Rose Tower- Olive Oil
Rock Climbing– Nevada
Total Time: 9:00
Elevation Gain: 1900′
Distance: 4.3 miles
Crux: 5.7
Pitches: 5
Pro: Doubles to #4, nuts, 70m rope.
Companions: Holly, Colin Pickles
Trailhead: Pine Creek Trailhead, trash and pit toilets
Red Rocks is the home to an incredible number of moderate multipitch routes. And despite that being my favorite type of climbing, I had done almost none aside from the short 2 pitch Physical Graffiti. Number one on my to-do list was Olive Oil, 5 pitches of trad climbing topping out on Rose Tower. The route was extremely popular, but as a group of three, would still be a better option than the even more popular Cat in the Hat, which would likely be more crowded and required you to rappel the route, less ideal during COVID. But assuming there would likely be at least one other group on the route, we started fairly early, arriving at the Pine Creek Trailhead shortly after 8 AM. There were other climbers in the lot but all seemed to be heading to different objectives. Thanks to permitted entry into the Red Rocks loop due to COVID, we would actually have the classic line all to ourselves for the day.
Leaving the trailhead, we followed the Pine Creek Canyon Trail turning left onto the Fire Ecology Trail after losing a bit of elevation. This brought us past a few picnic tables where we left the Fire Ecology Trail for a well traveled climbers trail, heading upslope out of the drainage to the flat bench above. I knew roughly where Rose Tower was in the jumble of cliffs to our right, but aimed for a large boulder where we would drop our packs and rack up for the remainder of the approach. We put on our harnesses and filled our summit packs with snacks and water, stashing our large packs on top of the boulder above the use trail.
Rose Tower and Olive Oil was now straight upslope above us, and we followed a series of braided use trails all interconnecting towards the start of the route. The start of the first pitch was further upslope than I expected, and we had about 10-15 minutes of scrambling through and around boulders to reach the low angled rock face and start of the route.
Colin had just gotten his second COVID vaccine and wasn’t up for leading, giving me the honors as I tied into our 70 meter rope. The guidebooks give the first pitch an ‘R’ rating due to iffy pro on some of the easier ground, so as I started up I plugged in gear early and often, not knowing if the next opportunity would be my last. If there was truly an ‘R’ section, I never found it. I felt like I had more than ample protection for the pitch with horizontals and pods, and a series of cracks higher up towards the belay. I followed the left facing corner up to a sandy alcove and built a quick gear belay to bring up Colin and Holly. The alcove belay was nice and protected, and you could find sun or shade depending on how far in or out you leaned.
Pitch 2 followed a broken crack system just to the right of a beautiful corner that allowed some stemming down low. With our 70 meter ropes, it was possible to link pitches 2 and 3 as a rope stretcher, something I hoped to do as the second typical belay was semihanging and wouldn’t be ideal for the three of us. I started up the pitch, climbing in typical Red Rocks style using the crack in front of me for protection but climbing on the huge knobs and holds on either side of the crack. The crux seemed about halfway up when the hands thinned and I needed to rely on more pure crack technique, something that I’ve gotten better at climbing in Yosemite Valley consistently over the past year. Although I had climbed a few 70 meter pitches in the past (Afternoon Nap had 5 of them!) they had supplemental bolts and bolted anchors and I realized my protection was dwindling on my harness halfway up linked pitch 3. Thankfully the difficulties eased considerably, the climbing going from 5.7 crack to 5.4-5.6, and I was able to space out my gear, saving exactly three cams for the tight belay station on a small ledge at the top of the long dihedral. Somehow, these three cams worked in the jagged cracks at the back of the belay, and I brought up Colin and Holly, both thoroughly enjoying the long pitch of sustained but not overly difficult climbing.
Pitch 4 traverses right off the belay to rejoin the crack system, then continues to angle up and to the right into a wider crack/ chimney and up to a ledge made of two large boulders. Although the traversing nature made it a little tough to protect for my two followers, there were enough options to prevent much of a swing, and the climbing was quite easy, probably nothing harder than 5.5 on the entire pitch. I climbed the wide crack utilizing outer holds to avoid the need for off width technique and moved right on to a ledge made of two flat boulders with a deep crack between it and main wall. There was a horizontal to build a gear anchor between the boulders to bring up Colin and Holly, this belay much roomier for the three of us.
Above us was the final pitch, a gorgeous featured dihedral, quite vertical in spots leading up to the final bit of class 3 to the summit. Although the day had been fairly warm, a cold wind started kicking up and the route moved into the shade as I started up the final long pitch. Although the dihedral does protect well, getting to it required an unprotected 5.4 move off the belay, with Colin spotting me as I pulled on knobs to a narrow ledge. This brought me to the the base of the dihedral and I started up. The crux of the pitch came about 1/2 way up, with a slightly overhanging chimney that could be easily bypassed with knobs on the right face.
The difficult eased as I climbed higher, reaching a sandy bench at the top of the dihedral. With a 70 meter rope, I could continue up a fourth class ramp to the right, getting just high enough in the crack to build an anchor and avoid having to pitch out this final short section. The last pitch had been my favorite by far, and I was excited for the others as they started up. Unfortunately, the high winds had increased as I climbed and both did not enjoy the pitch nearly as much as I had, Holly hating the cold rock and Colin trying the slightly overhanging chimney direct with a follower pack, not knowing that one should climb out right until he was thoroughly wedged. We untied and coiled the ropes between two boulders and started searching for the walk off. We scrambled up to the summit and signed into the summit register, finding the class three-four downclimb southwest of the summit.
We dropped down the steep slabs, keeping left of an intermediate high point before scrambling back up to the notch and finding the well defined use trail down the gully. Although I had been a little nervous about the class 4 on the walk off, it was quite straightforward and the descent trail down the gully was clearly well traveled.
Following the use trail, we wove back towards the base of the climbing, missing the turn off that would have taken us more directly to the boulder below where we stashed our packs, but probably only taking an extra ten minutes.
After taking our harness and packing up the gear, we continued back down to the trail towards the trail head, a full moon rising over Las Vegas just as the sun was setting. We got back to the car without the need for headlamps and left the park for our AirBnB and pizza.
