Begin in the obvious chimney at the left side of the NW face, climb up & right to the midway, brushy ledges. From the upper far left end of these, ascend cracks on the left for 3 mixed pitches to Last Chance Ledge (good bivy). At the right end of this ledge, ascend a long aid pitch to a crack system leading to the summit. Descend the south side of the formation ( 4 or 5 raps).

Northwest Face

Old South Face, Left Side

South Face Diagonal

I'm entering information on this route just for the historic value of Zion climbing.  First climbed in June of 1927 by W. H. W. Evans by himself.  After making it to the summit and lighting a fire for proof of topping out, he got most of the way down and slipped and feel 200' on the descent.  He was rescued by some of the Park staff, suffering from delirium and a cracked skull, lying in the bushes, after a few days.

The second ascent of Evans' route was also a loner solo climber who had walked from California to Zion named Donald Orcutt on June 30th, 1931.  He is reported to have died just after this on a solo of The Cathedral.  But, I heard from the third ascent party that he was killed on the descent from the Great White Throne.

Probable third ascent (as told to me) was in the late 40's by a team from Brigham Young University lead by Don Decker (Decker was later on the first ascent of the Direct South Buttress of Mount Moran in 1953).

Fourth recorded ascent was Herb and Jan Conn from the Needles of South Dakota fame in 1949.

I got sparse information from Don Decker - who mentored my introduction into climbing - in the late 60's and in 1974 made an ascent of probably where this old route goes.  Not sure, many possibilities exist - none of them safe!  None of them worth repeating!  We climbed to the left of the new Smoot Diagonal Route.

Blaine Brown and I drove around in my VW Beatle for most of a day on the back dirt roads of Zion's east side.  Ran into a hermit that tried to run us off 'his' property (might have been Park land).  After finding out we all had spent time in New Zealand he became our new best friend and told us exactly where to drive and park for the approach to the south side of GWT.  We camped at the VW and did the climb the next day.   This old and horrible dirt road may share some parts of the current Deer Trap Trail.

This route follows a series of unique diagonal ribs/ramps which are connected with mostly moderate face/slab climbing to the top of the South face. The rock is soft, white sandstone. All of the loose bolts & belays have been fixed. (as of 10-2019, anchors are good)

Descend route using 2 - 50 meter ropes.

Description

Routes in Great White Throne