This is an alternate route to the easier West Gully. Follow up an obvious corner/gullly to a ledge. We went left off the ledge through some more ledges, mantles, a little bit of face climbing, and you're at the top. You could probably go straight up from the ledge but it was harder (5.10?) with a death block waiting to fall from the top.

 Cruz is only 8 feet off the ground, getting through a weird stemming spot with terrible rock. Oh wait, all the rock is pretty terrible.

Southwest Gully

West Face Gully

This is the easiest route up the rock found around the backside. Most of Needle Rock has pretty bad rock. Saying that, this route has the best. This is also the rap route.

The closest desert alpine to Reno. Its the big rock on the skyline when headed North from Spanish Springs. It's a lot of steep loose hiking to get up there (unless you have some gnarly 4X4) but worth it for the view. Isn't that why we do it?

 Needle Rock has been climbed all sorts of way for the last 30 or 40 years. I'm not entirely sure of its history so please shed some light if you know of anything.

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Location

Protection

Routes in Needle Rock