Great White Wall  5.10

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Type:  Trad, 13 pitches, 1300 feet, Grade IV Consensus:  5.10+ [details] FA:  Rich Strang & Rob Schmidt Submitted By:  Randy Slavin on Sep 8, 2005 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (9) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Stover taking on the first pitch.

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2013 Raptor Closures MORE INFO >>> Serpent Point and the adjacent walls within one-half mile are closed to public use from March 15 through July 15. This includes the landscape portions above the walls extending 50 feet from the rim edge. This pertains to the following areas: North Rim areas - The Alpine Aretes, Porcelain Arete, and Painted Wall. These climbing routes are closed: Alpine Route, Porcelain Arete, On the Border, Broken Porcelain, Northern Arete, Beyer Route, The Dragon, The Serpent, Forrest-Walker, Stratosfear, Journey Through Mirkwood, and Southern Arete. South Rim areas - Dragon Point and Dragon Point Buttress. These climbing routes are closed: Pilgrimage, Crumb Blunder, Magic Dragon, Black Adder, Black Snake, Black Heathen, Black Dragon Rider, and Silent Rage. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

The Great White Wall is a bit ledgy, loose and spicy, but it has some really cool pitches. It is also a cool alternative when 1. things are kinda hot; 2. There are mobs on Chasm View, and 3. You're running out of "friendly" 5.10 routes to do. It's quite a bit more spicy and loose than Scenic Cruise, etc. but really, it's not too bad, and an excellent intro to this kind of adventuring. The route is on the steep wall up-gully from the Tourist Route and the infamous Tuffnell-McGee, & starts off an obvious pedestal on the left side (looking down) of Long Draw Gully a few hundred feet above the river. Strangely enough, the guidebook's topo is sort of accurate for a change. Scope it from the Balanced Rock Overlook, where the route looks like a chossy, discontinuous nightmare. Don't be fooled. It's fun as hell.

Begin the route by bouldering up 20' or so (don't fall) to a right-angling bush-groove and cruise to a grassy ledge at the base of the first 'real' pitch, a black right-facing corner.

Cruise up the nice handcrack corner to where it ends, and a lone black bolt winks at you 5-10' up and right. Punch it up sorta spicy but secure edges to the bolt, and then crank 5.10 moves up into a mellow groove. Cool pitch. With a little simul-climbing you can link up to the next grassy ledge.

Then fire up a long, steep right-facing 5.10 corner to a ledge. Cruise up and left to a nasty, shattered groove (careful) that leads to nice 5.9 face, and still more low-angled troughs to another big grassy ledge with an ominous stone bivy ring suggesting primeval epics.

The guidebook says it is 7 pitches to here, but we did it in 3 with a 60m & simulclimbing.

Now for the business. Crank a sexy hand & finger crack off the ledge to where it peters out, and figure out the spicy 5.10 peg knobs and edges into the safety of another groove and a weirdly-placed bolted belay. Awesome climbing.

From the bolts, wander up and left on hard-to-read 5.9+ face edges, aiming for a prominent weakness with some nice 5.10 finger cracks that leads up into the gaping maw of some black wide cracks. Belay on a sheltered ledge when the rope stops you.

Fire up and through airy, cool 5.9 wideness with edges on nice black rock to a peg ledge. Cruise up a 5.8 crack right of a steep corner and then traverse hard left across ledges and edges.

Gain the final huge (250'), right-facing corner and climb surprisingly good 5.7 to the rim.

This route is cool, more people should do it. The guidebook says 13 pitches, but we did it in 8 and real climbers could do it in 6-7. We did some crucial and effective (not to mention deeply gratifying) trundling that might help with the choss-factor. Enjoy!

Protection 

Standard Black Canyon rack up to #4 Camalot.

Photos of Great White Wall Slideshow

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Stover cleaning up the second pitch	Stover heading up our 3rd pitch through 5.9 face t...	Stover deciding which way is on route, high on The...
Traverse at the end of the 5.10 corner pitch (lowe...	Long draw gully on the approach.	Just above the route crux.
The traverse to the final corner system.	Friends at the balanced rock overlook.	Pat coming up to the belay, guidebook pitch 9. Pho...
Pat leading off into the "wide" pitch. Photo by W...	The very sexy crack starting the guidebook 8th pit...	BETA PHOTO: Topo given to me that shows the direct finish.