Falcon’s Nest 4920′
Total Time: 2:45
Distance: 1.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 600
Crux: 5.6
Pitches: 1
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Mund’s Wagon TH, no services, Red Rocks Pass required
The number of sandstone spires in Sedona I was capable of leading was slowly but surely dwindling, and over an extended weekend in Sedona, I was hoping to tick off another two: Falcon’s Nest and Chimney Rock. Both were single pitch adventures, with Falcon’s Nest rated 5.6 and Chimney Rock, originally climbed in 1959, rated a sandbagged 5.7+. I was postcall and had gotten minimal sleep overnight, so Falcon’s Nest seemed like the better choice for Friday. Holly and I left Phoenix when I got out of work and headed north to Sedona, parking at the Mund’s Wagon Trailhead near the start of Schnebly Hill Road. After organizing our gear, we started hiking up the road, the squat spire of Falcon’s Nest directly ahead. I had read on MP that you needed to leave the road in a slabby wash just before the road bends, heading directly towards the spire. While there were a number of options, none of them really ‘slabby’, so we just headed up the shallow gully just before the road bend.
The terrain grew brushier as it steepened, and we were pushing through manzanita and holly, quickly becoming an unenjoyable bushwack. The brush cleared about 100′ below the base of the spire, but the dirt was particularly loose as we slid a bit with each step. After about 30 minutes of fighting upslope, we collapsed at the base of the limestone band just below the saddle between Falcon’s Nest and the remaining summits of Marg’s Draw.
The route started at the saddle proper, but Holly preferred a belay up the fourth class step through the limestone band, so we put on our harnesses and tied in. The short limestone band was pretty easy to scramble up, and the rope unfortunately made things a bit more challenging by showering little rocks on Holly as I walked up to the saddle to belay. I brought her up to the saddle, and I finished racking up just as the first roll of thunder started for the day, quite early by monsoon standards. Black clouds hung over the plateau to the north, but a quick check of radar on my phone suggested it would stay up there for at least a few hours, plenty of time for this short pitch.
Although easy, even for a 5.6, the climb had a well deserved PG13 rating, and I had no basically no protection for the first 15′ until hitting a ledge partway up. There were a few small pockets that may have taken tricams had I had the right sizes, but placement would have been borderline at best anyways. At the ledge I placed two cams, one in a crack to the right and a larger in a big pocket to the left. The rock was fragile and I still barely trusted those pieces, so I gingerly climbed up, placing one more small cam in a solid crack about 10′ above the ledge. I built a quick anchor off the two ancient bolts to bring up Holly, the thunder seeming to grow ever closer. Holly started up and made it to the ledge quickly. When she continued up from the intermediate ledge, I heard a yell and the rope grow tight. A hold had completely broken off, making the climb feel even sketchier. With the rope stretch and a bit of a pendulum she fell a few feet, but was able to slab walk up the remaining distance to the top.
The summit was actually quite nice and large, and would have been a nice place to relax had the storms not been inching closer. There was an old cordalette anchor on some ancient bolts for rappelling, which I touched up with some fresh webbing before sending Holly down. I rappelled down to join her, and belayed her through the limestone step before putting the rope away.
We hoped to find a better route down to the road and hugged the north face of the spire, finding a better use trail as we passed the North Cracks 5.9 route. The slope here, a bit east of our ascent route, was much more forgiving in terms of brush, and Holly was sure to point out that she suggested this line for our ascent.
The descent brought us just east of the sharp turn in the road, but it was easy hiking through the wash to put us back on track and to the car. As we rode back in to town, the storms broke over the plateau and into the canyon, with torrential rain just above where we were climbing. Another spire in the bag, we headed to our Airbnb to check in and rest up before Chimney Rock the following day.
