Chimney Rock 5180′
Total Time: 4:00
Distance: 1.2
Elevation Gain: 635′
Crux: 5.7+
Pitches: 1
Companions: Holly, Alex Wallace, Emily Elkins
Trailhead: Andante Trailhead, no services
Chimney Rock is a prominent Sedona landmark. Sitting at the base of Capitol Butte, it stands alone on a high plateau, visible from most points in town. It was one of only a few 5.7(+) Sedona spires I had left to climb, although first climbed in 1959, it had a bit of a sandbagged rating. After a successful outing on the similarly rated 5.7+ Streaker Spire only 2 weeks prior, I felt like I was up for the challenge. Plus at only one pitch and a short approach, there should be plenty of time to beat the afternoon monsoons. We had spent the night in Cottonwood after climbing Falcon’s Nest the day prior, and were met by Alex and Emily at the Andante Trailhead at 9:30, having last climbed with them earlier that spring up Queen Victoria. With my gear still packed from the day before, we were quickly on the trail, turning at a few early junctions to bring us up to the saddle between Chimney Rock and Capitol Butte.
There was a thin use trail heading up to the base of the north face of Chimney Rock, and we slowly followed it upslope to the rock face where we put on our harnesses and flaked out a 70m rope. Alex had volunteered to lead and I was happy to give him the honors, so I passed off all my trad gear and he started up the route.
Although only one pitch, it’s quite long and can be broken into thirds. The first third is some easy climbing and stemming to get you on to the first sloped ledge and stance. Alex breezed through this section before placing a piece, and stuck a cam up high. The second section requires a bit more thought, as the chimney narrows to an off width, with the option of easy but difficult to protect face climbing out and to the right. After a failed direct assault, some stemming between the two rock faces a bit out from the narrowed off width provided enough features to get over the first tricky spot and to a relatively spacious ledge. Alex was now directly below the crux where the chimney narrowed considerably, and quickly became stuck trying to force his way straight up. He made several attempts, each time unable to get through the tight narrowing. He yelled that he wanted me to give it a go, and built an anchor to bring me up to the ledge just below the crux. This of course took a good amount of time, and the skies were starting to grow dark rather early in the day. After swapping gear, I started up and similarly immediately encountered difficulties. The chimney narrowed so quickly that my helmet got lodged to the point where I couldn’t move my head without taking it off. I tried to swing out wide to get around the narrowing, but could find no good handholds to allow me to go wide. Every hold I found was deep in the chimney, and I would quickly get my head, arm, shoulder or waist wedged beyond being able to move. I was able to get a cam just a few feet above Alex’s last placement but really couldn’t get beyond the same section he got stuck at. Thankfully, he said he would give it one more try and he lowered me back down to the ledge where we swapped leads again. This time, he hung half his body outside of the chimney, the other arm holding on to the second cam I had placed. This gave him just enough leverage to slowly squirm his way up the tightest spot and into the more spacious upper chimney.
Sadly, at this point thunder was starting to roll, and the girls called up that they wouldn’t be joining us on the summit (we also had a wedding to get to at 5PM). The upper chimney was pretty easy stemming and Alex quickly built an anchor on some slung rocks below the summit. With the benefit of a top belay and minimal gear on my harness, the crux became suddenly quite easy, as I was able to lean out from the crux with the safety of the rope above. I quickly joined Alex at the summit as the girls made their way down the trail, a few stray raindrops hitting us on our high and very exposed perch.
We actually had a tough time spotting the rappel chain anchor, which was not on the main summit but the sub-summit to the SW and very near the edge. The anchor itself was two very old pitons, and I was looking to get down before testing their integrity in wet sandstone. I threw the 70 meter rope down, reaching the ground with ease, and started my rappel, slightly free at times with a bulge partway down that swung me a bit as I descended. I ran around to the north side to grab the rope bag and met Alex just as he was finishing his rappel, quickly stuffing the rope as the scattered drops of rain threatened to grow.
Hiking around to the base of the pitch, we stuffed all our gear in our packs and descended back to the main trail, getting back to the trailhead in only about 30 minutes from the summit. The girls were waiting with snacks and a 12 pack, and we headed to a park to wait out the rain.