BETA PHOTO: Black Wall Topo, drawn 1989, not updated!
Description
Start up Cannonball Corner and diverge as the topo shows. Easy aid to the end of pitch two. There were some loose things that we may have skipped cleaning on the pitch two traverse because we were gunning for the top in one day. This would all go free and be really nice, maybe 5.11, maybe harder with pump factored in to the rating. It might be very tough to retreat from the end of pitch two.
The third pitch is outstanding. Hands and fingers up to a great ledge. Might be just good 5.9. Like the good stuff on Cannonball, only thinner and thus "better". I wrote "dry bivvy" on the topo, even though we got up in one day. The important thing is that from the end of pitch one to the end of the crux aid the route stays dry from both the dripping summit roofs and huge storms.
Pitch four is an upside down rurp traverse. Bad swing into the dihedral wall if it all rips, thus A4-. I don't think anything ripped for the second, so maybe not too bad. A rope left hanging from the top would perhaps be lasso-reachable for an insanely exposed, upward, jumar escape.
Our last pitch is also the last pitch of Cannonball. Easier, unless it is wet and dark.
Location
This route is located close the rotten zone, centered around the Rusty Dagger, where a process similar to arch-formation is occurring. The rock on the route is as good as any I've seen RMNP or the Sierras. But the potential for huge catastrophic avalanches is real and it might not hurt to know the truth about the place.
It has always worried me that the cracks of Cary Granite, Good Evans, and Cannonball Corner increase in size, towards the undercut center of the wall. Nice sharp cracks that haven't been around long enough to have the edges rounded by weathering. Most likely, the right side of the Road Warrior crack will be the next to go, taking Cannonball Corner with it. However, the flake that forms the Undertow is more undercut (pitch two). Since it has less support against the force of gravity, I think it might be next.
The large talus below is telling. It is big, powder-dusted, talus, without a lot of lichen.
Water is a known key factor for arch formation. Compared to the outhouse that caused the Glacier Point Apron avalanche, there is a lot more water available to lube the Black Wall. This wall has an unusual amount of water stored above it because of it's location under a wide, rain collecting, saddle between the peaks.
On the other hand the same forces that have and will cause mass wasting to occur at the Black Wall also created one heck of a steep alpine wall. Irresistible!
Protection
It's been twenty years and I don't think there's been a second ascent yet. My memory is that rurps and small copperheads are key to the real aid. Everything below could be done with wires, Aliens, and Camalots.
A bolted rappel route might be nice from the end of pitch two. It didn't look too steep, but we didn't test that. If two 70m ropes don't reach the base ledge, then a bolt anchor would be needed and probably have to be placed in the line of fire from the horrible summit drips.
Thanks for adding this stuff Ken, I was wondering about the aid routes on the Black, it seems they need a repeat. Can you post beta on the other aid routes?
Mighty generous placing my name first on this route...Trout led all but the top out and I'm sure I never would have visited the Black Wall in the first place were it not for his vision.
Is the RURP traverse visible in the main picture for cannon ball corner up in the upper right corner the thin crack traversing that roof from right to left?
I believe that Asa Firestone and Matt Othmer did the second ascent of this route last summer. They were bummed to see that an old RURP was fixed in the crux as they were up there to claim the first ascent. Absolutely beautiful looking line though I hear that the top seeps quite a bit.
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