Where the Buffalo Roam

Approach: We approached via Born in Time/Methow Inspiration Route. From the base of born in time we traversed climbers right and stayed close to the wall following the path of least resistance. A short down climb under steep rock walls and around a few corners eventually led to a gulley. Descend into the gully and cross it (do not climb the gully). Once across, generally stay high against the base of the rock until you get to the base of the route, maybe a half mile right of Born in Time. Route starts on an indistinct slab but if you keep close the the base of the wall you'll find bolts. Maybe a mile from the parking. There is probably a more direct way to this climb up one of the many gullys but this approach was pretty easy.

Pitch Breakdown:

Pitch 1: Climb the slab and head up right on steeper terrain to a two bolt anchor. This pitch has a rap station just down and right of the anchors. 5.7 40m

Scramble up the scree ledges and move your belay up and right about 50 feet to another two bolt anchor. You may be able to extend the first pitch to this second bolted anchor, but we built a belay at the first one.

Pitch 2: Start up a fun crack feature into steep slab climbing. The climbing here is exciting and heady especially if the leader is near their limit. Bolting was safe but you'll find yourself climbing well above your bolts on thoughtful movement. A very good pitch! 5.9 30m

Pitch 3: Climb right of the belay over a bouldery high step move onto a ramp to a face. 5.9 30m

Pitch 4: Climb the ramp with some fun moves until you reach a headwall. Clip the bolt on your right and traverse on a ledge to another bolt with a quick link. Climb straight up dirty looking rock to reach the anchors. Watch for loose rock here as your partner will be directly below the ledge. This pitch will benefit from some extension, especially when entering and exiting the traverse. I did not extend on the traverse (used my alpine draws on the ramp) and rope drag was pretty bad. 5.9- 30m

Pitch 5: Climb up and right on low angle rock around vegetation to the left leaning face. Either climb the first bolts using the gully on the right or resist this temptation and stay on the face to make some more challenging (maybe 10-) but fun moves to enter the crack system and jam your way to the anchors! 5.8 30m

Move the belay across the ledge to a single belay bolt below the obvious clean face.

Pitch 6: Incredible fun face face climbing. This might be my favorite of the route. High quality 5.10 climbing with fun movement, wow! Reminded me of an easier version of Guides Day Off at Fun Rock. Ascend the face until a ledge, cut right for an airy and exposed but well protected boulder move to the anchors. 10- 30m

Note: The next pitch goes right around a corner and up to another set of anchors maybe 30 feet above. We turned this into a mini pitch since we didn't know what to expect above. If we did it again we'd probably extend a bit on pitch 6 and climb to the second set of anchors as the crux of the route is just above these and would make for a safer belay if the leader was at their limit.

Pitch 7: The crux pitch. Climb around the corner onto a face with some delicate and tricky moves into good some good holds. Continue up through a few tricky sloper moves past the second set of chains. Take a moment to shake out and then pull the through the tricky crux onto sustained climbing on slopers and small edges to a two bolt anchor. While this pitch did not have any single moves harder than the crux on Sisyphus, I felt the crux moves combined with much more sustained 5.10 climbing with less generous bolting for most of the pitch made it feel harder overall than the crux of that route. 10+ 30m

We decided to rap here due to time constraints. Beta for the final two pitches are in the new Mazama guide.

Pitch 8: 5.8 35m

Pitch 9: 10a 30m

Descent: Rapping the the route was easy. Very well done on the rap station placement. All stations are easy to find and most belay anchors have chains. A few exceptions:

Rappelling pitch 4 - after a free hanging rappel of the pitch the next rap station is climbers left and down a bit of the pitch 3 bolted belay, but easy to find. Note: descending pitch 4 has lots of loose rock on the ledge. We had some choss come down while pulling the rope so use caution.

Pitch one rap station is just down and right of the belay anchors on a chossy ledge.

70m rope, 16 draws and at least 3-4 alpine draws. You might consider bringing a double runner or two.