The 500-word report for the 2003 American Alpine Jurnal Climbs and Expeditions section:

Comanche Point, Comanche Ridge. In November 2000 while hiking the Escalante Route, I couldn’t take my eyes off the long skinny arête ascending from Tanner Rapids on the Colorado River all the way to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim on Comanche Point (7073’). As the Colorado River lies at 2,700’ at the rapids, the full ridge is about 4,400 feet tall and spans over 1.5 horizontal miles. Alas, the lower buttresses can easily be bypassed, and only 2,400 vertical feet require technical climbing--in about half a horizontal mile. On inquiry, a local desert rat (who had paraglided from Comanche Point to the Colorado River) told me that no one had climbed from the inner canyon to the rim anywhere in the entire multi-mile-long Palisades of the Desert. A prominent 200-foot spire near the top had been climbed (Comanche Point Pinnacle, A1 or 5.12) by rappelling in from the rim. He said that on my proposed route I should expect “a lot of rotten rock, and a really good adventure.”

As it turned out, the rock is often solid sandstone and limestone, with a liberal sprinkling of decomposing layers. Comanche Ridge came in at about 17 belayed or simul-climbed pitches, plus considerable 3rd and 4th class scrambling. On October 6, 2002, immediately following the UIAA General Assembly meetings in Flagstaff, Anne Arrans (UK), Roger Payne (UK), Nikolay Petkov (Bulgaria), and I (U.S.) hiked the Tanner Trail to the Tanner Rapids on the Colorado River and spent the night. The next morning we gained the wall at about 4400’ at the back of the scooped wall just above a rockslide. The entrance overhang had a 5.10 move, followed by scrambling, a 5.8 corner, then easy 5th class along the ridgecrest. The knife-edge ridge (Annie’s Arête) was broken by short buttresses (50 to 250 feet each) offering 5.7 to 5.9 climbing. We bivied on a huge ledge in the middle of the red band after about 9 pitches. At the top of the red band we bypassed a couple of beautiful 5.11-looking cracks on the buttress via a 5.7 corner to the left, then scrambled to the left side of the huge greenish buttress, which we climbed in 3 full pitches of 5.9 to 5.10 (we bypassed the dangerous sofa-sized Monster Pillar via a thin crack on the left). We then moved left to steep scrambling, crossed the ridge at Comanche Point Pinnacle, and continued to the summit via 5.7 to 5.8 cracks, along with a couple sections of scrambling. We arrived on top just as the sun went down on the second day of climbing, thus avoiding a waterless night out. Six or so miles of cross country and dirt road in the dark lead back to Desert View. I think the route is well worth repeating by anyone with a taste for big alpine-style ridges in a spectacular desert environment, provided they don’t mind some portable handholds. 

--John Harlin III, Hood River Crag Rats, AAC

The 800-word description sent to Dougald MacDonald, with more pitch-by-pitch details:

Comanche Ridge Stats

Comanche Ridge, 2,400 feet, about 17 pitches, V 5.10. October 7-8, 2002. Anne Arrans (UK), John Harlin III (USA), Roger Payne (UK), Nikolay Petkov (Bulgaria).

The route ascends the narrow ridge rising from near the Colorado River to the summit of Comanche Point (7073’), in the Palisades of the Desert on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The ridge begins just north of the Tanner Rapids, at the foot of the Tanner Trail. 

I first spotted the line during a Backpacker magazine hike of the Escalante Route along the Colorado River in November 2000, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The knife-edge ridge slices down from the rim and, if taken to its full length, drops almost to the river (the Colorado River is at 2,700’). The full vertical would thus be about 4,400 feet, though the lower buttresses would be easily avoidable. The rock looked adequate, probably even good in places, but then I was examining it through binoculars from over a horizontal mile distance. So when I found out the UIAA General Assembly meeting was in Flagstaff this last October, I e-mailed the president of the UIAA Expeditions Committee to see if he knew foreign climbers who might want a big American adventure. According to Stan Mish (stanmish@verticalrelief.com, 928-213-1840), a long-time desert rat who lives in Flagstaff and has paraglided from Comanche Point to the Colorado River, no one has climbed from the inner canyon to the rim anywhere in the entire multi-mile-long Palisades of the Desert. A prominent 200-foot spire near the top has been climbed (Comanche Point Pinnacle A1 or 5.12) by rappelling in from the rim. Stan said that we should expect on my proposed route “a lot of rotten rock, and a really good adventure.”

As it turned out, the rock wasn’t so bad and the adventure proved quite pleasant. Thanks to choosing the most efficient lines reasonably quickly, we arrived on top just as the sun went down on the 3rd day, thus avoiding a third night out, this time without water. 

The basic itinerary as best memory serves me (semi-colons indicate pitches):
October 5:
Hike down the Tanner Trail to the Tanner Rapids on the Colorado River (about 10 miles).
October 6:
Fill water containers (it’s dry to the top), and hike 2,000 vertical feet to base of cliff (at about 4,400’). We opted to bypass short outcrops lower on the ridgeline in order to save time. The day’s climbing: 5.10 moves to get onto the cliff; scramble 3rd and 4th class ledges for roughly 200 feet; 5.8 corner to the ridgecrest; easy 5th on ridgecrest for two pitches; 5.7 pitch with utterly rotten top-out; 4th class scramble across knife-edge rotten ridgecrest (Annie’s Arete); two pitches (5.8 and 5.9) up crack system on White Tower; ledge walk; 5.9 crack through Lower Red Band; bivouac on broad ledge system. About 9 belayed pitches, plus scrambling.
October 7:
Upper Red Band 5.10 move followed by 5.9 crack; hike left to bypass beautiful 2-pitch 5.11-looking cracks (we were concerned for time and choosing the fastest alternatives everywhere); 5.7 crack-corner; hike to left side of Big Green Buttress; 5.9 crack; 5.9 crack; 5.10 thin crack bypass of dangerously poised Monster Pillar; 5.9 crack; hike left and up several hundred feet of 3rd and 4th; cross over ridge at Comanche Point Pinnacle (no time to climb it); 5.7 crack; ledge traverse right followed by 200 feet of 3rd-4th; 5.8 crack and traverse left; 150 feet of 3rd or 4th class. About 8 belayed pitches for the day, plus scrambling. Approximately 6 miles of cross-country hiking and 4WD road walking back to the car at Desert View.

I’d love to go back and try to do the entire journey in a very long day, and to climb those 5.11-looking cracks we bypassed in the name of speed. I’d also like to try to kick off the hideous Monster Pillar, thus doing a great service to anyone who might repeat the line. I don’t think it would be reasonable to try to traverse in at the 4,400’ level; most likely future climbers need to take the trail to within a few hundred feet of the Colorado before scrambling up, which means you might as well fill the canteens in the river. I do think the route is well-worth repeating by anyone with a taste for big alpine style ridges in a spectacular desert environment. 

Personnel: Anne Arrans is from the UK, on the UIAA Youth Commission, and on the UK sport climbing team, or something like that. Roger Payne is from the UK and is the Sports and Development Director for the UIAA; he lives in Leysin, Switzerland and is also a mountain guide. Nikolay Petkov is the president of the Bulgarian Alpine Club and owns a computer software business; his wife was the second woman to climb Trango Tower (alas, now dead from a climbing accident at the local Bulgarian crag, leaving Nikoloy with their two-year-old child). I’m editor of the AAJ. A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of Anne. She at least looks back at it being one of the more peculiar events in her life.

--John Harlin III, 10/29/02