Indian Country, 5.8-5.12a

Overview/Approach

 
Indian Country offers up one of the more remote walls reached from Indian Cove and really for all of Jtree in that regard.  Miramonte has Indian Country listed in the Rattlesnake Canyon section of his guide, but it is located in the upper reaches of what has been named Middle Canyon. There are several outstanding routes, Party Till Ya Puke and Party in the Desert (both 5.10bs), that are easily reached along Corral Wall at the entrance to the canyon. But after that the climbing gets rather obscure with rarely climbed areas named Ponderosa, lower and upper Dodge City, Indian Country and Cactus City. The approach for Indian Country, which is the most remote of the before mentioned, requires bushwhacking, boulder hopping and fifth class climbing toward the end. You are rewarded with face sloughing and grainy (=chossy) north facing granite with few if any routes worthy of the approach effort.
 
In the moderate trad range on Indian Country, Squaws in Heat (5.9) is decent, Little Big Man (5.8) average and the Flamboyant Arrow (5.9) chossy as hell. There are two fixed anchors on the wall and we had to replace the webbing on both in 2014, evidence that these routes see few ascents and have never been cleaned much by traffic or the FAers. Most of the routes on Indian Country were established in 1992.

From the Rattlesnake Canyon trail head at Indian Cove, hike up the wash to where Middle Canyon splits right before Rattlesnake Canyon heads up and left along the deep slot. Head right and take the short boulder hop up into Middle Canyon and hike past the sunny south facing Corral Wall on your right. Continue through the thick brush aiming for a small gap to the southwest. Do not head up and right too early.  Once through the gap, take the second drainage on your right towards Upper Dodge City. Stay left when in doubt. The brush is heavy with a fair amount of obstacles in the wash. As you near Upper Dodge City which is a tall north facing wall up and left, fork right up a steep boulder filled gully (Indian Country is never in view). A few 5th class moves on the right side of this steep drainage leads you up to slabs that head west to the tall north facing wall that is Indian Country. Despite the slabs, there is still plenty of cactus and brush to navigate. Depending on which route you want to start with, head for the wall. You cannot hug the wall to go back and forth between routes very easily. Several of the routes actually begin atop massive boulders.

Route Description(s)

Routes Listed Left to Right as you face the Wall

Last of the Gohegans-20m-5.11d**/

A Good Day to Die-20m-5.11bR**/

Squaws in Heat-25m-5.9*/This route shares the same start with Welcome to Indian Country. Start high off the ground on the large boulder. Best for the belayer to scramble down to the bottom below the boulder. The rock is somewhat chossy through this initial wide section but the climbing is relatively easy. Once you get to the horizontal break, make an exciting hand traverse left with limited to no feet to reach jugs. Climb up into the pod above and make a fun roof pull into an excellent hand crack finish to the fixed rappel out left. We replaced the cord in 2014. Dow

Welcome to Indian Country-40m-5.9**/

Trail of Tears-40m-5.11a*/

Little Big Man-40m-5.8*/Nothing special but worth doing if on the wall. Shares the same start as Trail of Tears, starting on top of a boulder. Start up a patina crack and move right into a nice crack pulling a small bulge onto lower angled ground to the top. These routes on the right all share the same bolted anchor on the lip of the large ledge (below the summit) which is the top of Little Big Horn. A single 70m rope just makes the rap. We replaced the cord in 2014. Dow

Little Big Horn-40m-5.12a***/

The Flamboyant Arrow-45m-5.9*/This is the furthest right route. It has a precarious and chossy start and does not deserve a star due to rock quality even though Miramonte gives it one in his guide. If you have wide gear, I would prefer the direct off- width start up the left facing corner. But the book calls for you to climb the right facing corner out left and traverse below a crumbling roof on shedding face back to the top of the left facing corner below another roof. The pro is questionable underneath the traversing roof and I broke the only foot piece on the face making the traverse. Pulling the smaller roof in line with the crack on a supersized jug is an awesome move for the grade and you would enjoy it if only you trusted the rock more at that point. From there the climbing is definitely cleaner as you climb the angled hand crack up and left with quite a few features. If the rock were solid, this would be a really fun route. Set up a slung boulder belay on the ledge and walk climbers left to reach the rap anchor that serves all of these right side routes. Dow

Images

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