Ron Roach Packing it up after an Christmas afterno...
Description
A good south-facing wall that gets all-day sun even in winter. But after spending 3 days on the wall between christmas and new years, on warm sunny days, I still have yet to see another party on it. Out sole company was a beautiful Redtail Hawk who wheeled overhead and underfoot on all 3 days to observe us.
This wall offers several well-documented lines and many many undocumented lines. At times, finding which line is which must be done by carefully studying the relative positions of the cracks and bolt lines relative to the shadows of overlaps and water-stains on the wall.
The climb 'Out Of Towners' is seemingly most acclaimed line on the wall, but Aribas Amoebas, and the route left of El Cautivo are certainly good routes and worthwhile. However, the lines here vary from outright clip-ups to wandering and somewhat runout and vague and dirty crack systems. Not every route here deserves to be climbed.
To descend from the wall there are certainly good and bad options, but these are impossible to define in more than vague terms, so that will be as much as I can realistically provide. In some spots forced passage will be evident and in others, not so much. It will take 40-60 minutes and will involve some bushwhacking and scrambling. Wear hearty clothing or you'll trash it.
Descent: head to the West on the summit ridge until you see a cairn, then drop down North into a hallway of sorts and continue West toward the end of the main dome. As the dome breaks down, start heading back West/Southwest into a gully. You will pass though an over/under 'cave' between boulders and then Eventually you will reach a choked gully with some bush-whacking and descend back due South, staying near the rock. If you go too far North here, it will make things far worse. Cross back Southeast on a slab, back through some more boulder hopping, then back East along the base to the climbs where you started. I am more presently informed by a local that rapping off from 'Out Of Towners' or 'El Cautivo' is possible, but I suspect 2 ropes are needed.
Getting There
The approach is similar to that of the one to Wasteland and will take 35-60 minutes depending on your pace. Start from the parking pullout and head in past a few 'shinspears,' 'cat-claws,' and Agave to reach the drainage and Wasteland approach, which is followed up to the gully where it turns uphill. There, stay left twice at broken down trees where the trail is very easy to miss. If you are going up the drainage to Wasteland, you have gone slightly too far. Follow a trail left to below the Out Of Towners Dome, which is the next formation West of Wasteland... then up the hill on a vague trail. I built perhaps 30 new Cairns here at any spots of ambiguity of the trail- and though small, they are easy to find. This trail should be quite easy to find and follow.
Tony is correct, it is very easy to miss the easy approach to the dome! The main trail receives much traffic for the Wasteland routes. Do not go very far up the Wasteland drainage. In fact, look for a faint trail going left across the Wasteland drainage about where the rock starts on the right in the drainage. If one makes the correct turn, the trail is much easier to follow up the dome.
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