The Megamahedral

This route is described in Cameron M. Burns' book

Selected Climbs in the Desert Southwest

.

My description will differ on many key points. I feel strongly that the information in the book is not correct. This will cause some controversy, I am sure, but understand that I do not know how the errors were made, nor do I assume to.

It is possible that the FA Party either accidentally or intentionally misreported the route. It is possible that a later party misreported the route. It is possible that the author of the book misunderstood, misread, or misreported the route. It is possible that the publisher screwed up. It is possible that the state of the route has somehow changed, although this seems quite unlikely.

It is also possible that I and my partner are both totally F'd in the head and are both way off base on our assessments. Maybe neither of us can climb OW well, although my past history suggests my normal onsight OW skill level is at about 5.11.

Please consider my write-up just one more source of information to be considered with the others that you may have at your disposal. The book rates

The Megamahedral

5.9+ C1. Only one pitch is rated C1 and it is stated that this pitch

will go free easily

. The topo is specific that the rest of the route goes free at 5.9+. I and my partner for the ascent, Joseffa Meir, disagree strongly. The account below is of our experience.

If you've done

Iron Messiah

(5.10a, IV) you will find

The Megamahedral

far harder and more runout by leagues. To put this in perspective, Joseffa and I would have rated

Iron Messiah

5.9, III and rate

The Megamahedral 5.11R, IV

as we did it (no very large cams)

P0 (5.9) You will have arrived at the base of a crack which has a few jams and goes into a 5.8+ slot and then up a rapidly improving crack.

After perhaps 80' (including the approach slab) I belayed my partner up. This is only perhaps 40' up the first pitch and offwidth (still not much gear). The belay we chose was at a slight bump (one-foot roof) in the right hand side of the obtuse, left-facing dihedral/crack system. The belay was on two overhead cams, a #3.5 and a #3 Camalot.

We decided to do the climb as such, making for one additional pitch which I call pitch 0, because even with 70M ropes you cannot possibly link the slippery slab at the base and the first pitch to the belay on the topo.

P1

(5.9+) From P0 jam the first crack crux and use face holds out on the left to surpass the aforementioned roof (9+), up a wide corner (9+) past a bunch of jams and lie-backs (9) to the top of pitch 1: a nice ledge with a fixed belay.

You are now nearly 60 meters from the top of the ramp at the base and 70m from the ground. This is important to note for your descent. This pitch was more or less as advertised by the book.

P2

(5.10) Here is where we believe the book is incorrect...

Start out to the left on a series of moves into a left-facing OW/squeeze-chimney that is quite steep. This will be rated R/X unless you have wide gear. Nothing smaller than a(n old, pre-C4) 4.5 Camalot will fit, and wihtout that there may be a runout of some concern. The rock here is questionable and the moves are up to 5.10.

The book claims this pitch is 5.9+, but I do not believe that a 5.9 climber could survive this lead without injury unless they have a few really big cams. The good news is that after this 40' section, the climbing gets easier. I rested on the one #4.5 Camalot that I was able to place to insure that I would not be tired later and fall from 40' to the ledge. My partner aided this section while following, concurring that the grade was harder than 5.9+.

After the initial OW the grade and angle eased. The climbing became 5.9 and the pro was #2-#4 Camalots with better rock as well. The crack gradually thinned after this to as small as wide-fingers at the top, a nice crack for thin jams and lie-backs. I lamented having only 2 cams from 1 to 1.5.

Perhaps 110' up this 140' pitch, for lack of gear, I attempted to place a tricam in the 1.25 crack out of a lieback. I placed the piece and when I tried to set it, it popped out of the soft rock. My fist, still holding the biner, struck me in the left knee and knocked me off of the wall. This was a 40' lead fall. I climbed the section again without trying to place gear. The lieback is 5.9+, as marked in the book we used. At the top of the lieback I arrived on a nice ledge with another fixed belay drilled into the wall. I belayed my partner up.

We believe the pitch to be 5.10+ if done totally free.

P3

(5.11) Here is where the climb is literally spectacular, but a little deceptive. You can see above you now a clean, Indian-Creek-like crack in a right-facing corner. This system rises for some 100' to a bulge, after which the route goes out of sight to what appears to be low angle rock.

This pitch is the C1 pitch in the book. This system is reminiscent of a beautiful Indian Creek splitter for the first 90-100 feet. I went up on lead placing one blue Camalot after another for a while in sustained off-hands jamming. The main problem was trying to walk the gear up and keep my feet out of the rope at the same time. This goes free at approximately 5.10b and is the easiest section of the entire climbmuch easier than any of the "5.9+" wide sections.

As it ascends the crack goes from #3 Camalot to #2 Camalot to #1 Camalot before pinching down to thin crack (small TCUs) that goes to the right past the bulge and onto lower-angle rock to the top of a pillar. This is now at perhaps 140' of climbing and the passing of the pillar is a little runout and loose.

The fun is over, but the pitch is not! Now you stand at the top of this pillar looking up at a squeeze slot with no pro unless you are five-foot-two, anorexic, and can worm 20' to the back to place a cam in a crack back there. The drag would then be horrific. From above the initial beautiful section, the climb went over a bulge, past a sloping ledge and into the next sandy squeeze chimneyrated 5.9+ by the book.

Here it was obvious what was done on previous ascents: 3 brick-shaped rocks approximately 12" long were chocked (cammed) into the crack like stairs. There was no available protection. I took off my helmet and re-racked so as to fit into the squeeze chimney and started up the chocks. (Do you call that free climbing? I call it aid.) Perhaps if you are thin (I'm 5'10 and 155 lbs) this is 5.9+, but terribly tight.

I made the mistake of stepping in the middle of the second chock as opposed to the top of it. At that point, it snapped and I slid down the chimney with no gear and landed on the pillar below. I puffed up my chest on the way down and twisted my body sideways to avoid a 25' free fall and impact below, with an ensuing 60' fall if I tumbled off of the pillar. This was successful to a point. I plopped softly down onto the pillar below the slot, landing without much impact, but had holes in all parts of my shirt and skin: scrapes on my back, shoulders, belly, chest, elbows, forearms, hips, etc. Literally a bloody mess.

There was absolutely no retreat from the pitch, and there we no rocks to chock back into the crack, so I wormed my way to the back of the slot, got a good cam 20' back in it, added slings, then free climbed the edge of the chimney at 5.11 R. This was on soft rock and sloping holds that shed sand whenever I moved. A set of BigBros would have been heaven-sent. An old-school #5 Camalot might have fit tipped-out somewhere (a new #6 perfect), but a #4.5 was nowhere near large enough. This was by far the most difficult and dangerous part of the climb for me.

Again, even with the chock-stones in place it would have been exceptionally hard for 5.9+ (as rated in the book). Without them, my partner and I agreed that as with our rack this was spooky.

At the top of the wide section, perhaps some 30+ feet up, there were a few jams and then the crack went thin again so I placed a good .75 TCU. Next I traversed 20+ feet out on the face above to reach the next fixed belay, as specified in the topo. The traverse is exposed, but not difficult. Falling from it wouldn't have serious consequences, but you'd sure get scraped up.

Again, Jo followed. Again, she declared the pitch very hard. We looked at me, looked at the sun, looked up at the pitches to finish (easy) and decided that now was not the time. I was all beat up and the sun was getting low. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do not feel that a 5.9+ leader would escape an attempt of this pitch without injury.

P4

(5.9+) Only viewed, not climbed by me. Please refer to the aforementioned book for a description of this pitch as well as pitches 5 and 6 (both 5.7 in the book).

From my own observations, the next pitch went up and left on light colored, well-pocketed rock. The gear would have been stoppers and TCUs in small sections of crack (soft rock) and that only to supplement the few bolts we could see in the first 100' (big runouts without gear).

After the first 100' the route disappears behind a low-angle section and, according to the book, is 5.9+ crack, but not an OW/slot.

Another day I'd like to return earlier in the day with a more appropriate rack (including a pair of very big cams or big bros) and free the whole darn route.

The Megamahedral

Description

Protection

Routes in The Minotaur