-
1969 Hits
-
74.01% Score
-
4 Votes
Page Type:
|
Route |
|---|---|
Route Type:
|
Trad Climbing |
Season:
|
Spring |
|
Time Required:
|
Less than two hours |
|
Rock Difficulty:
|
5.11 (YDS) |
|
Number of Pitches:
|
1 |
|
Overview
Lizard Locks is a strikingly beautiful thin crack climb on the northern end of The Monument wall- north of Desert Gold, Seduction Line and Handbone. It is one of many quality crack climbs in an area of pale looking but solid sandstone.Getting There
From the Black Velvet parking lot follow a good trail (also used by mountain bikers) towards Black Velvet Canyon. Break off the good trail onto a hiking trail heading in the general direction of BV Canyon. Follow the trail for about 100 yards and then cut into the desert heading in the general direction of Desert Gold (the obvious pale looking rock with a monster roof). Drop into the wash and continue heading in the DG general direction. Stay high on the ridge that will lead to a rough trail towards DG. Once at the base of DG, follow the base of the cliff to the west and then swing north scrambling up, down and around through random bits of talus. Handbone will be obvious. Follow the base of the cliff until you reach the second of two pale sections of sandstone. Lizard Locks is in the second section of pale sandstone.Route Description
Lizard Locks is on the right side of the wall and is the obvious thin splitter crack to the left of a small arete. At the top of the route is some red webbing that makes the route even more easily identifiable.Begin up blocky terrain to meet the main crack. Thin finger locks in the 5.10- minus range bring you to a decent rest where the crack moves slightly to the left and thins out. Do some trickery here to reach an OK rest and then fire straight up using the features provided to you to reach a jug and the anchors. A very good route that stays with you until the very end.
At the top of the route is a two bolt anchor. There is some newish looking webbing and a tri-lock carabiner to rap from. I lowered from the bolts but they could use a replacing. There is one Star Drive and a homemade 1/4" bolt. Yikes.