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| | Climbing | | 10 Hrs 30 Mns | | 0.00 mph |
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| no partners | | Queen Victoria
250 feet, 3 pitches 5.7+
(I have seen in rated up to a 5.9)
Eric and I made a plan to visit the Queen in Sedona a few weeks ago. An injury (Eric's, not mine for a change) prevented us from going until recently. With the hotter than heck temps we altered things a bit and planned a pre-dawn start. Fortunately for us we got an invitation for beds the night before with a friend in Sedona. We sat up with Ron and talked about his gazillion FA's all over the world and didn't get much sleep. We tiptoed out the door around 4:45am on Tuesday, had the car parked by 5am and were geared up and stepping on the trail at 5:30am. The details in the guidebooks about this climb are wrong but we half-way anticipated that.
We scrambled in and out of a drainage most of the way to the base of the climb. Guidebooks say 30 minutes. Eric clocked us at 1 hour 50 minutes. We could have shaved off 30 minutes from stops for photos, bathroom breaks, shedding layers of clothing but certainly we weren't close to the 30 minute walk mentioned.
Pitch 1 --not bad, the longest of all three.
Pitch 2--got my attention with a couple of moves (exposed step and in the crack) and Eric hauled up the pack with the extra rope in it because it was simply in my way and weighing me down too much no matter where I put it.
Pitch 3---we broke this into 3 mini sections to maintain visual and auditory contact or my peace of mind. The first section of this pitch was a challenge for both of us. I went a totally different route than Eric which caused a bit of a problem because I needed to clean the placements that Eric made. We worked it out and managed to stay safe. I lead the second section or part "b" until I got nervous. Eric completed the route with about 6 steps from where I stopped. It was a short pitch but had a tough section that caused us both to use words we don't typically use. 
While on top we were buzzed by helicopters, lounged a little and took in all the beautiful views. We noticed a perfectly good foot path or route from this higher perspective and made a plan to take that on the way back even though it meant dumping out on the road about 3/4 of a mile from the car.
We did a 2 pitch double rope rap down that was uneventful. (thankfully) The water we had left seemed like it was nearly boiling temperature wise.
I have been told that the trail we hiked out on was a Mountain Bike Trail called Hangover but I'm not so sure. Maybe someone will look at my pictures and figure it out. It was certainly a much easier trail than the route we came in on. It was a gentle grade with a clear path that could have had a stroller pushed on it. We dropped our packs once we hit the road and came back to collect them with the air conditioning. By 4pm it was really HOT.
Approx time involved
2 hour approach
5 hours climbing/rap down
1 hour on top
1.5 hours eating taking pictures and breaks
1 hour hike out
How hard is it to take ONE picture with the self-timer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gb81zGeLCA |
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