Dislocation Buttress 5.4
Swamp Slabs- Granite Mountain, AZ
Total Time: 9:15
Distance: 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain: ~1800′
Crux: 5.4
Pitches: 6
Companions: Holly, Colin Pickles
Trailhead: Metate Trailhead
Granite Mountain outside of Prescott, Arizona is one of the oldest trad climbing areas in the state. With some of the longer multipitch routes in Arizona, the long granite lines are notoriously sandbagged, scaring away climbers with stiff ratings and a bit of a rough approach. I had climbed in the area once before about a year prior and bailed after the first pitch of ‘The Classic,’ finding it a bit difficult for my abilities at the time. We salvaged the day by climbing Debut instead on Swamp Slabs, which has some of the easier routes on the mountain. With temperatures still too hot to climb closer to Phoenix and having hit up Sedona quite a few times already this summer (see Streaker Spire, Falcon’s Nest and Chimney Rock), an attempt on the classic Dislocation Buttress 5.4 would make for a great end-of-summer adventure. After driving up from Phoenix, making a few pit stops and organizing gear, we were on the trail by 9:30AM. I had mistakenly parked near Granite Basin Lake instead of the Metate Trailhead, wasting about 10 minutes before moving the car to the proper location.
There were a few unmarked use trails closer to the trailhead, but I remembered the route from my last visit and got us onto Granite Mountain Trail #261 in short order. The sheer granite face of the main climbing area was in view from the start, and the trail entered a burn area as it worked beneath its’ southwest face. We reached Blair Pass in under an hour of hiking and after a short break, continued up the switchbacks to find the use trail for climbers.
On my first visit I had blown completely by the climbers trail and almost did so again, the unmarked turn cutting across a rock face with prickly pear skeletons at the base. The first section of use trail wasn’t great but at least easy to follow. After about a half mile, we were roughly below Swamp Slabs, the left side of the formation, and I searched for the even more poorly defined use trail that breaks off. This turn off was once marked by a large juniper that is now partially burned, and is essentially just after a prominent slab along the approach. The use trail now aggressively climbed upslope through brush, up loose and burnt soil and over fallen logs. Luckily, the route starts below Pine Tree Ledge partway up the rock face, and 10-15 minutes of steep hiking brought us to the base of the route, thankfully in shade.
I quickly geared up and tied into the twin ropes, starting up the fairly easy crack. Pitch 1 is by far the longest of the 6 standard pitches of the route, and climbs up the long crack, through a bush, and up another long crack to an overgrown tree belay. I slung the trees as I went by, which made for a rather annoying clean job for Holly, which she was sure to comment on when she made it up to me.
Pitch 2 starts about 50′ to the climbers left of the top of pitch 1, so we moved the belay across the narrow ledge, Holly and Colin both requesting a belay for the exposed (but very flat and easy) catwalk. Pitch 2 is also the starting point for the Dislocation Direct variation 5.6, replacing pitches 2, 3 and 4 for more direct lines straight up. The 5.6 crack actually looked pretty easy, but I was interested in climbing the line in it’s true form, and started working diagonally right upwards towards a small roof.
I got myself in a bit of trouble with some run out face climbing, and downclimbed back to a horizontal crack in order to traverse right over to more featured terrain. I climbed an easy crack below the roof up to a ledge, then traversed back left to a very fun crack up to a roomy belay ledge. I built an anchor off gear, only to find some interesting holes in the rock that could have easily been slung.
My topo for pitch 3 was a bit confusing showing a climb up above the belay before a hard traverse right near a roof. The question was, which roof was I traversing, as there was one directly above the belay about 15′ off the deck, and another higher up partially in view. I headed up the crack, thinking the traverse was the next tier up. But to reach that level required climbing either a small finger crack or a very loose crack a bit further left. I tried to crack to the left first, but found it too dirty and sketchy to be the likely choice and backed off. I then tried the finger crack, and although certainly doable, it was definitely harder than 5.4 and I didn’t want to get off route. In retrospect, that was the 5.6 second pitch of Dislocation Direct. Holly suggested I try traversing the roof directly over the belay. I made one attempt trying to keep my feet in the horizontal crack, but found that quite sketchy with no hands. It wasn’t until I figured out that I needed to keep my hands in the crack and find hidden but solid feet underneath that I unlocked the rest of the pitch. It was almost a bit anticlimactic with how long it took me to figure out the pitch versus how long it took to actually climb it, but the traverse was still quite fun and very exposed with big air beneath the roof. Some big flakes led me up to the next belay and I slung a boulder to bring up Holly and Colin, both cruising through the traverse.
Now with a better idea of the scale of my topo, I started up huge blocks to start the next pitch, this time traversing left and extending my gear considerably to reduce drag. The topo showed this pitch as extremely short, but I had only placed one piece so far and felt I could possibly link it with pitch number 5, heading directly up the crack. So I continued along, finding the best climbing of the entire route with steep and featured cracks, culminating in a small roof that required a nice swing out and to the right to reach the next (and smallest) belay ledge. I built an anchor off gear and a small tree and brought up Holly and Colin before heading up the final pitch.
Aside from the first 50′, the last pitch barely qualified as fifth class, and quickly fizzled into fourth class climbing then into third class, ending in a brushy collection of boulders at the top of the wall, officially topping out at 4:30 PM.
I knew from personal experience the descent route can be a pain to find, so after bringing up Holly, I had her belay Colin up to the top so I could start coiling the ropes and scouting out the descent. The mistake I made the first time in the area was scrambling too high above the cliff to easier terrain. The key is to actually hug the top of the cliffs, and we headed out on an improbable ledge over boulders and down trees using a very faint use trail to get us into the gully that runs along the cliff face.
Tired from a day of climbing, this was by far the worst part of the day as our cramped toes slammed to front of our rock shoes on the loose and tedious descent. The two liters of water we had each carried were just enough to get us to the refills we left at our packs, and it took about 45 minutes from the top of the route to reach our gear.
My goal was to make it to Blair Pass before sundown, and after packing our gear, we charged down the use trail, sliding in the loose soil back to the main trail. The sun had just dipped behind the mountain as we reached Blair Pass, back in consistent shade for the first time since that morning. There was a beautiful Alpenglow on the Granite Mountain as we hiked in the fading light, enjoying the cooling temperatures, chirping crickets and gorgeous light on the mountains. We made it to the car a bit after 7 PM, just not needing the headlamps as we reached the trailhead. Dirty and exhausted, we headed into Prescott for a late dinner at Prescott Brewing before heading home.
What is the yellow on the rocks?
There’s a pale yellow green lichen that grows on the rocks around here.