Goliath

Goliath 5,320′
Sedona– Rock Climbing
Total Time: 7:30
Distance: 3.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 1400′
Crux: 5.9+++
Pitches: 4
Protection: Rack of single cams with doubles of 0.75-2, nuts.
Companions: Colin Pickles
Trailhead: Soldier Pass TH, 2WD, full services in Sedona

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I’m not exactly sure why, but the spire “Goliath” in Sedona has been super high on my to-do list for some time. Perhaps it was due to the summit block, overhanging on all sides and rated 5.9+ (but more like 5.11) and typically aided off a single bolt. Or maybe it was the exposed traverse around the entire spire on a band of limestone on the second pitch. Whatever the reason, it had eluded me for years, bailing on my only previous attempt years ago when we found the approach wash flowing with water, pivoting to Kachina Woman instead. It was for the best, since I have now learned that Holly hates traverses during a rock climb, and she would have certainly hated the second pitch. So a day of Sedona climbing with just Colin and I seemed like a good chance to make another go of it, Colin planning to lead the route at least until the aid pitch to practice his trad leading skills. We left Phoenix before sunrise and after a few coffee and breakfast stops, reached the Jordan Road trailhead shortly after 8 AM. Our packs were still basically packed from Four Course Meal a few days prior, and we started north down the wash into Mormon Canyon.

Unlike my first visit into the wash, it was completely dry, making the cross country travel easy and straightforward. We quickly reached the point in the wash where it narrows with crumbly rock on both sides where Holly and I had turned back in 2019. It had taken over 2 hours with the wash underwater, it took less than 40 minutes in dry conditions. Goliath was now in view to the northeast, it’s incredible summit block looking like a golf ball on a tee, completely overhanging on all sides. At this point, it wasn’t entirely clear where we should leave the wash to head cross country for Goliath. We passed one side wash, but it was incredibly overgrown at the mouth. We decided to continue a bit further north, and hooked into a narrow drainage that was initially clear. However, we quickly encountered a dry waterfall, and needed to scramble up and to the right to get around it.

At this point, Goliath was less than a quarter mile away, and we decided to work steeply cross country towards the spire, passing the occasional cairn to guide the way. Aside from a small patch of manzanita we needed to push through, it wasn’t the most horrible Sedona approach I’ve been through. We picked up the normal use trail as the reached the base of the spire, and followed it around the north side to reach the notch between Goliath and the walls of Mormon Canyon, Earth Angel and other spires surrounding us above.

The approach had taken almost exactly 1.5 hours, which is what we had budgeted for the day. Looking up from the base up the first pitch, we both agreed that it looked fairly mellow and low angle, and we spotted out “the spooky place,” a cave half way up the spire that can serve as the first belay station, although a bolted belay lower and to the left is preferred to reduce rope drag on the second traverse pitch. We geared up and Colin tied in to the sharp end, starting up the well featured crack and plugging pro every 8-10′. Once on the route, it was unclear where he needed to traverse out left to the traditional belay, other reports warning against cutting out too low given the lack of available protection. A chokestone in the crack he was climbing was the rough marker to move out left, and he placed a cam and extended it with a long sling starting the traverse. As he rounded the corner out of sight, his pace slowed, and he called out that he was unsure if he was on route. I waited patiently at the base when he yelled out again, that he was almost sure he was off route. Then, in basically the same breath, he yelled “Oh, I found it,” referring to the one piton/ one bolt belay and end of the first pitch. Thanks to the fixed anchor, he had me on belay quickly, and I started up the crack and first pitch. I cut left at the same spot just below a pale band of limestone and found the pro options a bit sparse but not horrible. As I moved further left, I reached a corner where Colin had placed a cam in what looked like a stack of blocks that could topple off the spire at any moment. I was hesitant to pull on anything as a follower let alone as a leader, and I gingerly pulled myself up and over to find Colin at the anchor just above.

“Dude that last bit was really sketchy.” I’m not sure if that made him feel better or worse about the lead, and the two of us scouted out the next traverse pitch.

I knew we needed to get on top of the limestone band above us, and there were three reasonable options to do so. Colin chose to lead up the crack immediately over the belay so I could physically spot him while he placed his first piece. The limestone felt more solid than the sandstone although considerably sharper, and I try not to imagine the rope slicing through a sharp fin of rock somewhere out of sight. As he pulled himself through the limestone, he was surprised that there was actually nothing even resembling a ledge above us, and slowly worked out left on small steps rather than the fractured ledge we both expected. As he rounded the corner and moved out of sight, he yelled back “Oh man, I’m genuinely scared right now.”

I yelled back “We can bail man, no big deal!”

“No, it’s okay, I just gotta go for it.” I held my breath and felt a controlled pull of the rope without a scream. I assumed the silence was a good thing. I fed out maybe another 20′ of rope when I heard “off belay!” the second pitch being far shorter than I expected.

Once Colin brought in the slack, it was my turn for the traverse, and I quickly reach that point that clearly gave Colin pause. There was a gap in the ledge of about 3′ and one needed to make a large step across to the opposite narrow ledge with OK, but not great hands. I removed the cam, meaning I would be facing a nasty swing if I botched the move, and slowly stepped across.

The rest of the pitch was basically walking, and I quickly joined Colin in a cozy belay at the base of a chimney and start of the third pitch. I congratulated him on the lead, definitely mentally one of the tougher moves in recent memory. Two pitches down two to go. We flaked the rope once more, the third pitch starting off in an easy but difficult to protect chimney, leading to another crack system up to the ledges beneath the summit block.

Colin started up, placing his first piece in a crack system a few feet above the belay before pausing to look at his options up above. It looked as if the rest of the chimney was unprotectable aside from maybe a pod up and to the left near the chimney exit up above. After weighing his options, he came back down.

“You want to lead this one?” I was happy to. We swapped gear and I started up the chimney, pressure walking my way up 30′ to the pod I had seen from below. It was shallow but did take a 0.5 cam (questionable if it would have actually held but I don’t think I could have fallen in the chimney if I had tried) and I pulled myself out of the chimney to a ledge above.

There was a huge flat rock at the top of the chimney that teetered when I weighted it, a potential deathblock should it ever be knocked down below. I quickly unweighted it, then stepped across to a crack system that ran up and to the right. The crack was fist to off width in size, but there were plenty of options for feet outside of the crack, and it took pro well. The last few moves out of the crack involved working around a slightly overhanging bulge to reach another large ledge about 15′ below the base of the summit block. Colin and I would agree that aside from the final aid pitch, it was the crux of the route. To get up the last 15′ to the base of the summit block, there were two options. One was to cut left and make an unprotectable move to a sloped ledge with a small tree. That seemed easy but riskier given the lack of protection. A slightly harder line but easier to protect was a crack running to the right across from a detached pillar. I walked down into the gap between the pillar and the crack and stemmed up to place another piece of pro before pulling myself up the last few moves to the top of the pitch and a two bolt anchor, serving as a rappel station.

There was significant drag in the system as I brought up Colin but he made short work of the pitch, somehow pulling the mantle bulge move out of the crack system above the chimney facing backwards. The two of us eyed the massive summit block above with the single bolt around the corner to the left. Although I could walk there, he kept me on belay until I reached the bolt, clipping it with a single carabiner to reduce rope stretch.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great place to build an anchor on the ledge beneath the bolt, and Colin belayed me out of sight at the two bolt belay, making communicating in the winds difficult. After getting the rope stretch out of the system, I clipped a pre-tied etrier made from webbing to the carabiner along with a single length sling to use to aid. But I wanted to try to free it first. There was a great left hand and decent starting feet under the roof, but making the next move seemed near impossible, at least for my abilities. Aside from the left undercling, the only hands for making the next moves were gritty slopers, and there wasn’t a good intermediary foot before making the high step mantle. Aiding it is. But that was easier said than done. I knew that I needed to push my weight down and not out on the webbing, but I had tied my steps too far apart, and I couldn’t step up and make the mantle even with my foot in the highest loop. I tried stepping into the sling instead with my right foot, which was just high enough for me to get my left foot onto the sloping ledge.

“SLACK” I screamed out through the wind. The rope wouldn’t give an inch. I called out once more, with no luck. It was looking like we might not summit even with some aid climbing. My arms were shaking holding the mantle mid-move, and I yelled for slack one last time, the rope finally started to feed as I slowly pushed myself to a stand above the crux bolt. 5.9+ my ass.

The summit was only another 15′ above, but the climbing was not over. The final bit of the summit block was steeper than it looked from below, and pro was sparse. I placed two small cams behind a questionable flake and gingerly went for it up gritty steps to the airy summit. The two bolt rappel anchor was on the far side of the summit rock, and I stuck my head over to yell down to Colin off belay. I brought up the slack, and it was now Colin’s turn to try the crux with the benefit of a top rope. He unanchored himself and traversed around the block to the bolt.

“Holy shit, how did you do this!?” I heard through the wind. He tried to get the move free a couple times, but ultimately gave in to aiding the move, taking the hint of me incessantly giving instructions on how to use the etrier through the walkie-talkie. I kept him tight as he mantled the crux, then he quickly came up the summit to join me. The views across Mormon canyon were fantastic, with the ultra classic Earth Angel, Sedona’s largest free standing spire near by. Morning Glory Spire was to the southwest, as was Queen Victoria and Tisha Spire near Steamboat Rock. Capitol Butte dominated the view to the west.

Although we weren’t doing horrible on time, we didn’t linger at the summit with a few rappels and the long descent back to the car still ahead of us. There were a number of rappel stations on the route to make it possible to descend with a single 60 meter rope. We had a 70 meter, and hoped to skip some of the stations. After threading the rope through the rap anchors, I went down first, skipping the first two bolt rappel station where I had finished the second pitch and continuing past to an intermediate rappel station a few ledges down within a chimney, still well above “the spooky place.”

I made a quick anchor to the rappel station from a double length sling and radioed up to Colin to start down.

Once he joined me and we rethreaded and threw the rope, it was unclear if we would be able to make it down with only one more rappel, or if we needed to use the anchor station in the Spooky Place below. I volunteered to go first and continued down the chimney, bouncing off the walls due to the strange angle of the rappel station up above. I reached the cave and final two bolt anchor and looked down at the hanging rope. It looked like it would ‘probably’ make it, but it would be close.

I continued down, reaching the end of the rope about 10′ above the base of the spire roughly where Colin placed his first piece. I untied and scrambled down, the short downclimb feeling rather secure. I called up to Colin to tell him he might want to use the final rappel station to avoid the downclimb, but he agreed to skip it as long as I gave him a spot.

He started down and I spotted him as promised, agreeing it wasn’t as bad as it had looked from above. Now back at our packs, we were hoping to find a more direct and less brushy line back to the main wash to take us back to the trailhead. We hiked down the obvious use trail that skirted the base of the spire on the north side. When we reached the patch of manzanita that we had bushwacked up, we continued along until reaching a steep and narrow drainage another 50′ past on the west side of the spire. Looking down, it looked like it would go, and the use trail seemed to drop down this wash. So we decided to give it a try, finding a cairn about 150′ indicating we were on the right track. As we descended the wash it widened with tree stumps suggesting it was fairly well traveled, and reached the main wash at the brushy area that we had bypassed on the way in. There was no clear path through, so we pushed through the few feet of brush to get us back into the main wash.

We were grateful for the shade from the trees as we hiked back to the car, the descent from Goliath going faster than the approach thanks to the cleaner line by about 30 minutes. A cooler was waiting for us at the car, and we celebrated another Sedona spire at a picnic table before hopping on the highway back towards Phoenix. Even though it was midweek, the 17 was in rare form due to an accident, the drive taking over 4 hours resulting in a late dinner and an annoyed Holly…