Rainbow Buttress 

By the way the "descent times" quoted above are just to the spot in the creek where you turn off to the base of the route. You still have almost 2 hours from this point to get back to your car!

Also, do not confuse this route with the more well known Rainbow Wall, the steep wall up Juniper Canyon.

We diverged from the line drawn on the photo for Rainbow Buttress. Instead of going left after the Black Tower, we headed right for the large left-facing corner in the photo. The corner is the crux pitch. Afterwards, some loose chimneys get you to the final slab.

10b4me brings up an excellent point. In fact the dihedral he mentions in the photo looks like the crack we climbed too, so I think we didn't go where the line goes either! I drew the line from a photo in the Urioste Guide, which definitely shows the route going left around this dihedral (see all route photos showing route 7-12). The route "7-13: Kaleidoscope Crack (5.8)" in the Urioste guide is shown going just right (?) of that prominent dihedral.

Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera during my ascent, and don't have a great memory of where exactly we went. However I do remember traversing right into the base of a corner that looks a whole lot like the one in the photo. The question remains of whether this is the Rainbow Buttress route or some variation ...

Swain calls the crux pitch "an obvious, left facing corner" which looks exactly like the dihedral in the photo, but he also mentions "extra #3.5 and #4 friends" for this pitch, which doesn't make sense to me as I don't remember it being wide at all, in fact the crack was often pinched off at the crux of this corner.

Ooops. Didn't change the name field the first time around. Sorry 10b4me. Anyway, the belay at the base of the corner takes #3, 3.5, and 4 camalots, or maybe some big hexes. Additionally, there is a section maybe 150' above that belay where the crack widens to take bigger gear.

The descent is spectacular.

Red Rock Odyssey includes a chapter about this climb, with a description and photo of climbing the right-hand dihedral.

We climbed Rainbow Buttress last week. This climb was a lot of fun and I found it to be difficult for the grade - definitely an old school Joe Herbst-style 5.8. The hike in was tough, it took us three hours. We stashed our approach gear next to the pair of pine trees that marked the start of the ramp out of the North Fork to the base of Eagle Wall.

The route finding was straight forward. Pitches 1 and 2 featured nice dihedrals and large belay ledges. Pitch 3 had an awkward off-width. In the DeAngelo guide, he refers to the variations at the top of pitch 4 (the top of the Black Tower) as the Original Route that goes straight up, and the Dihedral Variation to the right. When presented with this decision, our choice was obvious, we headed for the striking dihedral and we were not disappointed. This is how the route goes in the Swain guide. As a matter of fact we were able to link pitches 4 and 5, bypassing the belay station on top of the Black Tower completely. The long 5.8 dihedral was tricky climbing - the central crack closes down to a thin seam. Some sections could only be protected by thin RPs quite some distance apart. The final, eighth pitch goes up rotten rock on a pink face. I don't condone retrobolting, but to consider going up this 5.7 face on rotten rock without the sporty bolts would have been crazy, and would have ruined an otherwise great day.

The walk-off took four hours to get back to the car at the Oak Creek trailhead. Finding the way down was no problem, we just headed for the castle of dark rock to the east (George Washington Tower) and stayed on the north side of it until we reached the saddle and then headed south. The scenery was unworldly, especially the marble-like water trough with colorful swirls that took us down to the North Fork and our packs.

We did this route this past week and found it to be a hidden jem. The rock is very good until the last 2 pitches, gear anchors, nice ledges, great views, stunning walk-off. We did the original route that goes straight up from the tower instead of traversing to the large white corner. The seventh pitch using this method is really interesting. Very run-out on less than solid patina flakes (none broke though!) for 60M until you get to the large pine tree at the base of the last pitch. We then headed up and right across pink rock to a wide crack facing left in a small corner of sorts. From the summit to the car in a casual 2:50 minutes. Highly recommend - and we didn't have to clip a single bolt!

What a great route up the eagle wall, although I wouldnt recommend the Dihedral Variation for the budding 5.8, or even 5.9 leader- its quite difficult and sustained. The protection is adequate, although if you dont have RP's or the smallest C3s, you'll be risking a pretty good sized fall (25'+) if you blow the crux move- assuming they would hold. Luckily, the fall is clean.

The final '5.7' pitch is on some of the worst rock i've ever climbed in Red Rock and the state of the rock was so terrible, the pitch climbed more like 5.10 than 5.7 in my effort to avoid the bad rock. Thankfully its fairly low angle so the stress of pulling on holds was minimal. It's only a matter of time until this pitch gets to be much harder. Thankfully the bolts are solid in what good rock is there. I would say, though, if you're capable of leading the dihedral pitch below, this pitch is very doable.

Rack- bring a single to 4", but if you plan on taking the dihedral variation, an extra #3 or #4 would be good to have- I had a pretty good run-out on the dihedral pitch- probably 30' or so.

Descent- I HIGHLY recommend the Chicken Lips descent if you've already done the burly walkoff descent to the top of Oak Creek (which is worth doing once)- this descent took less than an hour back to the Upper painted bowls- and i'm convinced i can do it in 30 minutes next time now that i know the way. From the Upper Painted Bowl to the car is about 1hr 30min. See Anthony's excellent beta and photos on the Chicken Lips page- its a bit longer of a walk- stay high until you cross a high point on the wall, then start looking for the gully (its the second gully (the first doesnt quite look like it'll go) once you've gone over the high point).

(we linked this route with Solar Slab yesterday and it was amazing- and highly recommended if you're looking for mileage at a moderate level!)

I found the first crux on the dihedral pitch(the thin pro portion) protects with a .4 piece 00 gray metolius. I did not need a #3 or #4 for the upper portion. Since all of the anchors require gear and some of the pitches are lengthy I doubled up on .75 to 2.5 Great climb with beautiful views!

the last pitch follows an obvious line of bolts up the face directly above the pine tree at the ledge. the rock is hollow in some places - i broke off a good sized chunk in my hand. the bolts are solid though. bolted belay at the top.

Per Dow's suggestion on summitpost, the crux on the upper dihedral pitch is directly protectable with ball nuts (#2-3 Camp sizing).

Great position of this route, dihedral pitch is amazing. Bolted last pitch felt like 5.8 with the crappy rock.

Single rack to #4 and an extra .75 and #1 Camalot. Long slings. A few 5.9 moves. Bomber gear.

Combine pitches 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 with a 60m rope and some long slings (easy). Top of P5 does indeed need a #3 and #4 camalot for belay. great view from summit and beautiful, easy walk off-- about one hour back to where you walked up into Painted Bowl.

An hour to there is a full sandbag unless you know the area well and have daylight. I know the area well but with snow+dark it took us several hours to make it back to the car. Full value.

Crux moves take #4 BD wire, gold (#3?) ballnut (very good), and a #5 BD wire. Pitch is full-on, in-your face 5.9+, reminded me of some Sierras 5.9+++'s I've done recently. The rest of the route is less intense, I brought single to 5" and doubles from .4 to 3" and used pretty much all of that on the crux pitch except the extra 1+2 camalot, which came in handy at the anchor. Linking pitches is doable but annoying considering all the good ledges.

A worthy adventure, kudos to those that like running it out with a SR, personally I'm really glad that I had all the pro I wanted on a long, fixed-hardware-less route like this that has a bunch of crunchy rock, including on several tough, physical moves on the crux pitch. My buddy took multiple lead falls on this thing and is a solid 5.9 leader, I took over on the crux pitch and wished I wore a better pair of shoes when my foot slipped+nearly took the ride onto the tiny gear. Edging shoes helpful.

Not a single fixed piece of pro in 1000' - awesome! Except for that stupid Mountain Beast finish that totally impinges upon the Rainbow Buttress finish. I thought 5.8 was fair - just more like an Eldo or Valley 5.8 than typical RR fare.

I got a good wire and blue Alien in at the crux - nothing micro-micro. On the large end, it's nice to have a #4 Camalot, or at the very least a #3, for that flare at the start of the 3rd pitch.

Hello...I climbed this route on Dec. 29, 2011 and lost a shoe somewhere along the way. If anyone found a 5.10 Guide Tennie (W7) somewhere near the base, please let me know at michelle_patterson@sfu.ca. Thanks! (By the way, the walk-off is not too bad...even if you have to wear a climbing shoe on the descent...but it took me close to 2.5 hrs to get back to the base of Solar Slab).

We linked 1/2 and 4/5 easily with a 70m rope. We were tempted to also link 6/7 but were glad we didn't. I didn't place any pro on P6 but still had rope drag as I traversed left to the tree. Best to pitch the last two out if doing the bolted final pitch. I agree with the comment above about the 5.8 rating for the final bolted pitch.

The walk-off descent was easy to sort, mellow, and a really scenic hike. From the summit to our car took 3:39 with a stop in the canyon to retrieve our packs, no rests.

More of a "backcountry" (more hiking than climbing) Grade IV.

Climbed this yesterday - certainly enjoyable. There is a really new #5 camalot stuck on pitch three. I worked on it for a couple of minutes and moved it an inch or so by banging on it with my nut tool. I'm sure someone could probably get that thing out, and they really should because what a cool route to not have a single piece of fixed gear (save for the bolted last pitch alternative).

I tried to create an anchor at the top of the black tower that I could belay directly off of, and had one of the more awkward belays of my life. In retrospect, I should have kept climbing about 30 feet into the next pitch, where there is a decent ledge with a #2 camalot sized belay. This would have kept the rope running straight above the black tower/previous pitch, and allow for some cool photos to be taken of your follower on the tower stepping across. The tower itself is a pretty cool place to hang if you would like though.

As other people said, I recommend the Chicken Lips descent. The descent is descriptive enough on that page. I found the bolts at the top of the waterstreak to be less than desirable, and would happily offer to replace them when I learn how to do it.

I'd compare the 5.8+ to the Venturi effect or a eldo 5.6. :)

Single Rack to 5" w/ doubles in 1,2,3 and rp's should do you well. The overall rock quality is great except for the last pitch, but it's bolted so not a huge deal.

The 5.8+ pitch protects well w/ smaller gear... Black alien, RP's, or Ball nuts seem to do well. Felt more technical than burly.

Most Herbst routes feel one grade harder than your average RR moderate... It's all about which FA'er put up the route.

I really enjoyed the route, it has an adventure feel that you don't get on a lot of red rock routes that I've done. Don't underestimate the approach and decent, it took us longer than the route itself. The bolts on the chicken lips decent are pretty bad and I would not recommend using them until they get replaced. We did the route in six pitiches linking 1-2 and 4-5 and found this to work out well.