This is a very good route, with a short bouldery crux and plenty of runout on moderate terrain. To get to the start of the route, walk left along the base of the Brass Wall until the good climber's track run out, then thrash down into a small gully. You are now near the start of the route, which begins by climbing a chimney in a very prominent right-facing corner system that arches to the right. Despite the wide-looking cracks, we found that we didn't use much big gear - 1 #4 Camalot was sufficient. The traverse on the second pitch is the psychological crux, but it can be protected adequately with small cams and brass nuts. The technical crux on pitch 6 takes bomber small TCUs.
Protection
Small to medium nuts, double cams #.5 - #3 Camalot, single cams #00 TCU up to finger size, 1 #4 Camalot. Mostly trad anchors.
By Doug Hemken From: Madison, WI Mar 20, 2006 rating: 5.11a R
Very good adventure route. P1 is burly. P2 is spooky looking, but it has more gear than you think/fear. The P3 dihedral is runout at the top, but has easy moves on solid rock. P4 has more good hand crack and is well protected. The fixed anchors run out here. P5 has lots of lousy gear on crunchy, easy rock. P6, the crux, is just a few moves long and can be easily aided. Watch the loose rock sitting in the crack above the horn, you don't want to undo all your progress just as things start to ease up!
P7 can be taken sharply left and connected to the penultimate anchors on Birdland at 5.7 PG/R, which makes for an easy descent.
Does anyone know what the anchors to the right of P3 belong to?
The anchors right of P3 on the face? not sure To the right in the chasm is Brassballs (5.10), in Swains second guidebook.
By vegastradguy From: Henderson, NV Apr 15, 2006 rating: 5.11a R
Really good line- the loose rock kept things interesting for the entire route. Bolts on the 2nd and 3rd pitch are in excellent shape.
Another option for gaining Birdland is to topout on Spectrum, then downclimb and traverse left to the top anchors for that route.
We also looked around for the rap anchors into the gully, but couldnt find them...maybe we passed them on the way to the top and didnt notice?
Also, we sort of decided that you can really get away with a single rack to 4" and a set and a half of stoppers- the doubles are not necessary as far as we could tell.
By Doug Hemken From: Madison, WI Apr 17, 2006 rating: 5.11a R
We used a standard rack, nuts and cams to maybe four inches. Small cams (aliens) were useful in the hard-to-protect pitches. Over the shoulder runners are useful on several pitches, including the crux.
By J. Thompson From: denver, co Nov 11, 2006 rating: 5.11a R
This route is very good. The rumors of loose rock are true, but it has very little bad rock on it. Once this route see's a few more ascent's it will clean up nicely.
By brent armstrong From: Closer to RR than the Strip Dec 17, 2007
I thought this route was a pile.
THe roof at the end reminded me of Vertigo in Eldo.
So, we couldn't see any gear on the first part of that traverse. The first hold I grabbed fell off in my hands and when I stood up to grab the next things didn't feel any better. To top it off, there isn't any gear we could see from the chimney, making a fall off that first 15' nasty as hell.
The book said there is a bolt anchor somewhere on the second pitch but we could see none. Having a little pro to shoot for on the first 15' would have made this doable. Did the fire change something up there or were we just looking at the wrong traverse?
Also, is the .10d variation on the first pitch chossing off? two crimps with rotten feet to bad gear and a fall onto a dead mountain holly? I want to go back and do the thing, but things were looking grim.
Brass Wall
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