Blood Meridian is a fun route up nearly perfect rock on the right side of the upper tier of the Blood Wall. The route breaks down into three sections separated by good rests: First warmup 5.10 climbing through huecos to escape some lichen to a ledge. Then, cruxy climbing passing three bolts to a dramatic finish and a good recovery stance. And finally, great 5.11- climbing with spaced but bomber gear up twin seams to a high anchor.

 Be it climbed for it's own sake or as a warmup for Venipuncture or the Main Vein, this route is a gem.

Blood Meridian

The Glass Half Full

Impulse

Slow Bleed

Venipuncture

Crack McMuffin

Bush League

The Main Vein

Seppuku

Bloodbath

Transfusion

OW Negative

Bad Blood

This striking route lies high on the blood wall and provides great views of the eagle wall, black orpheus, and solar slab.  The rock is superb, position spectacular, and the climbing fun.  Protection is plentiful but the pitches are long.   

  P1:  5.11a/b The route starts in a bomb bay Chimney. Climb the chimney and pull the lip of a small roof and follow the crack through the mixture of hands, fingers, offwidth and face moves to gain the easier OW/Squeeze. Continue up the widening chimney until about 20ft below the roof (where the crack snakes left).  At this point exit the crack by moving out left (watch rope drag) onto a scooped dish until directly under where the crack above turns back vertical.  Climb straight up to regain the crack on face holds to a stance. (5.10+)  Belay in a corner at a small ledge on fixed nuts or finger size cams. The crux of this pitch has a height dependent element. (55m) 

  P2:  5.8+ Head up and left following the crack. Continue left at a pseudo junction in the crack with a right variation. When the crack runs out, traverse right on the lower angled face to a ledge with a large slung chock stone.  

  P3:  5.9 Traverse right again for 20m to gain a chimney that quickly becomes a handcrack.  Continue up cracks to a ledge with another chockstone with slings at the top of the formation.(60m)  

No bolts, two fixed nuts used for rappel of first pitch

This is the extension to the short route called Glass Half Empty. It effectively doubles the length of that route, adding some fantastic climbing with no real increase in difficulty. Fully bolted, but bring a medium stopper (I used a BD #9) to tame a run out between the first and second bolts of the extension.

 Begin with very thin climbing (crux fingerlock-pinch at the fourth bolt) and continue past the anchor through some beautiful varnish and somewhat sporty bolt spacing to a shared anchor with Bad Blood. The final bolt is equipped so as to help with cleaning the pitch.

 NB: Be gentle yarding on the righthand undercling flake at the start.

This route is on the right side of the Blood Wall.  Look for the crack and corner system that goes to the top of the wall.  I would recommend this route to a person who enjoys adventurous 5.10 climbing over some runouts.  Some of the rock is of amazing quality, some is not.  With more traffic this route could become better. 

  p1. (5.9)  Start at a large dead pine which will mark the correct corner system.  I climbed in from the right to avoid the tree.  Once into the corner system, stem your way up.  The back of the corner will pinch down to nothing for some stretches, leaving few gear options.  Go left at the end of the corner system, and up a short crack system.  This will lead to a huge ledge that currently has a bunch of slings making a rappel station.    I thought this pitch was light for 5.9, but with sparse gear.  

  p2. (10-)  Once on the big ledge look for the crack system on the right side.  Do not go up the corner on the left side of the ledge.     Lead up through a bouldery leaning lieback with some fragile rock and mildly inspiring gear.  This leads to a left leaning thin crack system, with some fragile face holds.  Gain a right facing corner and belay on a sloping ledge.  This pitch gets 10a in the guidebook, but I thought it was a bit tougher than that, with tricky gear and creaky holds. 

  p3. (10-)  This pitch starts up a cool varnished section of corner with a bit of a run to some gear.  A yellow tcu and a #2 camalot are the only gear I got for quite a bit of climbing.     Continue up the corner until it begins to run out.  Look right and a few layback moves up a small crack will take you to the belay.  RPs help in these last few moves.     If you bring a 70m rope, you should be able to make it past this belay to a huge, more comfortable ledge.  The guidebook calls this the crux pitch, but I though p2 was more demanding. 

  p4. (5.8) The corner system becomes left facing at this point, and the quality of the climbing begins to diminish.  Go up the brushy corner until you are almost to the top.  We stopped to belay about 50 vertical feet below the summit to alleviate some rope drag.  Here our fifth pitch took us left about 30 feet to another corner system, under a roof.  It appeared to be of better rock quality than going straight up.  I found this pitch hard to rate, but required effort. 

  Descent: Top out on the formation and start looking for the heavily cairned trail.  We couldn't figure out how to down climb one section and found a tree with a rap anchor.  This rappel only needed one rope.  From here more cairns appeared, no more rapelling needed.

Slow Bleed is a nice climb up the obvious left-facing corner and roof immediately below the upper tier of the Blood Wall.

 This route is clean and fun, and entirely gear-protected. The crux comes pulling the roof which is a bit more difficult than it appears from the ground!

Another great route. Well protected face climbing with an uncharacteristic runout towards the top. Start on the Main Vein, but make big moves out left to continue up a bolt line with a few supplemental gear placements. The crux is up high. 

On the cliff bands below the Blood Wall there is a varnished face split by a crack.  Climb the crack straight up to a pine tree at its top. 

  The obvious descent is to scramble left (east) and do a short rappel into the tiny canyon leading back to the base of the route.

Start on the right (western) side of the right half of the Blood Wall, immediately to the right of an obvious left-facing corner.  A long, sustained pitch leads to a belay alcove beneath a polished wall.  The second pitch goes past the polished headwall, through a bush or two, then up a slickly varnished, left-leaning crack.  The third pitch follows the world's friendliest offwidth (5.0) to more broken ground.  Fourth class leads to the top. 

  For the descent, scramble down the Cactus Flower Tower west ridge route. 

  There is some good climbing on this route, but it is somewhat offset by occasional battles with hostile shrubbery.

A killer route. The bottom is bolted and the top is a tricky seam/offset. Good gear abounds but it seemed like it was always hard to place. The grade must come from the toprope because this seems miles harder than the routes at the Sunnyside wall. 

This route follows the prominent corner and crack system on the right (western) edge of the Blood Wall.  Four pitches up the crack lead to easier, broken rock near the summit.  The crux is a steep section on the second pitch.

Another beautiful wide crack on the Blood Wall.  Pitch 1 goes up a pleasant 5.9 chimney to a belay below the obvious chockstone.  Pitch 2 exits the chockstone on the left, and goes up the corner to a ledge with a fixed anchor.  After turning the lip, you'll see the rap anchor for the bottom pitch.

This route has some scrumptious chocolate rock and great climbing.  Unfortunately, a short but challenging roof of rotten rock guards its upper treasures.  The pitch above the chimney is the best 5.9 OW in Red Rock.  Perhaps when the bolt ban is lifted we can find a more docile way to access this grand pitch.  Still this route has great position and is a beautiful line.   

  Pitch 1   5.7 100ft   Move up the varied chimney to where the chimney opens up and a wedged boulder makes a nice stance. It may be beneficial to move the belay deep into the chimney for the next pitch. 

  Pitch 2   5.9 C1  120ft   Move back deep into the gaping chasm and then climb up the chimney placing a large cam as high as possible near the lip.  Drop back down and out of the chimney.  Do several awkward aid moves through the rotten roof.  Continue up excellent rock another 60ft of 5.9 OW to just below a wide spot in the crack.      

  Pitch 3  5.9  190ft   Chimney up the edge of the cave opening.  When it squeezes down, move up the beautiful OW crack to just below a small roof.  Belay off of medium to small cams and nuts. 

  Pitch 4   5.8  200ft   Continue up and left, taking a hand crack above (shares with Seppuku).  Continue up the crack until you reach a good sized ledge with a slung boulder. 

  Pitch 5  5.9  80ft   Walk back from the face to another small white rock wall with a right angling crack on the face.  Climb the angling crack and continue up it as it turns vertical.  Belay on ledge. 

  Pitch 6  4th class 100ft   Continue to make your way up and generally rightward to the top.   

Bad Blood is a great mixed line at the left end of the Blood Wall. It kicks off with a comical boulder problem moving past a pocket and then continues up a varnished face, traversing rightwards on great rock before continuing up to a high anchor. 

 The route climbs through a few mossy patches but the essential holds are clean... it's only a bit of friable rock in spots up high that keep me from giving this three stars. Were it not for the start it would be a great warmup for the harder climbs on the wall (still, you could easily aid through this start if necessary).

 Mostly bolted, but have a single set of cams to 0.5 Camalot and optional medium wire as well.

The Blood Wall is a large cliff of dark red rock tucked in on the northern side of the western ridge of Cactus Flower Tower. With its northern exposure, this area is best suited for warmer conditions. Although the approach represents some exercise, there are some routes here with truly excellent rock.

Blood Meridian

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Blood Wall