Arizona Rock Climbs - Sedona, Arizona
Oak Creek Spire

Oak Creek Spire, also known as the "Rabbit Ears" is a spectacular spire located in the southern part of the Sedona/Village Of Oak Creek area. The spire sits right off a major mesa and can be missed from lots of viewing angles. It can be seen prominently to the southeast from the summit of the Mace and can also be spotted easily at one point on the drive down Interstate 17 from Flagstaff to Phoenix if you know when to look (on the long downhill just past the rest stop as you head south). The "bunny ears" designation comes because the spire is split about halfway up into two separate towers, which look like a pair of rabbit ears from the right perspective. The summit is accessed by climbing the northern tower, either via the North Face-West Crack or East Chimney route and then performing a "leap" across from one tower to the other to start the final pitch.

My experience on Oak Creek Spire has been that the tower has enough loose rock around (more than a lot of the more-traveled towers in Sedona) that you should take special precautions to not upset anything onto your partner below. Best to test those questionable lumps too aggressively! Please bring a helmet!!

A note on the jump: The coolest thing about Oak Creek Spire is the fact that it is split into two halves, which have a gaping maw between them. In order to finish the climb to the summit (by any route), you get to do a super cool jump-across lead move where you actually LEAP from the north tower, over the abyss, to a stance over on the south tower. This is one of those deals where the move is 1) pretty hard to miss, 2) scary as HELL, and 3) great to tell stories about later because nobody can believe it and you can play it up in conversation like it's some sort of death-defying Indiana Jones adventure deal. So don't let the jump stop you from topping out on this baby. Do it!!

To get to the parking lot for this route, drive on 179 to the Village of Oak Creek. Find Jacks Canyon Road (see map), which is the road immediately south of the outlet mall, and then head east on this road. Continue on the road until you see the trailhead parking for Jack's Canyon on the right side. Park here.

Approach: From the Jacks Canyon Trailhead, cross the road and go through a gate. This puts you on a well-established trail (Canyon Ridge Trail) that leads off in a generally northern direction. You have to sort of eyeball this one as you hike it. Basically, head north on the Canyon Ridge Trail and you'll climb to the top of a knob southwest of Oak Creek Spire. Peel off here and cross-country northeast, downhill off the knob, then up a gully/drainage that comes down from the north side of the spire. Can't miss it. The route starts on the north side, in a flat spot where the initial corner (see pictures) is found.

NORTH FACE - WEST CRACK (5.9)
Pro: Double up - Medium to Large (5" piece), Two Ropes.
FA : Ed Webster and Sue Patenaude, May 1979

A term I heard a long time back in my climbing career was someone describing a particularly attention-grabbing climb as "continuously interesting". That's how I would describe this route. There's really no horrendously difficult climbing here, but each pitch has something sort of heads-up-ish for whoever lashes into the sharp end of the cord. Something to bear in mind.

For the North Face-West Crack routes, start on the North side in a right-facing corner.

Pitch 1) Climb initial corner crack, then either go straight up, or out onto the face and climb to a steep exit slot and a pair of belay bolts. Move the belay from here up to a ledge just below the next pitch crack. (5.8+)

Pitch 2) Climb the tight-hands crack to gain the flared chimney above. If you have big hands, this may feel like 10-. Once in the flare, climb to the big blocky chimney above. You can belay here if you want to break it up a bit, or just continue up the blocky chimney the top of the lower OCS tower. This lead is about 185 feet if you go all the way (the guidebook says 5.9, I'm going at least 5.9+ and maybe 5.10a on the tight hand crack that starts the second pitch if you have reasonably big mitts).

Pitch 3) Locate the proper jump, down on a lower ledge across from the other tower. Get some slack and make the leap of faith. Not a good idea to fall. Then climb left, then up, then back right and up a last crack to a (visible from the jump spot)bolted anchor on the wall. The actual summit is another ten feet higher and includes a mailbox. Belay up to and down from here accordingly. (5.8 or so?)

EAST CHIMNEY ROUTE (5.9)
Pro: Double up - Medium to Large (5" piece), Two Ropes.
FA : Bob Kamps, TM Herbert, Don Wildon, 1970's

This was the first route I did on Oak Creek Spire, although I only did 3 of the 4 pitches that day (ran out of time and didn't summit). I recall some of the climbing on this route to be pretty challenging, but I was pretty green to Sedona climbing at the time and it may not be all that bad. I remember on the third pitch wide crack up to the lower summit, I was struggling mightily to stay in and not fall when it suddenly occurred to me (I had tunnel vision) that there was a wall not three feet behind me. I got a foot on the wall behind and that saved the day for me. To get to the summit, the two routes join at the jump-across pitch, so if you want to get to the top, you're gonna have to make the leap of faith!

Pitch 1) From the base of the east side of the spire, work your way up through a rotten band of rock (not much pro) toward a large ledge above on the left and a 2-bolt belay anchor (5.6).

Pitch 2) Continue up crack above the belay that goes from hands to offwidth to another low-angle section. Climb vertical slot to another low-angle ramp that leads to a 3-bolt anchor on the south-facing wall (5.8).

Pitch 3) Continue up the ramp that leads into the large chimney formed by the upper halves of the spire. This ramp is 3rd class, but should be belayed. Climb the first crack on the right wall for about 40 feet, then traverse left about 20 feet on a 15" wide ledge. This leads to a black alcove. Climb the wide crack out of the alcove where some chimneying and then ledges leads to the false summit. Belay on slings wrapped around large horn of sandstone (5.9-).

Pitch 4) Move the belay up to the top of the false summit, where a jump can be made across to the other half of the spire (according to rumor, there is a bolt anchor on top of the false summit for the jump - but I did not find it). Climbing up and traversing left leads to a wide crack and the summit of the spire (5.8+).

Descent:
To get back to the ground, rap from the anchors right below the summit back down to the lower summit. Although I haven't done this yet, I have been assurred that there is a set of semi-concealed anchors that allow you to rappel down the north face (rather than down the bowling alley and East Chimneys). From the ledges at the start of the second pitch of the North Face-West Crack route, you can scramble down to the bolts at the top of that route's first pitch and rap from there.