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Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall
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Routes Sorted
L to R R to L Alpha
A River Runs To It 
Abandonement Issues 
Aerial Combat 
Air Break 
Air Worthy 
All Washed Up 
Aretes Syndrome 
Black Water 
Blood Book 
Candy Man 
Cat On A Hot Thin Roof 
Collateral Damage 
Don't Grab Here 
Eskimo Roll 
Explorers 
Finders Keepers 
Fleuger Chimney 
Flight Line 1 
Flight Line 2 
Flight Line 3 
Flight Stimulator 
Forget Me Not 
Here's my Paddle! 
Jibber Jabber 
Losers Weepers 
Napolean Complex 
No Tooth Or Consequences 
Non-nuclear Arms 
Old and Creeky 
Omission Statement 
Parting Shot 
Polar Bear Club 
Running With The Bulls 
Skybox 
Sundance 
Sweetie Don't Bite 
Trailing Edge 
Tributary 
Tryptophandemonium 
Use It Or Lose It 
Virgin's Airline 
Watershed 
Where's My Paddle 
Wreckless Abandon 

Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall 


Photos: Recent | Best | Popular
Elevation: 5,700'
Page Views: 19,098. Good page?   
Administrators: Kristine Hoffman, Greg Opland, James DeRoussel, JJ Schlick, Tom Erickson
Submitted By: 1Eric Rhicard on Dec 18, 2007

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What's New
  Print a Mini-Guide with routes

Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event 


A climber on the roof crack at a new area. The to...

Description 

This wall faces south and can be climbed on the coldest of sunny days. The face climbing is not as crimpy as Windy Point and there are a number of routes that climb through or around roofs.
The Control Tower is at the right end of the wall. It has a 5ft. roof with a crack through it. At least three of the routes involve surmounting roofs. The Up The Creek Wall is 100 yards past the Tower. The areas rock is generally good but it has a bit of fuzz still coming off. You do need to pay attention as there is some stuff around that you want to avoid. If the rock seems bad there is a solid hold to be found somewhere. 40 plus routes from 5.9 to 12-
Many of the routes anchors have leaver biners so all you have to do is clip and lower off. Two routes are 115 feet long and need a 70M rope. Both these routes have an anchor part way up with leaver biners on them so if you have a 60M rope you can still get down. A lot of the routes have leaver biners so you just have to clip in and lower.

Overhead topo for locating routes:
www.pikaconsulting.com/climbing/ForgottenWall.pdf (PDF File)


Getting There 

SQ II Has directions to Kesslers Corner and the Twinkie. The milepost now is 8.6. This is a left hand sweeper that has a slow car lane on the right. Park off the road to the right or a 10th of a mile back at the Thimble Peak Overlook. A trail goes up the left side then hooks back right to the drainage getting you above the falls. If it is cold the rocks near the water can be icy. If it has rained a lot the water can make the approach a bit harder. If the water is barely flowing then hike the main drainage until you are just below the Control Tower then hang a left. If the water is much more than a trickle take the high approach. This route leaves the drainage approach just before you drop down into the wash after traversing the bench you can see from the car. Cairns head up the hill. It is a little steeper than the creek bed but a little shorter. Either way you go will take 20-30 minutes depending on what your conditioning is. If the creek is running getting to the Up The Creek Wall is best done from the base of the Control Tower. Drop down from the base of it maybe fifteen feet. At a belay seat turn left and follow the trail. It goes up and down a bit to avoid the thick stuff but only takes about 3 minutes to reach the cliff.


The Classics

Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall:
Trailing Edge   5.9+     Trad, 80 feet   
Air Break   5.10-     Sport, 80 feet   
Blood Book   5.10-     Trad, 60 feet   
Black Water   5.10     Trad, 1 pitch, 70 feet, Grade II   
Flight Stimulator   5.10     Trad, 80 feet   
Virgin's Airline   5.10     Sport, 1 pitch, 115 feet   
Losers Weepers   5.10     Sport, 100 feet   
Finders Keepers   5.10+     Sport, 1 pitch, 100 feet   
Candy Man   5.11-     Sport, 100 feet   
Sweetie Don't Bite   5.11-     Sport, 115 feet   
Aerial Combat   5.11     Sport, 1 pitch, 80 feet   
Use It Or Lose It   5.11     Sport, 101 feet   
Cat On A Hot Thin Roof   5.11     Sport, 100 feet   
Sundance   5.11     Sport, 1 pitch, 60 feet   
Skybox   5.11     Sport, 100 feet   
Where's My Paddle   5.11c/d     Sport, 1 pitch, 90 feet   
Browse More Classics in Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall

Featured Route For Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall
Erica Bigio cruising the crux.  On a warm day this and the dihedral in the middle of the cliff go into the shade so you can keep climbing when the faces may seem too warm.

Blood Book 5.10-  AZ : Mount Lemmon (Santa Catalin... : ... : Forgotten Wall, Control Tow...
One of the best gear climbs in the grade. Good pro all the way to the anchors. Looks harder than it is. ...[more]   Browse More Classics in AZ


Photos of Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall Slideshow Add Photo
Forgotten Wall and the Control Tower from the canyon bottom about 5 minutes from the trail up.

BETA PHOTO: Forgotten Wall and the Control Tower from the cany...

The Control Tower.  Aerial Combat climbs the crack through the roof.

The Control Tower. Aerial Combat climbs the crack...

The Forgotten Wall.  Notice the two right facing corners in the shade.  The big left hand one is Abandonement Issues 5.11 [B,G,C] and the right hand one Blood Book is 5.10 and takes bomber gear.

The Forgotten Wall. Notice the two right facing c...

Jake on Trailing Edge on the Control Tower.  Steep...

Jake on Trailing Edge on the Control Tower. Steep...

Chris Walsh in a sea of granite on Use It or Lose It

Chris Walsh in a sea of granite on Use It or Lose ...


Comments on Forgotten Wall, Control Tower & Up The Creek Wall Add Comment
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Comments displayed oldest to newestSkip Ahead to the Most Recent Dated Jan 27, 2013
By jbak
Dec 19, 2007

Dude, finish your task here...I don't even know the names of the routes I've done. How did you arrive at "Control Tower" ?

By 1Eric Rhicard
Dec 19, 2007

Yo, I'll get to it when I have a bit more spare time. The routes you did were: this one, that one, and the other one. Control Tower was just something that gave us a theme for some names. So now you can try coming up with a name for that thing you did. Glues Control, Glue Me Forecast, Gluem and Doom, Glueteous Maximus, Crash Landing, anything but NE Face. Whatever dude!

By jbak
Dec 19, 2007

ok.......now a topo !

By 1Eric Rhicard
Dec 19, 2007

Stop by the house with a check and you have got it. I have been handing them out like candy, ask Ray or his buddy if you don't see me first. Better yet give me a name for that route of yours and you can have a topo.

By Christian
From: Tucson, Az
Dec 21, 2007

Hey Eric,

Any estimate of hiking time in?. Normally I'd just go for it and see but my partner needs to leave early for the airport tomorrow so can't do long hikes.

Thanks

By Chris Duca
Administrator
From: Hinesburg, Vermont
Dec 28, 2007

Awesome job with this area description and the accompanying route descriptions! It got me further psyched for my trip out there in March.

By Jon Ruland
From: Tucson, AZ
Jan 20, 2008

this is a sweet area for hard sport!

By Joseph Stover
From: Santa Barbara, CA
Jan 27, 2008

Very impressive when coming around the last bend on the hike in... Great find! The hike is hard, but fun and adventurous with some great scenery! I can't wait to sample some of the steeper routes next time!

By "Canada" Eric Ruljancich
From: Tucson, AZ / Vancouver, BC
Jan 28, 2008

I've put together a topo of this excellent area. Hope it helps you find the climbs a bit easier.

www.pikaconsulting.com/climbing/ForgottenWall.pdf (PDF File)

By Christian
From: Tucson, Az
Jan 28, 2008

Thanks Eric!

By Desicon
Jan 28, 2008

Just found this development report, lol, "Forgotten Wall," well, not really forgotten, R. Flaugher just got too old and busted up to get out here after 1994. I've left some comments on this area under the "Flight Delay" notes. Great job of development, Eric!

By Jimbo
Feb 5, 2008

Ya, nice job Eric. Thank the Gods you run around the mountains and find all these great crags. Your my hero!!!

By Christian
From: Tucson, Az
Feb 5, 2008

I don't know about Desicon but I meant thanks to Eric R for posting the all-important topo. Another thanks to all the FAs for the only slightly less important task of putting up the routes themselves.

By 1Eric Rhicard
Feb 6, 2008

Nice one Christian. You are getting the hang of this banter thing.

By Jimbo
Feb 15, 2008

Up the Creek Wall is the formation 100 yards up stream from the Control Tower, on the same side of the creek. A slight trail can be found cutting across the hillside just below the start of Air Worthy.

By rudy
From: arlington, va
Jun 10, 2008

where was this place all my life? Keep up the good work Eric and Jimbo. can't wait to check it out.

By Brent Silvester
Dec 16, 2008

Thanks for the development. Just went yesterday and had a blast. Unfortunately we forgot to bring gear, and what a mistake that turned out to be. Watch out for the cat claw acacia if you wander off the trails. Can't wait to get back there.

By Jonas Salk
Apr 15, 2009

is there a current topo available for this area? the link to the topo on this page doesn't seem to work. thanks.-j

By Jimbo
Apr 16, 2009

Just tried Eric's link, works fine.

By Hendrixson
From: Tucson, AZ
Jan 27, 2013

My 5 minute understanding of 'Up The Creek Wall'. An attempt was made to list the routes from left to right.

Old And Creeky (5.10, BC)
All Washed Up (5.10, BGC)
Polar Bear Club (5.9, BC)
A River Runs To It (5.10c/d, BC)
Eskimo Roll (5.10, BC)
Watershed (5.10, BC)
Black Water (5.10, GC)
Where's My Paddle (5.11c/d, BC)
Here's My Paddle (5.9-, BC)