder on the ledge provided a bolt to belay from, and I brought up Colin and Holly to the start of the main pitch of Greevers Needle. This side of Greevers Needle had four different summit lines from 5.4-5.7, and I preferred to climb the off-width 5.4 crack directly up to the summit, the ‘Gordon-Collins’ route named for the first ascentionists. This route seemed to be the only pure trad route on the spire (part of the reason I was interested in it) with the other routes being climbed as sport with well placed bolts.
Holly had me back on belay and I started up the off-width crack, not exactly a style I’m particularly good at climbing, put with ample holds on both side of the crack and deep within to keep things safe. I tried to resist burning my BD #4 early on the wide crack and found some good placements for some of my smaller pieces as I climbed. The crux is encountered about halfway up at an overhanging chokestone just below a large ledge below the summit spires. It was clear that it would be easiest to step out to the right and climb around the overhang, and with a bit of squirming, I made it to the ledge. To ensure no one struggled for too long at that section, I set an quick anchor for some cheater slings for the others and continued up the second half of the pitch. The finish was actually easier than I expected, and climbs the widening chimney below a huge chokestone to the summit rocks.
The summit was smaller than it had looked from below and split in two by the chimney. I set an anchor off two bolts and brought up the slack from Colin as he started up to join me. He seemed to have little trouble at the crux or with the extra task of cleaning the route, and he quickly met me at the summit.
I clipped him into the anchor and he untied for me to throw the end down to Holly. Unfortunately, since the route went under the chokestone, I needed to downclimb a bit to throw the rope under the stone and back down to Holly. Probably worth it to bring the extra ropes for future parties, or have stronger climbers willing to climb the outer routes of the Needle go last. Once Holly tied in, I belayed her up to the summit to join us, neither needing to use the cheater slings at the crux. I had climbed up with a pack for the sole purpose of hauling up summit beers, and we enjoyed the views across Apache Junction to the Superstitions to the east. I could make out The Hand and the other Northwest pinnacles near the Flatiron, my first introduction to Superstition climbing with the Arizona Mountaineering Club.
We spent a long time at the summit before Colin and Holly anxiously accepted that they needed to rappel off. The chained rappel anchors were on the north summit rock and Colin headed down first, rappelling to the ledge above the approach pitch. The rappel was a bit overhanging and at a weird angle, and Holly was not a fan of her first free hanging rap. When they were both at the base, I rappelled down to join them, then pulled the rope to a second rappel station at the northwest corner of the pinnacle (above the boulder before the start of the GC route) to rappel down to the rest of our gear.
The second rappel was more vertical and went much smoother, and we packed up our gear for the hike out as the sun was starting to dip on the horizon. It had been a fun day of climbing, and a nice little off-the-beaten path spire that we had to ourselves for the day. I’m already looking forward to heading back and trying some of the other lines in the future.
Great write up!