Sinagua and Sundeck Spires

Sinagua and Sundeck Spires ~4920′
Rock Climbing– Sedona
Total Time: 5:30
Distance: 3.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 600′
Crux: 5.8
Pitches: 4 (2 per spire)
Trailhead: Boynton Canyon
Companion: Holly

A friend recently suggested that I’m probably leading below my abilities. Though I’m a fairly conservative leader, it was hard to argue too much- if I can follow on 5.10s, I should be able to at least lead 5.8s and 5.9s. So in an effort to push my grade a bit this year, I set my sights on a pair of 5.8 spires up Boynton Canyon in Sedona– Sundeck and Sinagua. With a short approach for both, cool summits and well protected cruxes, they would be good choices to push the grade, even for a place as sandbagged as Sedona. In peak spring break season, it was difficult to find a spot in the Boynton Canyon trailhead lot, so we parked a bit down the road before shouldering our packs and starting off. We passed dozens of hikers but no other climbers as we followed the easy trail up canyon. Both of us admired Kachina Woman, known to climbers as ‘Bandito Spire,’ one of the more slender sandstone spires I’ve seen in the area.

As we reached the northern boundary of Enchantment Resort, Sundeck and Sinagua Spire came into view around the bend.

The topo from ‘Sedona Rocks‘ suggests a use trail around the north side, and we eventually found the faint climbers trail just after the main trail began to hook away from the spires to the west. It took only about 5 minutes to reach the base of the notch between Sundeck and Sinagua and start of the first pitch of Sundeck. I decided to go for Sundeck first thinking it to be the easier of the two, with the first pitch an awkward class 4 chimney.

We racked up and I started up the flared chimney, indeed finding it awkward mostly due to the damp and gritty rock, offering poor traction as I stemmed up to the notch between the two spires. A small pine offered a nice belay anchor and I quickly pulled up the rope, bringing up Holly to join me.

We were both hoping the next pitch would be a bit more fun. The second and final pitch on Sundeck spire was the crux, a 5.8 roof onto the summit with huge jugs. After reflaking the rope, I started up the pitch, placing a cam in the 5.6 cracks lower down to prevent a huge pendulum. It was easy climbing on large ledges to clip the first bolt. The moves to the second bolt were also fairly easy, but the rock felt loose and I worried that every block I pulled on could rip off the face. I reached the ledge below the summit roof and was a bit surprised at how big the roof was. I expected some nice feet to work up down low, but it was so overhung my feet couldn’t reach anything in the back. Heel hook it is…

I clipped the bolt under the roof and pulled up to clip a second bolt at the lip. After a short rest, I reached up for the highest holds I could find and hooked my feet onto the lowest ledge, basically at shoulder level. Thankfully the holds were there, and I pulled the big jugs, mantling the final moves on to the summit. Although the climb was a bit of a one move wonder, I was pumped to have sent my first 5.8 spire clean, capped with the biggest roof I’ve ever pulled outside. There was a nice two bolt anchor to bring up Holly, and I pulled in the slack so she could join me on the huge summit. After cruising the lower half, she stalled at the roof, not having the same height advantage to drive up to some of the higher holds. But with a little persistence she mantled on to the summit to join me. The summit was well named, the flat topped spire large enough to park two buses.

We were both ready for more climbing and didn’t spend long on top, single rope rappelling down to our packs directly from the summit chains. We changed out of our rock shoes just to keep them dry, and traversed around the north side of Sinagua Spire clockwise to a thin ramp on the south face and start of the standard route to the summit.

Although also rated 5.8, this spire was a bit longer and the climbing a bit more involved. Already racked up, I wasted little time starting up, finding great cam placements in a series of parallel cracks bringing me to a huge detached flake about 30′ up. The route completely changed to a tight chimney between the flake and the wall, which although unprotectable, would be near impossible to fall out of.

I inched and squirmed my way up to a ledge at about the halfway point of the pitch and crux of the climb, a steep 5.8 hand crack. Some good feet low down disappeared halfway up the crack with smooth sandstone up high. I stood up as high as I could and placed a cam, then jammed a few feet higher to place a second. I knew I had a genuine chance of falling giving my inexperience with crack climbing technique, so I downclimbed to rest after placing the cams before going for it again.

My conservative cam placements would ultimately be my undoing- when I finally made a move to get up the crack, I paused to place a final cam at the top of the crack just below a small ledge, my foot slotted above a lower cam. I wasn’t used to holding all my weight on a slotted foot, and it popped just as I clipped the final cam (which held). Had I just gone for it and not spent time placing another piece, I would have done it cleanly. Oh well.. Above the hand crack was a final fun low angle crack that was extremely featured. I clambered up and clipped into a two bolt anchor at the top of the first pitch. After pulling up the slack, Holly started up the route, grunting sounds emanating from the chimney section below. She came up pretty quickly, only slowing to hang at the hand crack to clean the plethora of cams I left for her.

We moved the belay clockwise around the corner for the final pitch, also rated 5.8 but considerably easier than the hand crack. I third classed a low angled crack before placing a cam in a juggy crack, pulling around a small roof to the summit. The two bolt anchor was better positioned for rappelling over belaying, but I made it work to bring up Holly. She redeemed herself on the second roof of the day, easily pulling on to the summit to join me. We could kick ourselves for not bringing summit beers, although it seems unlikely they would have survived the chimney!

We were staying in Jerome that night, and although we wanted to climb some more, Basketball Dome looked like a pretty painful bushwack for the approach, and Kachina Woman seemed a bit borderline for my ability. So we did two single rope raps down the route and back to our packs to hike out.

We followed the use trail back to the main trail down Boynton Canyon and made it back to our car in about 20 minutes. After a quick wet nap bath, we headed out of Sedona towards Cottonwood for some wine tasting and a night in Jerome.