Isolation Canyon

Pine, Arizona has never been more to me than a bathroom stop or a checkpoint on the way to other destinations (like the Homestead!), until last weekend.  This quiet town is the gateway to a gem of Northern Arizona climbing, Isolation Canyon.  I had been hearing about Isolation Canyon for years, and it is certainly not a secret after Manny Rangel published his guidebook, but I had not yet experienced it for myself!

This serene canyon tucked behind Pine, AZ has been incised into beautiful quartzite by Pine Creek.  The canyon walls offer routes from 1 to 4 pitches and the rock is bullet-hard and coated with lichen in a variety of striking colors.  The rock is near-vertical and is incredibly featured, producing hundreds of moderate routes.  The perfect edges and surprising friction of the rock that makes it so fun to climb also limits the difficulty of the climbing.  I didn’t explore that much of the area and stayed mostly on the main wall, but I did not see great potential for routes much harder than those currently established, which top out at 11+/12-

The moderate and excellent climbing was just what I needed the day I was there.  Eric, Carrie, Patty, Scott, Chrissy and I cruised down there together in my new van and it was great to relax and climb with good friends.  Eric and I sampled a number of lines including the classic bolted climbs No White Flag, Peacenik, and Submission.  We also placed some gear on excellent mixed routes including Transmission and The Proposal!  The rock here lends itself well to linking pitches with long runners and we linked the three pitches of Peacenik for a pretty incredible 200’ bolted pitch!  My new Bluewater Lightning 9.7 70m rope was perfect for linking pitches.   I was pretty impressed by the slick finish on the rope, which kept drag to a minimum while also facilitating really nice handling for the belay.  It was refreshing to get out and just climb all day without going into project or try-hard mode.  While trying my hardest is really what satisfies me in climbing, it is nice to have a more mellow day once in a while and just enjoy movement over beautiful rock. 

It is really interesting to see the way certain rock types lend themselves to moderate or difficult climbing.  I expected there to be untouched faces that would go in the 5.12+ or 5.13 range, and perhaps there are, but they were not apparent.  The climbing that was there was excellent and the rock near-perfect.  Thanks to Manny and the other developers for all of their hard work to open up such a beautiful canyon to climbing!

Carrie got some great photos of me on The Proposal (Thanks!) climbing in the Mad Rock Concept 2.0, which are my new favorite shoe for pretty much everything.  All photos credit Carrie Albrecht.