Pino Wall Rock Climbing

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 ?? 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. For the approach to this descent:

Patrick Vernon - The approach to Pino wall is quite short from the tram terminal, probably only 15-20 minutes when you have it dialed. Take the crest trail south from the tram terminal through the woods. After about 5 minutes on the right there is a faint rocky trail to the crest. Take this to the crest and then find the hard to see two cinder block supports mentioned in the guidebook about 200 feet southeast along the crest. Just before the blocks is a small cairn marking the proper descent from the crest. Follow this down with relative ease, and follow cairns through the pricker bushes to the taller trees on top of the wall. Keep following cairns and descending to a ledge that you have to down-climb onto with blots on the wall to the skiers right. This is the start of the raps down License and a Visa, and into a world of quality rock and fun climbing. The bolts on top of Red Dawn are further down the ridge after some exposed 4th class downlcimbing.

• 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.