Grand Canyon – Zoroaster & Brahma Temple
I got a text from Derek on February 11th about a Grand Canyon trip. I immediately assumed this was a river trip because that is more or less my only frame of reference for any adventures in that park.
Knowing Derek, I should have known he was referring to a climbing trip. Or more broadly, something that was going to involve a lot more suffering than floating down the river in a raft drinking beers.
I had been really lazy this winter and hadn’t been particularly stoked on anything, or even really wanted to be cold and push myself in the mountains. I even became a bit of a gym rat and lifted weights! Unheard of. As you can see from my response, I knew this was going to be a great opportunity to jump out of that mentality to get focused and start training for an awesome adventure.
The goal was Zoroaster: the Crown Jewel climb of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon has terrible rock, generally speaking, but this tower has (slightly) better Sandstone and a cool 5.10 route to the top of an iconic summit. There is also Screaming Sky Crack (5.11 R), but we did not even consider trying to aid through it. Maybe next time, as it did look incredible.
Derek and I were joined by Jackson Brill, a very talented runner from Boise who now resides in Bend, OR and is a running coach and substitute teacher. Jackson had also lived in Boulder for years, meeting and befriending Derek there years ago. I actually met Jackson in Moab, Utah, after running the Moab Red Hot where Jackson came in 2nd, only behind Adam Peterman, and just before he started his tear of ultra wins, culminating in WS100.
Given Jackson's tree trunk legs and lack of climbing experience, we decided he would be our mule. He would carry our 70m rope and the shared climbing gear we would need to get to the top of Zoroaster, our initial goal (more on that to come later). Derek and I would swap leads and carry mostly personal gear and the many liters of water and food required to fuel us for the duration of the adventure, of which we were predicting an ~18 hours roundtrip.
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After a month or so of chatting and planning, getting GPS tracks, reading blog posts and trip reports and reviewing maps, the weekend was finally there.
I met Derek in Phoenix, rented a car and drove to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We met Jackson at an Albertsons and loaded up on all of the calorie-dense foods we could find. Cakes, candies, bars and Tony’s Chocolonely (a client of mine that makes massive chocolate bars with 1,000 calories each. Also delicious and ethically sourced). This was a great learning experience for me. I usually just toss in a bunch of food and go, but Jackson showed me how crucial it can be by being spending a bit more to time meticulously and scientifically map out our calorie consumption during such an outing. Other foods included in our packs included peach ring candy, nature valley muffin bars, hostess fruit pies, two chicken wraps, glazed mini donuts and 5 strawberry jam uncrustables.
We got to the Rim and met and stayed with Steve Hawkins, a friend of Derek’s dad who works for the park and has a cabin a mere 5 minute drive from the start of the famous South Kaibab trail. How lucky were we. Steve an his wife Kathy were amazing. They graciously let us crash inside (we thought we’d camp outside), provided a room and access to the kitchen and tons of positive stoke for our mission.
Side note: Steve is also an incredible runner, regularly diving into the rim and cranking out ~18 mile days along the canyon. He also climbed Zoroaster years ago with Derek’s dad, Bill, on a similar mission.
Friday night we spent packing, going over logistics, and trying to push out any lingering anxiety about the large mission we were about to undertake with feelings of excitement and stoke. All three of us wore LaSpo Mutants for the approach, really the perfect shoe for the variety of elements we would be going through, whether loose scree piles, dirt singletrack or easier scrambles which the rubber handles well. For the climb I chose the everyday workhorse TC Pros, Derek had his more aggressive Katanas, and Jackson some no-name climbing shoes he bought at REI ten years before.
Ahh....gear prep. Laying it all out!
Around 8:00 I laid down in the enclosed porch, tucked myself into my sleeping bag and set my alarm for 1:30am. Oof.
1:30am. Pour a cup of coffee and drink. Last minute meddling with gear. Force down a bar. Pour another cup of coffee. Stoke rises.
2:37am. We hit the trail. I park off into the woods and down a dark street close to the TH. Headlamps on, chatty, fueled and energized and ready to suffer!
The start to this adventure is brutal. You immediately descend over a vertical mile in the first 5 or so miles. While I NEVER use poles I decided to pack them for this trip, and then ultimately bring them. Within the first mile I was SO glad to have them. I really think they saved my knees from the 12,000+ feet of vert we would endure over the course of 30+ miles.
We crossed the bridge in the dark, went through the tunnel and made it to Phantom Ranch. I had been here once before, 6 years earlier during a three week rafting trip with family and friends. Phantom Ranch was constructed in the 1920s and is the only commercially-available structures along the canyon.
We hung out here for a bit and stretched our legs and hips, and then were off again on, this time connecting to Clear Creak Trail and rambling up and out the other side of the canyon.
A cool moment: Seeing the headlamps of hikers and runners descending into the rim. Many of which were likely doing the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim. A ~50 mile run to the other side of the canyon and back again.
We continued up the trail, occasionally chatting, occasionally putting our heads down and cranking, until we reached the point where we turned off the main trail and into a wash that would take us to our mission: Zoroaster.
The trail here was scarce, but by having three sets of eyes between us and using Cordis Hall’s GPS track we were able to pick our way through the cactus-infested, chossy and sandy terrain and make it to our first scramble.
Looking at this narrow channel when approaching was confounding. There seemed to be absolutely no navigable path up and out of this thing. As we got there, however, we quickly found the scramble and began making our way up.
Below: A desert friend.
This marked the start of the challenging route finding. For the next 4 or so hours we would pick our way through the multi-colored bands that make up the base of these ancient desert towers, delicately scrambling upwards so as not to rain rocks down on our partners below. Indeed, probably one of the most dangerous parts of this was just that: rockfall. Helmets were on for much of the scrambling to protect against the near-inevitabaility or rockfall.
Below: Derek scramblin up on some of the more solid rock we encountered.
At long last we got to the base of the climb. We threw off our packs and stared up at Zoroaster, nervous but also excited. We read through the description of the pitches on Mountain Project for the 50th time and looked upwards, trying to discern where exactly each pitch went and what the MP description was referencing.
I was stoked. I quickly offered to link pitches 1 and 2. I soon noticed Derek was more hesitant, and sensed some trepidation in his voice when talking about the climb.
Derek (rightfully, I may add) noted a few things. This climb looked hard. This would be one of only a few trad climbs we had done given it was late March and most of us had been skiing all winter and not climbing (and in particular not trad climbing rotten desert towers).
The second point was our timeline. We were about 90 minutes behind our anticipated arrival at the base. This in conjunction with an impending snowstorm that was forecast to hit in the evening gave us pause.
And still….two more factors played a role.
If we were to get injured, there is no Rocky Mountain Rescue driving a few miles and hiking us out. This was a serious backcountry endeavor. An injury meant using our Garmin InReach to satellite for help, and needing a helicopter rescue. The guidebook second pitch notes a long runout. The description:
Pitch 2: There used to be a Needles Eye chimney on this pitch but the associated pinnacle fell off. This pitch is now the crux at least technically and mentally. Follow crack/seam to the right and get a big cam (e.g. Camalot #3) in the final pod before the crack/seam disappears. Climb up face, using crimpers (climbers right) on the fresh rock scar from the missing pinnacle. Beware of the loose rock block on climbers right. Now you are 10 to 15 feet above and right of your cam and youre on sandy rock and no immediate pro options. Now is not the time to think about how far from camp you are, let alone civilization. A stretch to climbers left is a small horizontal crack long enough to fit a small cam (e.g. TCU #3) and your fingers. Stretch left and get the cam in!
Needless to say, not exactly confidence-inducing words.
The last part was Jackson. He is not a climber. Seeing him scramble up some cracks on the approach gave me pause. Could he get up the route? Could we pull him up? We had told him he needed to be able to toprope 5.12 before this mission, and he is undoubtedly an amazing athlete, but would that be able to translate to real rock? And rotten, chossy, runout rock, no less?
With those factors swirling, Derek and I made the decision to bail. I was very happy with our communication, and am grateful to have as levelheaded a partner as Derek. Zoroaster isn’t going anywhere. Let’s bag Brahma (another crown jewel of the canyon), tag a summit and do so safely and within our time constraints.
Above: Derek contemplating whether to give it a go or not.
Would we have summitted? Most likely. Would we have climbed it if the climb wasn't 15 miles deep in the backcountry of the Grand Canyon? Absolutely.
But with that, we set out sights on Brahma. We hiked (see: carefully navigated a scree pile) down to the saddle, dropped our bags and shoved some food and water into our shorts and jackets.
To begin the scramble on Brahma you have to nearly circumnavigate the base of the tower. We did so, and then eventually began the scramble. The scramble was largely uneventful, it was fun-ish (so much loose rock you had to be ‘on’ at all times) but the reward was the summit…and an incredible reward it was.
Scrambling up some of the nicer rock with Jackson.
We took in the views, facetimed Bill Wright and my mom quickly, and then descended back the way we came. We got back to the saddle, packed up our bags and realized we were only halfway done.
Below: Obligatory summit selfie. Zoroaster is the tower in the background.
The hike back was for the most part very smooth. We wound up rapping in a number of sections we didn’t want to downclimb (or make Jackson downclimb) and did encounter some ferocious winds here and there. I was shocked - absolutely shocked - to have not experienced a single moment of ‘bonk’ (Ultrarunner speak for getting really tired or mentally drained/down) during our endeavor so far.
Above: After summiting Brahma we ran back down to the saddle and towards Zoroaster.
Below: A windy rappel back down into the channel we came up.
Below: The Grand Canyon in all its splendor.
We made it back down to Phantom Ranch and I noticed a bit of a churning stomach. I made the mistake of drinking some Scratch even though I had a history of it causing issues for me in the past. This led to a few ‘restroom’ trips for me, and made the proceeding 5,000 foot climb out of the canyon a bit more daunting. Jackson tried to encourage me, “Don’t worry dude, we just have to do Green Mountain two times and we’re out of here.” For those not family with Green in Boulder, Green Mountain is ~3,000ft hike in Boulder. This was not the encouraging news he thought it would be.
Above: Derek and Jackson cross the bridge shortly after Phantom Ranch to begin the uphill out of the canyon.
All told, though, I put my head down, put in my headphones for the first time, and cranked to the top of the climb. I made it up first, dirty, drained and depleted, but in that satisfying way only a long day suffering with your friends can bring. I only had to wait a few minutes for Derek and Jackson to meet me up top. The time was now 10:00pm.
We drove back home to Steve's, gorging on Cool Ranch Doritos and Nuun. I had been talking about drinking my Fosters Beer for at least the last ten miles, but it no longer appealed to me once we reached home. I chugged a Coke, made some ramen and showered, watching the drain become nearly clogged from all the dirt, mud, blood and grime that was caked on me. Few things in life compare to the post-adventure shower. This was a particularly glorious one.
We woke up the next morning late, around 8:00am. We packed up and drove off to the airport after saying our goodbyes to Jackson. That feeling of accomplishment; of having set a goal, planned detailed logistics, suffered and then accomplished it is truly unbeatable. Our bodies were sore but we were all so thrilled on having accomplished a smooth mission, becoming better athletes and people along the way.
Next up: a BIG summer in the Tetons…
Final stats:
30 miles
12,602ft of vert
19:40 hours
5,652 calories burned
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