Cochise Christmas 2020: The Waste Land, Beeline, What’s My Line?, Inner Passage, Days of Future Passed, Endgame, The Long Strange Trip, Nightstalker, Arribas Amoebas, The Out-of-Towners, Fire Sermon, Teenage Wasteland, Magical Realism, Nancy Boys, Uncertainty Principle, Full Circle

Route Overlays

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Intro

Itinerary

• Dec 17-18 (Thu-Fri): Drive from Boulder/Estes Park, Colorado to Nate's parents' place in Iowa. (~682 miles, ~10.5 hours driving)
• Dec 19-21 (Sat-Mon): Christmas family get-togethers at the Arganbright household in Iowa.
• Dec 22 (Tue): Leave Iowa in the early morning and drive all day towards Cochise Stronghold, stopping at Deming, New Mexico in a cheap motel. (~1230 miles, ~18.5 hours driving). 
• Dec 23 (Wed): Complete the drive to Cochise Stronghold (~165 miles, 2.5 hours), arrive mid-day, and climb The Waste Land (5.8, 5p) on Waste Land Dome. Sunny and warm. With moderate climbing but some runouts, this was a good intro to the Stronghold route. Camp in the campground that night (since our first night at the Airbnb was the 24th).
• Dec 24 (Thu): Hike up to Rockfellow Group with plans to climb Days of Future Passed on End Pinnacle. It was too cold and windy so we hiked back down and climbed Beeline (5.9+, 2p) on Stronghold Dome. Then we went to get groceries at Safeway in Wilcox about 30 minutes away, and checked into our Airbnb located about 15 minutes from the trailhead.
• Dec 25 (Fri): Christmas day! We woke up to some unforecasted rain and mid-30's temperatures, so we spent the morning relaxing in the Airbnb reading, working on the computer, and eating bacon and eggs. In the afternoon, at the recommendation of our Airbnb hosts, we drove an hour over to Chiricahua National Monument, hiked around a bit, and then returned to the cozy Airbnb. By late afternoon the weather system had moved through and it looked like we would have sunny warm weather for a few days (highs in the upper-50's). Time to hit the Rockfellows....
• Dec 26 (Sat): Climb What's My Line? (5.6, 3p) on Cochise Dome and then hiked over to the Rockfellow Group and did the Inner Passage (5.4, ~600-700 ft) between Chay Desa Tsay and Rockfellow Dome. Both of these are quite unique routes. We left our gear (rope, rack, harness, shoes) hanging in a pack up at the base of End Pinnacle since we planned to return there the following day.
• Dec 27 (Sun): Have a relaxing morning at the Airbnb waiting for the sun to curve around the Rockfellows and then spend the afternoon climbing Days of Future Passed (5.10 R, 4p) and Endgame (5.10-, 5p) on End Pinnacle. We climbed quickly and were back to the trailhead by 5:30 pm. Sunny and warm and awesome rock, days of climbing don't get much better than this. We left our gear up there with plans to return for anther route the following day.
• Dec 28 (Mon): Climb The Long, Strange Trip (5.11-, 7p) on Rockfellow Dome. Although it was sunny, it was quite windy (a weather system was moving in) and we debated the wisdom of doing the double rope rappels in the wind, but we decided to go for it and everything worked out fine. Our hardest route yet, and another excellent one.
• Dec 29 (Tue): Weather day (plus an unexpected bonus pitch). High of 41° and a mix of rain and snow in the morning. We drove 30 minutes to Wilcox and picked up some more fresh food at the Safeway and did laundry. My friend and climbing partner Dow Williams had arrived at the Stronghold a few days earlier, so Nate and I went to pay him a visit. As we visited under a grand vista, the weather was improving by the minute, so the three of us decided to head over to climb Nightstalker (5.9, 1p) to the top of Owl Rock just a short jaunt from Dow's camp. It looked like the weather system had passed and that the remainder of our trip would be clear and sunny (although with highs in the mid-40's, which was a bit cooler than before).
• Dec 30 (Wed): Climb Arribas Amoebas (5.10+, 4p) and The Out-of-Towners (5.10+, 3p) on Out of Towners' Dome. Sunny but cold and breezy so we climbed in jackets.
• Dec 31 (Thu): Climb The Fire Sermon (5.10-, 4p) and Teenage Wasteland (5.10, 4p) on Waste Land Dome. A bit warmer and calmer than the previous day so we were quite comfortable.
• Jan 1 (Fri): New Years Day! We decided to check out the In the Shadows area, a group of small spires below the Rockfellow group, with several single-pitch routes on great rock. We climbed a few single-pitch routes: Magical Realism (5.7), Nancy Boys (5.8), and Uncertainty Principle (5.11) on Maybe Pinnacle. We had wanted to climb a couple of other routes, but our motivation dwindled when some slightly obnoxious climbers arrived at the wall. We returned to the Airbnb and enjoyed relaxing on the sunny porch napping, birdwatching, reading, and working on this trip report.
• Jan 2 (Sat): We had yet to climb on Entrance Dome, one of the tallest formations on the East Stronghold. So we climbed Full Circle (5.10, 5p) on Entrance Dome. This route was not as good as the others we had done on the trip, but it got us to the top of one of the larger features and we enjoyed the sunny aspect and lack of other climbers.We were back at the Airbnb by early afternoon, so even though we were booked to stay the night and check out the next morning, we decided to get a head start on our drive back to Estes Park/Boulder, Colorado. We drove 6 hours before stopping at a cheap hotel in Albuquerque for the night. (~400 miles, ~6 hours driving from Cochise to Albuquerque) 
• Jan 3 (Sun): Make the remainder of the drive back to Estes Park/Boulder, Colorado. One week for me to study for my preliminary exam! (~510 miles, ~8 hours driving from Albuquerque to Estes Park, for a total of ~910 miles, 14 hours driving from Cochise to Estes Park.)

Climbs We Did

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