Three Snake Day

This route is climber's left (north) of the Gertch's Arch feature and goes up the northwest/north side of the same formation. Just to the left during the climb is the gully separating Gertch's Arch formation from Gertch's Half Brother. Three Snake Day winds its way between two parallel grooves on the Gertch's Arch formation, topping out at a sturdy oak tree overlooking the arch.

We started in the groove on the right, after first scrambling onto the triangular grassy ledge at the base of it. After one large step, we shifted to the left groove for cleaner and more ambitious climbing on small holds. This was the crux of the route. But the grade did not drop much on the rest of it, which went to the right again and stayed in the right groove and/or the arete to the left of it. The finish went up the right wall to a large clump of trees on a comfortably broad shoulder.

The route was initially climbed solely as a means of top-roping the obvious and far more attractive west-facing wall around the corner to the south, but ended up offering good climbing on solid rock with a lot of harder or easier options. One could start it in the left groove, which would make it longer and likely harder.

The name of the route stems from the fact that we encountered (almost stepped on) three rattlesnakes on the approach and descent, one each of the area rattlers (Black-tailed, Rock, Western Diamondback).

To get there, take the Gertch's Arch extension of the normal Gertch trail, as shown in one of the photos. Someone must have worked on these trails recently, because we miraculously ended up with no blood shed due to cat's claw.

I placed six Camalot C4s on this route: one #3, one #0.5, two #0.4, and two #0.3. We left a sling and quicklink around one of the oaks where the route ends. A single 70m rope rappel lands you with easy scramble to the bottom of the rock. Other options exist for rappelling in other directions or perhaps even walking off to the east/southeast.