This is a true adventure climb.  Destined to be another seldom repeated Wilson route, this climb has a little of everything.  Generally the climbing is on good rock but sometimes with sparse protection.  A variety of skills from routefinding to OW to scary face are necessary for this route.     

  Pitches 1-4:   Begin up a pleasant crack on good rock.  Continue up past a bush and generally in or around the crack for 400ft.  As the crack plays out trend left over onto a sloped ledge.  4th to 5.7 

  Pitch 5:   Continue climbing 200ft up thin cracks and face to the left of a wide dihedral.  The climbing is 5.8+ with tricky protection and runnouts. 5.8+ 

  Pitch 6:   Move up until the buttress comes to a point and belay on a nice ledge around the corner on the right. 5.8 

  Pitch 7:   Move back left to the crack and continue up it for a short way until reaching easier ground. Watch rope drag on this one. 5.8 

   Pitch 8:   Above climb the arete past large blocks and over a spectacularly exposed grand roof on its left side.  Belay on top of buttress. 5.9 

  Pitch 9:   Move down and left into the gulley and up the gulley into the thicket of brush.  5.6 

  Pitch 10:   Scramble through the brush to the main face (same face as Lady Wilson) and the obvious large chimney.  4th class 

  Pitch 11:   Climb up a short offwidth on the left wall of the chimney to reach a ledge and then move back right to get back to the chimney above.  Continue climbing up the dirty chimney until a crack angling rightward out of the chimney can be taken.  Continue up this crack system to a good belay stance in a small corner. 190ft 5.10 

  Pitch 12:   Move up the corner using multiple cracks and then exit out on face holds and sketchy to no protection to traverse up and back left to the main crack and belay from a tree in the crack. 190ft 5.10+ 

  Pitch 13   Climb the squeeze chimney up and into the upper wide mouth gulley above. 5.8 

  From here follow the gulley to the summit with a few 4th class moves and using a fixed rope.  Be careful as there are alot of loose things up here.

DeAngelo/ Duncan Route (aka Double D)

Lady Wilson's Cleavage

Dogma

Head of State

Gwondonna Land Boogie

Pink Tornado Left

Just Missed the Cleavage

Sentimental Journey

This a long, serious route, following mostly wide cracks.  It is not actually on the Horseshoe Wall, but that's close enough for now... 

  Routefinding is easy on this one, once you find your way to the base.  Check the accompanying photo from Red Rock Odyssey to find the line for the approach. 

  From the rope-up spot, climb six pitches up the obvious crack.  Then go right in the gully and chimney system to the top.  The most obvious descent is through First Creek. 

  There is an entire chapter about this route in Red Rock Odyssey

I am posting a topo of the route instead of describing each pitch in detail. This is all I had to send the route from Flyn Brian, but it was horrible, so I recreated one. Wonderful route. Take the Black Velvet Wall and drop it 1,000 feet above the desert floor. This is the definition of "desert rockaneering".

Head of State forges a wondering but somewhat direct line up "the fin", a faint buttress in the middle of the mountain between Lady of Wilson's cleavage and Dogma. The route in general is not super sustained and climbs more like a long alpine rock ridge than a red rocks wall. The climbing is high quality and varied on generally good rock. Imagine resolution arete but much much longer. This is a pretty solid grade V and makes for a huge day, there are ample bivy ledges, the highlight being the soft and perfectly flat ledge at the base of the "kraken" chimney.

 P1 170' 5.7 Follow a crack below the large shallow varnished chimney, then continue up the left side of the chimney to a small ledge below some red boulders and a right trending varnished ramp. P2- 110' 5.2 Climb the varnished ramp to a huge bushy ledge system.

 -Move the belay up and right around 200' to the base of the treed out face. Aim for the middle of the face. The next 6 pitches climb "The Apron", the massive pink cone of rock that forms the outside of Willie's.

 P3- 150' 5.5 Weave your way through the bushes and yucca. Belay in a blocky gully feature at the base of the steep wall in front of you. This is the worst part of the day, but its not as bad as it looks. P4- 150' 5.7 Head up the right trending crack to your right. follow this to a small triangular ledge with a finger crack out left. P5- 160' 5.10- Step down and left off the ledge and face traverse to the splitter finger crack. Follow this crack to a nice ledge on the left below a short varnished open book. Belay only takes .4 size cams and micro nuts and is hard to place. P6- 200' 5.8 Step right off the belay, then back left above the corner to a nice finger crack. Climb the face above aiming for the bush to the left. Squeeze through the bush and into a large gully system, step left to the leftmost chimney and ramble up to a stance below a strange tufa-like flake. P7- 180' 5.6 Straight up the chimney over a chockstone, step right onto an easy slab. Belay on a sloping ledge just above a pine tree. P8- 200' 5.8 Traverse the face left and up to a crack. This crack leads to a red left facing corner. Follow this corner to the summit ridge of the apron. Take the left of the two slabby ridges and run up easy slab to the top of the apron. Belay with hand size gear in a horizontal at the summit.

 -Scramble up the ridge about 400' aiming for a huge gaping offwidth.

 P9- 40' 5.4 Climb a nice hand crack under the OW. Lower off of tat on a bush into the gully below. This is the top of Willie's. P10- 200' 5.8 Start left of a mossy patch. Climb the crack up the slab, climbing the face when there are bushes or trees in the way. Belay at a huge pine tree. P11- 140' 5.7 Ramble up and left and weave your way toward a ledge below an obvious splitter #1 crack. Belay at the left end of this bushy ledge below the obvious arching hand crack. P12- 130' 5.10+ Climb the amazing splitter hand crack. An awkward mantle guards the belay ledge. Belay in a finger crack high to the left on the ledge. P13- 30' 5.9 An insanely short pitch, but extremely memorable. from the belay downclimb a bodylength and hand traverse with wild exposure to the next corner, mantel onto the ledge and belay.

 -Scramble left into the gully, then back right on this ramp for about 500' to a huge ledge with a mega cairn, the next pitch heads up the large left facing chimney corner on the far right end of the ledge. There are intermittent mid fifth moves here with low exposure. We found cairns here on the FA, our best guess is a scrambling path to sherwood.

 P14- 100' 5.9+ "The Kraken" chimney; Climb the OW/chimney up to a ledge. 5.9 P15- 200' 5.10- Continue up the wide crack system until you get to the summit of the first tower. Step right on the first big ledge and belay off 2 old 3/8" bolts around the corner. I am unsure of the story with these bolts, they appear to be about 20 years old, some forgotten adventure.

 -Side Note: we found bail gear above this and later learned that it was from an attempt by Geoff Conley about 15 years ago. He stopped at the same place we stopped on our first attempt. I don't know what route he took lower down on the mountain, i suspect it was via sherwood, but am unsure and would appreciate any information.

 P16- 60' 5.10- R "The Knifeblade Traverse" There is a enormous mostly detached thumping block on the main wall. Climb on top of this and clip a manky KB. Awkward face moves through the bush lead to the OW above and good gear. Climb the OW until it doglegs to the right then make an exposed traverse to the right to the base of a right trending hand crack. Build a hanging belay here with horrid rope drag. P17- 170' 5.9 Climb the hand crack up to some bushes that block the crack. Climb the face on the left placing gear in the bushes as needed. Continue up into the deep varnished chimney. 5.7 R Chimney leads up to a well protected cool mantle to a large blocky belay ledge. P18- 195' 5.9+ Start up the left facing corner past some choss blocks to a ledge. Climb halfway up the left side of a micro tower (Gummy Bear Tower). An unprotected (5.5) Leftward Face traverse leads you to the attractive right facing corner. Follow this past a very awkward OW/squeeze move to the top of the tower. P19- 170' 5.11- PG-13 "The Headwall" Amazing position and movement. Climb the seam following fixed gear. This pitch  is serious and sustained with some runouts in 5.10 terrain. Cruxes are reasonably well protected, imagine a 5.11 version of the rock warrior. Belay at a small ledge below a roof, only takes 2's and 3's. P20- 110' 5.9 R Steep climbing straight up leads to a roof with a crack above it. Once established on the face, climb straight up confusing overlaps and seams to the summit. Belay on a ledge at the lip of the summit or at a tree far from the edge.

 Descent: The best descent off wilson is oak creek. When you top out turn right and walk across the summit ridge to the true summit, follow cairns from here.

 Bail Options: There are a few retreat options that I am aware of, I am more familiar with some than others. The first would be to descend after climbing the apron. After lowering into Willie's you can descend this gully, I have not been in the upper part of this and cannot speak to it. A better option may be to climb the 5.8 slab (Pitch 10) and traverse a ledge system here to sherwood forest. The scramble between pitch 13 and 14 appears to be part of some sort of scramble that leads down to the base of LWC. Above the Kraken you will likely have to leave gear to rappel. The bolts at the top of pitch 15 seem like they would be a 70M or so rappel to sherwood forrest, this is untested. There is still tat in place from where we bailed on our first attempt. From the top of pitch 17, a 60M rappel leads down the face to a ledge with a small tree. A 65M rappel from here leads down to sherwood forest.

Start off of Sherwood Forest about 200' right of the start to the route Scotty, up hill from the big trees. This route is very sustained and thoughtful. Climb up through crack systems, thin corners and roofs all the way up to the mid wall horizontal ledge system with large trees. You are in fact aiming for the first big tree on the ledge. Traverse left along the horizontal ledge to the base of the prominent chimney/corner. Three solid pitches deposits you atop the wall and a magnificent panorama.

Pink Tornado Left climbs out of Willy's Couloir and up to Sherwood Forest below the Horseshoe Wall on Mount Wilson. 

Pitch 1, 200 feet, 5.9+ Ascend the flake system until it taps out about halfway up. Traverse left into the main corner system and continue up to a niche between the large slab and the main wall. Belay from the rappel tree. 

Pitch 2, 160 feet, 5.9 Return to the main wall and climb the pleasing crack to just below the roof. Hang from old two bolts and belay. Anchor can be supplemented with a #2 Camalot. 

Pitch 3, 80 feet, 5.8 Slide up the notch in the roof. Belay from bolts on your left or head up and right a short distance and build a belay at the base of a left-facing corner on a large ledge. 

Pitch 4, 150 feet, 5.7 Climb the left-facing corner. 

Pitch 5, 110 feet, 5.7 Continue climbing the left-facing corner to the large ledge. 

Pitch 6, 50 feet, Class 3 Hike to the base of the wall below another left-facing corner system. 

Pitch 7, 190 feet, 5.9 Climb the sustained left-facing red corner to a bolted anchor on the left. 

Pitch 8, 60 feet, 5.7 Pull a few short moves on to a ledge. Class 3 and build anchor where convenient. Hike into the Sherwood Forest. 

Most pitches are 5.7-5.8. There are only a couple 5.9 places during the climb. 

  This route follows the general line of DeAngelo/ Duncan Route (aka Double D) but has significant amounts of different terrain; hence I decided to add it as a new route. In general, wherever possible, stay in the chimney/wide crack. There was only 2 true face climbing pitches on this climb for us.  

  From the V formed in the middle of Mt. Wilson, go up beautiful wide cracks for three pitches till reaching a ledge on the right side of the crack. [The start of pitch 1 is the same as DeAngelo Duncan but that diverges to the left] 

  Top out on a pillar via face climbing right of the ledge, navigate back and left on the pillar to a wide chimney. (3 pitches)  

  Climb the chimney (runout) to a 3rd/4th class brushy ledge. (1 pitch) [The top of this pitch is Pitch 9 on DeAngelo Duncan as far as I can tell] 

  Follow the ledge back to the base of the continuation of the chimney. (1 pitch)  

  Climb the chimney to a ledge, continue up the chimney to another ledge, then follow the narrowing squeeze chimney to a ledge. (3 pitches) [This exits from DeAngelo Duncan part way through pitch 11] 

  When the chimney looks intimidatingly hard due to becoming a water groove, exit right to easier terrain. Follow ledgy 5.8 crack and face climbing up with belays at trees. (2 pitches)  

  From the last tree belay, follow the natural funnel out right on 3rd class terrain for 2 pitches.  

  Climb a chimney in the back of a gully for a pitch to the top of Mt. Wilson. There is a prominent tree in the front of the gully.  

  This is adventure climbing at its best! It presents a long fairly moderate route to the top of Mt. Wilson. When in doubt, follow the line of least resistance towards the top, route finding skills will be needed. The bottom three pitches are really fun wide cracks/squeezes that don't require true offwidthing.

This was the very first route on the east face of Wilson, and one of the earliest big routes at Red Rock.  It was climbed in 1970 by John Williamson and Keith Hogan using a variation that ascended Willie's Couloir, then cut back right for upper headwall.  The adventurous teenagers spent three days on the route.  Local master Joe Herbst (who did not know Williamson and was unaware of his climb) climbed the route solo the following year on the day before his wedding.  Joe considers the route a milestone that marked the beginning of "serious" climbing in Red Rock.  This is an old-time adventure route and deserves an old-time adventurous description: 

  Climb a gully to the right side of Sherwood Forest.  Climb the central crack system on the right-hand headwall to the summit. 

This awesome and under-visited wall is home to several substantial Grade IV trad routes. Spanning the distance between the Fin on the left and Resolution Arete on the right, the Horseshoe Wall towers above the Sherwood Forest in one of the most beautiful expanses of stone at Red Rocks. For the most part the routes are serious and involved, but outstanding all the same. 

  Historical note by Larry DeAngelo: As the obvious "giant" of escarpment, the east side of Mount Wilson got a lot of attention from the earliest Red Rock pioneers.  John Williamson was just a kid when he began exploring the wall with his friends in 1966 and 1967.  They wore their tennis shoes, tied in directly with a goldline rope, and carried a small collection of steel carabiners and knifeblade pitons.  On their initial attempts, they did not get very far.  However, some of the names they coined were the first Red Rock feature names coined by climbers.  "Willy's Couloir" was their name (John's friends called him by the nickname "Willy").  "Sherwood Forest" was what they called the huge wooded ledge system halfway up the face.  As adventurous thirteen-year-olds, they were fans of Robin Hood. 

  Williamson's scouting (and persistence) ultimately paid off in 1970, when he and Keith Hogan completed a route to the summit.  They navigated up Willy's Couloir, crossed to the right through Sherwood Forest, and climbed the northern headwall to the top.  The following year Joe Herbst (who did not know John and Keith, and was unaware of their ascent) soloed directly to the northern edge of Sherwood Forest and continued up the top part of their route. 

  Joe's solo climb was done on the day before his wedding.  The ascent was not as casual as it may sound.  Although it took over thirty years until the route found its way into a guidebook (Sentimental Journey IV, 5.9), Joe said that he always considered that climb to be the pivotal moment in Red Rock, because it marked the beginning of "serious climbing."

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Horseshoe Wall