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Hard Attack

5.11a, Trad, 90 ft (27 m),  Avg: 3.8 from 26 votes
FA: Chuck Buzzard 3/84
Oregon > Central Oregon > Smith Rock > (z) Lower Gorge > E Side > (2) Windfall Wall
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Description

A spectacular route, itself worth a trip to the Windfall Wall. Thoughtful protection and movement characterize this route, like many of the gorge 5.11s. Climb a fingers to hand crack to a stance under the roof. Skirt left into a beautiful stem box, using your lower gorge trickery to make the small features useful for protection and upward progress. When the columns end,head up and right pulling wild steep moves up the cracked headwall to reach a two bolt anchor.

Location

Left of "Wave of Mutilation", the farthest left bolted line. "Hard Attack" starts in a grey corner beneath a roof formed by a hanging column.

Protection

Cams to 2.5", extra fingers and micro, 2-3 each of the smallest not unreasonable. Wires. RP's or Ballnuts useful (for TR'ing through the crux on lead)

Standard rack will apparently suffice for your average hard-person

Anchor has two Metolius rap hangers

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at a distance
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Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Jon Rhoderick
OR
 
[Hide Comment] Do yourself a favor and do this route and The Sheepgate. They are the same quality as Cry of the Poor, On the Road, or the Pearl that are super classics across the water yet these guys mostly collect dust.
Ball nuts, offset cams, or offset nuts are nice, but this can be safely climbed with a conventional trad rack

FA Chuck Buzzard 3/84 Oct 23, 2016
AJ
[Hide Comment] +1 to Jon's comment. A varied, unique and simply brilliant pitch.
Standard rack is great. I led this onsight yesterday without RPs, offsets, ballnuts, etc and didn't wish I had them. Safe and super fun. Mar 1, 2017
Shelton Hatfield
  5.11a
[Hide Comment] Rack beta edited to reflect how light-duty I am.

Not gonna lie, the route looked like a munchkin had aided it by the time I was done leading Mar 2, 2017
AJ
[Hide Comment] Ha! Shelton I thought your description was/is excellent. Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents that no one should pass up this classic due to not having specialized gear. Mar 3, 2017
Shelton Hatfield
  5.11a
[Hide Comment] I'm glad you did, AJ. This route is awesome and I totally agree with you. Perhaps I can return with less trinkets sometime and give it another whirl. Mar 6, 2017
CritConrad
Bend, OR
 
[Hide Comment] on the upper part of the column I placed 3 cam in the green C3/purple Metolius size as well as a red ball nut. A small nut would have worked well there as well so dont let lack of ball nuts deter you. Save some finger sized pieces for the finish. Great route! Aug 13, 2017
Max Tepfer
Bend, OR
 
[Hide Comment] Anchor currently has lower-off carabiners, but they're aluminum, so maybe have a couple of spares to pop in there if they're getting worn. +1 for no micro gear necessary if this isn't too close to your limit. I was psyched to have 2x green C3s/purple metolius sizes. Like has been said, probably would have placed a third if I'd had it, but made do with a small nut. Ballnuts are only necessary if you needed to aid through the crux. Jun 12, 2019