BETA PHOTO: Eagle Wall from the lower Painted Bowl with routes...
Description
This beautiful 1000 foot wall with the prominent patina shaped like an eagle flying west is the home of several Urioste classics like Eagle Dance (V 5.10 A1) and Levitation 29 (V 5.11).
Getting There
Expect a long approach. From the Wilson Pimple head up Oak Creek canyon for about an hour. Then 30 to 45 mins up the North Fork. Finally follow an easy eastwardly leading ramp system to the base of stunning Eagle Wall.
This route is really easy to follow as it takes all the obvious weaknesses and follows enough bolts to never get lost. From a shallow dihedral 50 feet east of a 150' pillar the climb goes up through the Eagles neck on the standard 5th pitch. The overhanging bolt ladder on the 8th pitch is a sandbag but the incredible positioning makes for a pleasant aid pitch. The route continues all the way to the top of the wall and that is worth doing. However...[more]
Approach:The start of the approach ramp is marked by 2 large, healthy pine trees on either end of the creekbed. If you feel like you need a rope, you're probably not on the right ramp.
Descent: Head west on the crest until you reach the end of the sandstone to a red saddle. Drop down to the left and follow the creek back to your packs.
We recently had the opportunity to trash in and out of Oak Creek Canyon on our way to Eagle Dance. Having done the hike before, we knew that it would not be fun.
Because we were expecting a thrashing and were paying lots of attention to cairns and bypasses for the large boulders, the first part of the canyon (up to the fork junction) went surprisingly well.
Just as we were commenting on how this was really not that bad, we started getting religion, crawling under prickly bushes with a full pack while avoiding the cactus is always humbling. After a while we sighted the two gigantic Ponderosa pines, about 150 yards from us and thought we were there... The last damn 100 yards are pretty bad and made the other two miles feel like a walk in the park.
So in the end we got our thrashing. This approach doesn't seem to get any easier even when ypou know where to go.
WT
By Nathan Furman From: Salt Lake City, Utah Jan 28, 2007
What a beautiful wall.
We linked Black Orpheus with Eagle Dance. The approach from Orpheus was easy...once you drop into Lower Painted Bowl you can scramble up a 3rd/4th class ramp to the shoulder that divides Eagle Wall from Lower Painted Bowl. It takes less than fifteen minutes from the point you veer off the Orpheus decent route to the base of Eagle Wall.
After rapping Eagle Dance, we decended by going back over to the Black O decent and continued from there. It seems much quicker than having to walk back up canyon from the base of Eagle Wall then walk back down it.
Hint for the approach: as you get close to the pine trees, the creek bed gets fairly brush filled- cut left out of it onto some easy slabs and follow this all the way to the pine trees. Step through one bush and you're on the ramp.
Eagle Wall
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