Intro

For Christmas holidays 2020 and 2021 and 2022, Nate and I had climbed at Cochise Stronghold for two weeks (these trip reports are linked at the head of this page). We didn't want these enjoyable trips to end. Up to this point we had climbed primarily on the east side, making the 1 hour drive to the west side only a few times. We felt like we had climbed most of the routes we wanted to climb on the east side, and the west side felt like a giant playground of new routes. So despite our slight sorrow in not returning to our beloved Airbnb on the east side, we booked a nice Airbnb on the west side for the following year (Christmas 2023) and began looking forward to the new adventures to be had. For Christmas 2023, we planned on a full 2 weeks.

When we had first started coming to Cochise, I was working on a PhD at CU Boulder, and enjoyed the very much needed winter break with no pressing duties. But as of this trip report, I am working as a data analyst for a methane gas monitoring company, and my role in monitoring and diagnosing system problems is too essential to take off a full two weeks. So as a compromise I worked out a deal to work for 4 hours a day, split between the early morning and evening on either end of a day of climbing. Fortunately the Airbnb was a great place to work, and I figured working offset the costs a bit and gave a few extra PTO days available for long weekends in the summer.

The weather during our trip was pretty good. It started off warm, with a couple of days in the 70's. We relished climbing in t-shirts. Midway through the trip, we had a couple of days of rain, forcing one complete rest day followed by a 2-pitch day. Then the weather was back to sunny skies, and slightly cooler but still warm temperatures. We managed to climb every day but one during our trip.

Our stats: 14 days of climbing, 23 multipitch routes plus numerous single pitch routes, and 100 pitches (!!) of climbing ranging from 5.8-5.11-. Nate led every single pitch, which is quite impressive. We climbed 7 of the formations: The Sheepshead, The Muttonhead, Mt. Chaktar, Whale Dome, Warpath Dome, Trad Rock, Rad Rock. It was a phenomenal trip to the west side.

We had both Tanya Bok's guidebook and Geir Hundal's guidebook for the area. I really appreciate both of these guidebooks for their wealth of route information and area detail. I highly recommend these books for any trip to the Stronghold. I am aware enough of the underlying controversy that surrounds Cochise route development to know that praising both guidebooks in one sentence would be a local rarity, but alas I am not a local.
The following page gives our itinerary and a nice photo overlay and photos for each of the climbs we did. I had given Nate my extra camera setup, so I included a mix of both his and my photos to give an even more complete tour of our adventures. Combined, we took a trip total of 934 photos (235 of these were Nate's). Nate took lots of great photos.

Enjoy!

Itinerary

Dec 15 (Fri): Leave Estes Park, Colorado and drove all the way to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where we stayed in a cheap motel for the night (~660 miles, ~12 hours driving from Estes Park to Truth or Consequences).
Dec 16 (Sat): Make the remainder of the drive to the west side of Cochise Stronghold (~270miles, ~5 hours driving from Truth or Consequences to Cochise, for a total of ~930miles, 17 hours driving from Estes Park to Cochise). We arrived at noon. It was a warm sunny day, so we wanted to do soome climbing. We decided to spend the afternoon at Trad Rock, which had a short approach to a bunch of bolted single-pitch climbs. We climbed seven pitches: Isle of You (5.10-, 1p), Stone Woman (5.10-, 1p), Cochise Toecheese (5.10-, 1p), Rise and Shine, Cupcake (5.10, 1p), Now It's My Turn (5.10, 1p), OK Corral (5.8, 1p), and Hell in a Hand-basket (5.10+, 1p). Then we went and got settled into our Airbnb.
Dec 17 (Sun): Climb Phony Pony (5.10-, 5p) on The Sheepshead followed by Tour Buses Welcome (5.10, 3p) on The Muttonhead. This was a gorgeous 74° day with deep blue cloudless skies, forecasted to be the warmest day of the trip. A great day of climbing at the start of our trip!
Dec 18 (Mon): Climb Ides of Middlemarch (5.10-, 5-6p) on The Sheepshead followed by Animal Husbandry (5.10, 2p) and Bruise the Rooster (5.10-, 2p) on Barnyard Wall on The Sheepshead. A great day with sunny skies and 10 pitches of climbing!
Dec 19 (Tue): Climb We Expect You (5.9, 4p) and Royal Scam (5.11-, 5p) on Mt. Chaktar. A nice two-route day to a new formation. A tad overcast but very comfortable climbing temperatures.
Dec 20 (Wed): Climb Moby Dick (5.8, 5-6p) on Whale Dome. It rained and hailed on Pitches 2, 3 and 4 but we perservered to the top. We had planned to climb a second route (Dem Bones 5.10) on Whale Dome but decided not to be too greedy on a marginal day.
Dec 21 (Thu): First day of winter. Our main objective was Warpath (5.9, 3p) on Warpath Dome. I thought the route was rather exciting and unique, but Nate thought it was boring! While waiting for sun to hit Warpath, we climbed Fax Crack (5.9-, 1p) and Driven by Fear (5.8, 1p) on Crackathon at Warpath Dome.
Dec 22 (Fri): We woke up to rain. So it was a forced rest day. We spent the morning working on a puzzle (me) and playing video games (Nate), and drove to nearby Tombstone in the afternoon. Nate got a the Crystal Palace burger at the Crystal Palace, and then we walked around town a bit before driving over to the Family Dollar and stocking up on the next week's worth of groceries. We also stopped in at the Trump Store, quite the spectacle on the edge of town.
Dec 23 (Sat): The weather still looked marginal and Nate wanted to do some hardder climbing, and voted for a day of hard cragging at Rad Rock. Unfortunately it clouded up and began to rain as Nate was leading our third pitch, so climbed only two pitches: Unnamed (5.110- 1p) on Upper Rad Rock and Fire in the Hole (5.10, 1p) on Lower Rad Rock.
Dec 24 (Sun): We woke up to low wet fog, and spent the first part of the morning doubting we would actually be able to climb. But the forecast called for sunny skies in the afternoon, so mid morning we decided to hike up to The Sheepshead. Just as we arrived, the fog lifted. A Christmas present. We climbed The Last Roubdup (5.10+, 6p) on The Sheepshead followed by Bantam of the Opera (5.10+, 2p) on Barnyard Wall on The Sheepshead. Not bad for a day we though we would get in no climbing! The wind had a bite to it, and this was probably the coldest day of our trip so far.
Dec 25 (Mon): A splitter sunny 50° day. Merry Christmas! We climbed Have You Seen It? (5.10, 2p) and In Water There is Life (5.11-, 3p) on The Muttonhead followed by Poultry Emulsion (5.10, 2p) on Barnyard Wall on The Sheepshead. A wonderful way to spend Christmas.
Dec 26 (Tue): Another sunny day. We climbed Unmitigated Audacity (5.11-, 5p) on The Sheepshead, probably the hardest and most sustained route we have climbed up The Sheepshead yet. We had planned to climb a second route, but Nate's finger pads needed the afternoon off (he had led 67 pitches up to this point!); so we drove to the Family Dollar in Tombstone and stocked up on groceries for the remainder of our trip.
Dec 27 (Wed): Another sunny day. We climbed In Vino Veritas (5.11-, 3p) on The Muttonhead followed by Get the Flock Out of Here (5.10+, 5p) on The Sheepshead. A great day with several 5.10 to 5.11- pitches.
Dec 28 (Thu): After the previous couple of day's sucesses on 5.11- routes, we decided to climb another 5.11- route to the top of The Sheepshead. We climbed Mad Cow Disease (5.11-, 5p) on The Sheepshead followed by Great Pig in the Sty (5.11-, 2p) on Barnyard Wall on The Sheepshead.
Dec 29 (Fri): By this point we had climbed most of the routes to the top of The Sheepshead, except for the more obscure routes. One non-obscure route we had not yet climbed was The Tombstoe Stripper (5.10-, 6p); so we climbed that. We were now at 88 pitches for the trip, and 100 was in sight, so we did a quick ascent of Ewephoria (5.8+, 5p), which we had climbed the previous year but was worth climbing again. We ended the day with 93 pitches. Only 7 more to go!
Dec 30 (Sat): Our last day in Cochise. We were determined to get 100 pitches. We climbed two routes on Mt. Chaktar: Ghosts of the Past (5.10-, 4p) and Strassman Memorial Buttress (5.10+, 3p). 100 pitches exactly! What a trip!
Dec 31 (Sun): Checkout from Airbnb. Drive back to Estes Park. (930 miles, 14 hours driving from Cochise to Estes Park.)

Climbs We Did

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Trad Rock is the lower and foremost of the two most prominent rocks visible from the parking area. It hosts a good number of quality routes in a variety of grades from 5.6-5.11. In spite of its name, most of the routes on this crag are clip-ups. All in all, it's a great sport crag in an unbeatable setting. Rock quality is generally good. This was a great location to get in several pitches in short order.

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This climb is fun, challenging, and continuously interesting requiring a variety of techniques.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 2:42 DESCENT (5 RAPPELS): 0:43

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This enjoyable climb begins just t the right of Mystery of the Desert, on beautiful electric green rock. The climbing is mostly slab.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:10 DESCENT (3 RAPPELS): 0:07

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One of the original routes on the Sheepshead, this route follows a beautiful major feature splitting the face. Nate and I thought this route was as good as any other 10- on The Sheepshead. The highlight of the day was climbing past a ring-tailed cat chilling out in the crack on Pitch 3.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 3:25 DESCENT (TO BARNYARD WALL): 0:15

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Barnyard Wall is a steep tower on the upper west face of The Sheepshead at the very top of the descent gully. Linking a route on the main south face of The Sheepshead with a route on Barnyard Wall on the descent makes for a great day of climbing.

Animal Husbandry: This is the furthese left bolted line on Barnyard Wall. The upper section of this climb are so good they make up for the esthetic distractions at the start. We accidentially climbed this route when we thought we were climbing Bruise the Rooster, but the climbing was surprisingly good for a one-star route and we were glad we climbed it.

Bruise the Rooster: This route climbs a the prominent right-facing corner which leads to the obvious right-leaning seam through excellent rock on the headwall above. Although two pitches, we climbed this as one long 60m pitch to finish off a 10-pitch day of climbing.

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Another fine route with climbing characterized by sustained face climbing at moderate grade. This route has been retro-bolted to a modern sport route which removed its original R rating.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:39 DESCENT (4 RAPPELS): 0:20

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This route is named after one of the best Steely Dan albums and a nefarious bolt placement on the third pitch, hand drilled from a wide stem off a wobbly pine tree branch. Climbs a nice plaque of granite on the upper west face of the Chaktar.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:58 DESCENT (5 RAPPELS): 0:20

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One of the most-climbed lines of the West Stronghold; a must do on anyone's tick list. We had planned to link this route with a second on Whale Dome (Dem Bones, 5.10), but after we weathered some hail and rain on Moby Dick, we decided not to be too greedy on a marginal forecast day.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:30 DESCENT: 0:30

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Two crack climbs at Crackathon, located about 10 mintutes uphill from the start of Warpath. We climbed these as we waited for the sun to come around onto Warpath.

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This route has it all: crack, dikes, slab, and face with just a touch of runout to challenge almost the entire climbing repertoire.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:36 DESCENT: 0:07

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Rad Rock is the next fin of rock behind and uphill from Trad Rock. Unlike Trad Rock, this area was established with the "radical" method of the time: top-down rap bolting. The rock here is decent and the routes are well-protected with top anchors, so it is a good place to get in a lot of pitches in short order, especially on a day with a marginal forecast. We managed to get in two pitches before it begain to rain.

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This route was the last of the long multipitch to be put up on the Sheepshead.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 2:29 DESCENT (TO BARNYARD WALL): 0:15

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After climbing The Last Roundup, we climbed Bantam of the Opera on Barnyard Wall (Barnyard Wall is a steep tower on the upper west face of The Sheepshead at the very top of the descent gully). This two-pitch route is a quality face climb with some beautiful features along the way.

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Have You Seen It? - This is a two-pitch, mostly bolted line consisting mostly of face and slab climbing that is worth doing if you are in the area. Also a nice morning warm-up as it gets morning sun (besides for the first 40 feet).

In Water There is Life - The third pitch of this route is the guidebook cover. Gotta climb it!

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After climbing on the Muttonhead, we climbed Poultry Emulsion on Barnyard Wall (Barnyard Wall is a steep tower on the upper west face of The Sheepshead at the very top of the descent gully). This two-pitch route is the longest climb on Barnyard Wall and features good climbing throughout.

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This route is characterized by quality, sustained climbing and some of the best rock on the Sheepshead. Every pitch is 5.10 or higher, and the climbing is pretty sustained at the grade.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 3:10 DESCENT (BACK TO PACKS AT BASE OF ROUTE): 0:30

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In Vino Veritas - To celebrate post-climb with a toast of red would not be inappropriate for this route. The start is located about 200 feet uphill from the toe of the formation.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:18 DESCENT (3 RAPPELS): 0:07

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Interesting and sustained sections of crack climbing of all sizes and techniques come with multiple cruxes.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 2:48 DESCENT (BACK TO BASE OF ROUTE): 0:20

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A nice 2-star 5.11- up the Sheepshead. The crux pitches two and three are quite beautiful.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 3:00 DESCENT: 0:30

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After climbing Mad Cow Disease, we climbed Great Pig in the Sty on Barnyard Wall (Barnyard Wall is a steep tower on the upper west face of The Sheepshead at the very top of the descent gully). This two-pitch route ascends a continuous thin face to an upper headwall of beautiful, exposed stone. On this trip we climbed all five of the 2-pitch routes on Barnyard Wall. All were worth doing, especially to tack a couple of quality pitches onto a Sheepshead climb.

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This route ascends the south face of The Sheepshead, crossing over Ides of Middlemarch.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: #:## DESCENT: #:##

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After climbing The Tombstone Stripper, it was still early in the afternoon and such a splitter day, so we decided a quick lap up Ewephoria was in order. We had climbed this route the previous year and it was worth climbing again. With its moderate grade and generally well-protected climbing, Ewephoria is the most popular route on the Sheepshead. As the guidebook mentions, diverse climbing at a moderate grade on high quality rock make this a must-do route, no matter how hard you climb.

OUR TIMES: BASE TO TOP: 1:08