DESTINATION Superstition Mtns - NW / Crying Dinosaur 1 Photoset
2021-11-28 | | -
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| Climbing | 5.00 Miles |
1,370 AEG |
| | Climbing | 5.00 Miles | 5 Hrs | | 1.00 mph |
| 1,370 ft AEG | | | | |
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|  | ••• | Regular Route |
| | 5.5 | Trad | | 3 Pitches | 200 ft | | | Katie and I continued our vertical exploration of the Supes with another fun landmark, the “Crying Dinosaur” in Siphon Draw.
We started off from the state park a few minutes before seven a.m. to a pleasantly cool morning and gentle sunrise. The approach to the Crying Dinosaur utilizes the Siphon Draw Trail, when you get parallel with the spire informally known as the Crying Dinosaur, drop down into the bouldery wash and shoot for the grassy hillside. A climbers trail should be pretty easy to pick up from here, once you find the tread, head up the steep slope towards the obvious gully that splits the formation and the massive wall. The gully looks overgrown, but there is a trail through it. Continue up the gully to the small saddle like area and then down and around to the base of the climb.
The first pitch has a tough slightly sandbagged move off the deck that many consider to be the crux of the climb, but it went pretty smoothly and protected well. From there, it was pretty smooth going to the notch, where I stopped to belay Katie up. Katie snagged the lead on the second pitch, which was easy climbing, but real airy and hard to protect. The third pitch involved one 5th class move off the deck, a bolt clip and then a chossy unprotected 4thish/5th class scramble to the top.
The views from the top were excellent and we celebrated with a one pound gummy dinosaur that may have been stale. After enjoying the views for a minute, we began our descent and made the first short rap off the summit. The final rap to the ground was a long double roper that was big and airy. The pull was clean and after a quick snack at the base of the rap, we packed up our stuff and headed back down the gully and back to civilization.
This was a fun, easy summit and great novelty for the area. We both enjoyed the climb and hard to beat that setting. It took us just under two hours to get up and down and about five hours from car to car. |
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