Intro

I had climbed at Cochise Stronghold only once before, over Winter Break 2015-16. Cochise was the plan for Winter Break 2020-21. But then in August I tore my ACL and meniscus and had knee surgery in early September. So with my surgeon telling me no at-risk activities for at least 6 months, I figured the Cochise plan (which would be at slightly less than 4 months from surgery) wouldn't happen. But when my religious PT led my knee to start to feel pretty good by about 3 months in, the draw of warm sunny granite was too much, and Nate and I decided to go for it. I would just be careful with the knee. No leading, falling, stemming, drop-kneeing, or boulder-hopping for me. The risk of climbing with a still-healing 4-month-old ACL graft and meniscus repair was a risk I was willing to take.

It was an awesome trip to the East Stronghold: 10 days of climbing, 12 multipitch routes plus 4 single-pitch routes, and 52 pitches of climbing ranging from 5.6-5.11. We climbed 9 of the formations: Waste Land Dome (three times), Stronghold Dome, Cochise Dome, End Pinnacle (twice), Rockfellow Dome, Owl Rock, Out of Towners' Dome (twice), Maybe Pinnacle, and Entrance Dome. We had decided that on this trip we would climb only sunny routes given the maximum number of stars in the guidebook (three stars), so all of the routes we did were warm and spectacular. And despite the quality of the climbing, we never encountered another party on any of the routes we did. Nate did all of the leading on this trip. With Nate on the sharp end leading all 52 pitches, we climbed the routes quickly. He cruised up the notorious Cochise runouts and difficult 5.10-11 sections with impressive ease. Even without my knee injury several of the pitches we climbed would have been pretty heady for me to lead (which likely explains the paucity of other climbers in such a spectacular area). I enjoyed following and getting back on the rock with my favorite partner. As far as my knee went, it felt stronger and more confident by the day and I had no issues.

Another aspect that made this trip so enjoyable is that Nate and I had decided to stay in an Airbnb rather than the campground at the Stronghold. The Airbnb was in a trailer a mere 15 minutes drive from the trailhead. We enjoyed mornings in the heated warmth of the trailer drinking coffee and reading/studying, late afternoons on the porch watching native birds and javelina and sunset over the Stronghold, and evenings grilling and watching Netflix. The hosts Theresa and Ron were awesome, and even gave us fresh eggs and homemade Christmas cookies. Staying at the Airbnb rather than camping allowed me to get in some studying for an upcoming numerical analysis preliminary exam, which was sort of essential for me to be able to pull off such a long trip when I had such an important exam to prepare for.

We had Tanya Bok's guidebook for the area. I really appreciate a good guidebook, and this is very well done with a wealth of information and detail.

Nate and I had such a good trip to Cochise and enjoyed the Airbnb so much that we had booked it for the following year (Christmas 2021) even before our trip was over.

The following page gives our itinerary and a nice photo overlay and photos for each of the climbs we did.
Enjoy!

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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One of the best 5.8's at Cochise, this popular route has fun (but not entirely casual and often runout) climbing on mostly 5.6 or less.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:59 DESCENT: 0:32

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A quick two-pitch romp featuring one of the finest pitches of fingercrack in the Stronghold.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 0:47 DESCENT: 0:20

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A sea of chickenheads. I had climbed this entertaining route in 2015, and it was well worth climbing again.

OUR TIMES: BASE OF APPROACH GULLY TO TOP: 1:34 DESCENT: 0:30

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This unforgettable adventure traverses several hundred feet through a tight horizontal corridor between the towering walls of Rockfellow Dome and Chay Desa Tsay. Best to burn off all of the Christmas cookies before doing this route.

OUR TIMES: END-TO-END: 0:30

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This coveted climb climbs one of the few striking solitary cracks in the Stronghold. With Nate on the sharp end, we climbed this route in two hours base to top.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:58 DESCENT: 0:25

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This fully-bolted route is a perfect combination of face, alligator plates, crack, and slab, earning this route the first-ranking spot on everyone's ticklist. Best sport climb I've ever done! With Nate on the sharp end, we climbed this route in 1 hour and 45 minutes base to top, an even two hours from base to base.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:48 DESCENT: 0:12

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An appropriately-named wandering adventure up the highest formation of the Rockfellow Group. There's lots of good 5.10-5.11 climbing on this fairly well-protected route. It was very windy when we climbed it but fortunately we did not get our ropes stuck on the descent.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 2:37 DESCENT: 1:01

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A 100-foot high pinnacle with a stunning chickenhead and alligator skin face. This route gets only one star in the book (so it sort of broke our rule of doing only 3-star routes) but if you are in the area looking for a single pitch it is totally worth it for the position and fun and thoughtful climbing.

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This route ascends the center of a beautiful face. Nate and I didn't think that the routes we did on Out of Towners Dome were quite up to the 3-star quality of the other 3-star routes we had done on the trip so far.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:50 DESCENT: 0:20

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This route has a bit of everything, starting with an immaculate, technical, slabby, long first pitch and finishing with a steep, pumpy jug pitch. Like Arribas Amoebas, Nate and I didn't think that the routes we did on Out of Towners Dome were quite up to the 3-star quality of the other 3-star routes we had done on the trip so far.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:50 DESCENT: 0:20

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This enjoyable route starts at the same location as The Waste Land (which we had climbed the first day of our trip) and takes a more difficult and direct line to the summit than The Waste Land, with a nice corner finish.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:50 DESCENT: 0:32

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This modern route leaves you feeling like you went to a really good rock concert. Every pitch contains quality rock, interesting climbing, and a fantastic 5.10 section. We enjoyed this climb a touch more than Fire Sermon. We made quick work of this route, climbing from base to top of route in 1 hour and 25 minutes, and back at the base in 26 minutes.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:25 DESCENT: 0:26

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Maybe Pinnacle is a one-pitch-high pinnacle in the In the Shadows area below the Rockfellow Group. The quality of the rock is excellent. We climbed three routes here. Magical Realism: A fun 5.7+ that takes a crack and featured arete up the buttress. Nancy Boys: Fun 5.8+ up a featured face. Uncertainly Principal: Amazing alligator skin and hard climbing (so we ended up toproping it). We had planned to climb a few more routes, but our motivation dwindled when some slightly obnoxious climbers arrived at the wall.

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Old school route on okay rock up the tallest section of Entrance Dome's sunny south face. Not the greatest route we climbed on the trip, but it was nice to climb a route on one of the larger and more obvious domes of the East Stronghold.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 2:00 DESCENT: 0:29