Upper 3 pitches of Late Payment. Ryan Deppen photo...
Description
Alimony Wall. Park at the Painted Wall overlook. Walk a couple hundred yards further along the road (southwest?) and look for a narrow gully just to the left (climber's) of the wall. It is easy and recommended to take the short walk out towards the Painted Wall overlook and scope both the approach and the climb (it will be on your left). The climb is straightforward and mostly good crack climbing.
P1: 5.7, 90 ft. Dirty chimney, the climbing improves as you go. Belay at the base of the big crack.
P2: 5.9, 100 ft. Good crack with some wideness, harder than it looks. Belay at ledge.
P3: 5.11a?, 80ft. Crux pitch, great hand crack to offwidth, back to hand crack. The tough part is short, maybe 5ft. Belay at cool ledge.
P4: 5.8, 100ft. Two options that meet after 20 ft. in the corner. Mantle out of the corner and continue up an unprotected but relatively short and easy (5.7) chimney. The walk off is short and flat.
The guidebook mentions a 5.8 face option to avoid the crux. We checked this out and it may well be 5.8, but it should probably be called 5.8R since it would involve traversing 10 or 15 ft. away from the crack. I'd recommend the offwidth even if (like us) you can't climb overhanging 4inch cracks. Its short and well protected with some wider gear.
Be careful with the approach - you can screw it up. If you head down the main gully dividing the Alimony Wall and the Painted Wall overlook you will encounter a rappel (2 stoppers and a biner) and you will end up 200ft. of 5.7 bushes below the climb.
Protection
Singles below #0.75 Camalot will suffice. Extra hand sized pieces and 2 or 3 offwidth pieces in the #3.5 to #4.5 Camalot range. We placed one stopper, and you could probably leave them at home.
There are rap anchors and chains above this wall. A bit hard to find but they are hidden under a cairn out towards the finish point of Alimony Wall route. Just climbers left of the finish. Super bomber and a bit better than the quick hike in.
This route can be done in three pitches if you link P1 and P2 together. Also, if you cannot find the rap anchors mentioned below, just set your own anchors in the wide crack at the top of the route (the crack is about 6 ft. from the edge)and rap down. This crack protects with three #4 camalots to set a rap/toprope. The right side variation at the beginning of the last pitch goes at 5.9 and is an ackward wide crack.
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