Home - Destinations - People - Partners - Forum - Photos - What's New
 ADVANCED
Pino Wall
Show routes:
Select route...
Bad Fun 
Desert Man 
License and a Visa 
Parallel Universe 
Pino Wall Route 
Red Dawn 


Browse this area on a map

Pino Wall


1 person found this page useful
Submitted By: Bill Lawry on Jun 9, 2007
Administrators: Aaron Hobson, Anthony Stout, George Perkins
Latitude: 35.1890  Longitude: -106.4315 
Aerial photo/map | Weather
Views: 1,295 page views

Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event 
Discussions available in the
Arizona & New Mexico
Message Forum
  Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!

BETA PHOTO: The west side of Pino Wall, Sandia Mountains, New ...


Description 

Pino Wall is roughly 500 feet tall and stands immediately east and a little south of the Jawbone summit (i.e., south of the upper tram terminal). Pino Wall has a 'nose' which divides the wall into a west side and an east side. The west side faces SW while the east side has a more south-facing aspect. Hence, the east side is in full sun much earlier in the day compared to the west side.

One can view the west face of Pino Wall by climbing Jawbone's North Ridge Route. However, if you are going on foot to the base of Pino Wall anyway then there is a less involved viewpoint described in the "Getting There" section for Pino Wall. Pino Wall Route and Bad Fun ascend the west side of the wall.

The east side is probably viewable by heading south along the Crest Trail. Both License and a Visa and Desert Man ascend the east side of the wall.

Many parts of Pino Wall have excellent rock quality. However, there are loose areas such as around the last pitch or so of Pino Wall Route.


Getting There 

There are at least three ways to get to the base of Pino Wall. The best option depends on the climbing plans for the day.

  • Rap Pino Wall Route on the wall's west side. The rap from pitch 3 works with unusually long double ropes, or by passing a couple knots on rappel, or by building and leaving a gear anchor near the top of the second pitch (double ropes may still be necessary). Bolted anchors may need fresh webbing. Also, great care is required to not release rock fall. See Marc Beverly's Photo comment for approaching and doing the rap.

  • On the east side of the wall, Rap License and a Visa with double ropes. This descent can be done in three clean double-rope rappels. See License and a Visa.

  • Hike down the couloir on the west end of the wall. Start from the aspen stand in the broad saddle between Jawbone and the crest ridge as described in the approach for Pino Wall & Jawbone. The remainder of this section describes this all-boot approach.

Continue by descending south down a steep gully or couloir. Tend a little towards the skier's right (west) side of the couloir, staying in rock fields to minimize stickery bushwhacking. It can be tricky to know and/or see where to tend back to the center of the coulier. The descent of the coulier ends when one is level with or (hopefully) at the top of a roughly 40 foot high cliff band. This narrow cliff band spans the center of the coulier and so is a barrier to further descent on foot down the very middle of the couloir. From the top center of the cliff band traverse east on 3rd class terrain and finally work down a large low-angle slot to the base of Pino Wall.

For a good view of the west face of Pino Wall, bypass the cliff band on skier's right (west) side to a point approximately level with the bottom of the cliff band. Pino Wall route can be viewed from a large rounded rock ("viewing rock") surrounded by bushes. One can then return to the top of the cliff band. Alternately, one might be able to bushwhack down, across, and then back up to the east side of the couloir to the base of the wall.

To return to the aspen stand of the Pino Wall & Jawbone approach from near the top of Pino Wall route: hike up for roughly 50 yards and then stay approximately level while trending left on relatively easy off-trail terrain through groves of Scrub Oak.


The Classics

Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Pino Wall:
License and a Visa   5.11b/c PG13     Sport, Alpine, 4 pitches, 400 feet, Grade II   
Browse More Classics in Pino Wall

Photos of Pino Wall Slideshow Add Photo
South Face of the Pino Wall. Routes are shown from left to right: Parallel Universe, License and a Visa, and Red Dawn. You can only see the upper 3 pitches of Red Dawn.

BETA PHOTO: South Face of the Pino Wall. Routes are shown from...