Dark Shadows To The Top - Notes

Dark Shadows 11 Pitches 5.8


60M rope
Standard Rack to 3 inches
12 Slings


Climb Pitch 1-4 as per any of the guidebooks and belay the 4th pitch at the anchor 20 feet up and right of the Dark Shadows rap anchors. You will also have passed a set of anchors just below the huge roof of “Heart of Darkness”

Pitch 5 5.7
Climb up a crack with one bolt past an overhang. Continue up a crack, past a second small overhang and up a wide crack to a large platform with two bolts. Belay from here for the step across to the next pitch. 130 feet

Pitch 6 5.7
Step across a gap and move out left across the face to gain a crack about 15 feet above a belay station. Move up the crack onto the face trending up and left to a two bolt belay station. 150 feet

Pitch 7 5.8
Climb up a thin crack and pull through a roof. Continue up the crack until it ends at a small ledge with loose rock. Set a piece with a long sling and move right across the face about 15 feet to another crack that will take you up to a belay below a large arching roof. 160 feet

Pitch 8 5.7
Climb up a crack and through the roof up to a large ledge. Continue up and right in a crack to a second ledge with one bolt and belay here. 180 feet

Pitch 9 5.7
Move left up a corner nearly to a ledge, and then step back right onto the face. Move right up the face, through another small roof, and continue up a crack to a giant ledge where one can belay from a tree. 160 feet

Pitch 10 4th Class
Find a small trail up and left to the base of the wall and find a right trending crack which leads up through some pocketed face moves to a bushy ramp. Belay at the Pine tree at the top of the ramp. 170 feet

Pitch 11 5.5
Move left across a ledge past a large boulder and to a crack leading upward between a right and left facing corner. Move up and right along the left facing corner to gain a ledge at the un-roping spot. 160 feet

Descent off of the SOUTH side of the Mescalito

It is easier and quicker to descend the opposite side from which you climbed.
From the un-roping spot, move west up to the summit and sign the register. Continue west and south to find a large ledge system on the south side of the formation. Look for cairns and start moving West-Southwest. A GPS waypoint that will ensure that you are on the right path is:

E 0635295
N 3998356
(NAD 27)

Follow the ledge system around and past one large gulley. Do NOT go down this first gulley. It looks improbable, but go on around the head of this gulley and continue on the ledge system. Here is a set of waypoints that should keep you on track:

E 0635265
N 3998333

E 0635219
N 3998359

E 0635226
N 3998375

E 0635156
N 3998353

(All NAD 27)

Continue on the ledge system to the next big gulley. Go to the very head of the gulley and then start down. You will move down a couple hundred feet staying in the center of a widening, brushy gulley. Look for a way onto a rock rib to your right which defines the right (west) margin of the gulley. Gain the rib and continue down it (Class 3) until it is reasonable to move right again into a chimney/gulley between the rib and the wall to the right.

At the bottom of this narrow gulley, make an exposed traverse back to the left (east) into an alcove. In the alcove is a small tree from which to make a 100 foot rappel to the ground. (A better rappel station is needed here) From here, it is a short scramble down to the creek bed of the south fork. Walk out the creek bed to the fork at the base of the Mescalito and move to the north to find the trail back to the car.