Evil Eye in Sabino

Does anyone have info they'd like to share about routes on the Whipple Wall and Kor Wall portions of Sabino? The Wasp and Evil Eye are of particular interest. Other than routes listed here and in the BC guide, have any other lines been climbed on those walls?

Manny & I did a route on Kor Wall a few years back we called Naked Prey. It goes up the giant corner a bit left of the Kor Route. IIRC pitch one is sketchy, wandery, 5.10-ish face & crack. Thankfully Manny led that one. Pitch 2 was a nice moderate corner, maybe 5.8-ish with good pro. We hand drilled a belay/rap station in that super hard rock, which took roughly forever. We rapped off & meant to return & finish it, but never made it. A couple more pitches would get to the top. The next pitch would either trend right through a weakness up steep headwall of continue straight up through very difficult looking terrain.

Chris, does Summit Hut still have their Notebook? If so, then it probably has more info on these areas. They also might have a store copy of John Steiger's Climber's Guide to Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemmon Highway.

Ah, I forgot about the Steiger guide. I'll have to get ahold of a copy.

These walls show up well on Bing's fancy map.
bing.com/maps/explore/#/kjn…
(you may need to drag "down" a little to get the bird's eye to kick in.)

With some practice it's possible to make out every crack and ledge.

chris, i can get you photocopies of the Steiger topos if you want them. Evil Eye 5.11-, The Wasp A.4 5.9.

Thanks Jeff. Does it mention any routes to the right of Eulogy? There appears to be several lines on the adjacent face, as well as just around the corner.

I say you should leave it be... wasn't it possible to crawl under/through the manzanita and climb from the ground a bit to the left of the bolt line? Tossing the rope over the top? Maybe I'm thinking of svmething else.

John Steiger and I lead part or all of the Wasp free years ago. I was pretty scared as I recall. I remember lots of loose rock and a piton that disintegrated when I clipped it. John followed the pitch I lead and did a lot of trundling. Don't remember if we did the whole thing or not. A4 might suggest we didn't do the whole thing. I just can't remember.

Loose rock aside, the Wasp dihedral LOOKS really inviting. The only part that looks like an issue for free climbing would be the A4 roof on pitch 3. Hopefully there is some sort of a free option.

So the rock isn't so good up there, huh? Was there a tram back in the "good ol days" of the 70's? Bob Kerry's book suggests that the tram doesn't really take any time off the approach. I'm having a hard time understanding this? Seems like it would cut off around 3 miles of hiking up hill on the the phone line trail . . . ?

Does anybody have any information regarding fixed hardware in Sabino canyon? I'm assuming that most of it would be manky and old, but are there any regulations regarding placing new hardware??

Anybody up for some adventure climbing?

I have hiked around all of these cliffs, climbed two routes on the Kor Wall and played around on several routes at the Acropolis. In my opinion, this rock does not provide a fun adventure… the rock is junk. True, the Evil Eye looks good. I have hiked up and taken the tram. Obviously the tram is the better option for saving energy.

Woops.. wrong message above. I followed Evil Eye on my buddy Pat's final assault... it is okish climbing, pretty stout, awefully loose and scary in a few spots. long approach, bad rock... bring a couple extra fist size pieces. The first shuttle leaves pretty late, and stops running pretty early, so we walked.

chris, eulogy is the last climb listed for whipple wall center-right in the steiger guide. no mention of any routes further to the right. no mention in bob kerry's either. BK's is here: climbaz.com/Backcountry/pag…

Got on this yesterday. The approach took a little longer than expected; around 55 minutes to the base. Maybe we didn't get to the really bad stuff, but the rock quality was not as bad as I was prepared for. In a few sections loose rock in the crack and on ledges did exist. We started on the crack to the right of the 4th class which had some hard (5.11+) free climbing in a killer dihedral (I french-freed). There was a slightly rusted Wired Bliss TCU in the crack that someone had lowered from that had probably been there for 15 years. Around 175 feet of climbing put me at a stance 30 below some old bolts. Out of time and since this appeared to be the site of many other retreats we bailed from the "best" two.

This is a very steep, intimidating wall that will require full commitment and hard free climbing. Updating the hardware will also be necessary. That said I hope to get back soon.

Great story Paul!

Yeah, great story Paul. Glad someone remembers something.

Great story with vivid narration!

The routes up bear canyon are pretty good. Heart of rhodedendrum. Poultry in motion is an epic approach but a good adventure.

Chris

Chris,

Was it a yellow Wired Bliss with a Wild Country superlight rock (or whatever they're called) right next to it? If so, I placed them there almost two years ago. I tried going straight up right there which seemed pretty hard. I think busting out left is probably the key. Shows the frequency that it gets climbed. I was planning on getting on it again this spring for another attempt.

Mark

It was a yellow WB. You can have it back if you want it but i never saw the nut. I'm surprised it had only been two years.