Brass Wall, 5.4-5.12a

Overview

Brass Wall is part of Pine Creek Canyon that is a winter watering hole for trad climbers. It, along with Spectrum Wall, Straight Shooter Wall, and other various walls collect full sun on the lower southeastern flank of Bridge Mountain in Red Rocks. Three of the more popular moderate routes on Brass Wall include Topless Twins (photos), a 5.9 crack pitch, Varnishing Point (photos), a two pitch 5.8+ that requires a double rope rappel (by a bees nest in 2009) and Mushroom People (photo), a nice long crack pitch at 5.10d.

Brass Wall along with the other lower varnished walls make up the climbs along the lower east face of Bridge Mountain and is thus located down Pine Creek Canyon across from the north and east faces of Mescalito (Dark Shadows area). The Brass Wall is one of the broader walls featuring a total of 25 published routes (2009) and starts via the left on an obvious arête route known as Ripcord, a stellar four pitch 5.12a route. Brass Wall is capped on the right hand side by the Beer and Ice Gully climbing section.

If you find yourself seeking these walls out, it is no doubt due to it being a cool morning. A great combination is to climb on these south facing routes during the morning and head for the Dark Shadows Wall after the sun starts to irritate you a bit. On a typical spring/winter day, we are talking about going from short sleeves in the morning to wearing a decent jacket in the afternoon. A short hike will make that much difference in Pine Creek Canyon.

Park at the Pine Creek trailhead off of the Red Rocks loop road. Hike down the trail along the creek, past the old homestead and into the wash as it heads for Mescalito. Before the trail drops down into the wash heading for the Dark Shadows area, turn right, up hill, on a fainter trail. This trail skirts an obvious red cliff band to the right. By following this trail all the way to the walls above, you basically head directly for the Straight Shooter section. To reach Brass Wall, stay on a lower trail away from the wall and keep circumventing west. Varnishing Point is an obvious route on Brass Wall that utilizes a significant treed ledge for its first belay. Bush Pilots and Fungus Folks also use this ledge. It is easy to indentify as it is centered on the tallest varnished portion of Brass Wall.

Route Description(s)

Routes Listed Left to Right as you Face the Wall

Freefall- 160’- 5.11c/

Ripcord- 430’- 5.12a/

Freebull- 90’- 5.11b/

Cut Away- 100’- 5.10d/

Sea of Holes- 435’- 5.10bR/

Black Hole- 170’- 5.10c/

Drop Zone- 100’- 5.10d/

Frap- 60’- 5.10bR/

Sky Dive- 140’- 5.11b/

Arachnoworld- 40’- 5.4/

Zen and the Art of Web Spinning- 40’- 5.4/

Sniveler- 60’- 5.5/

Heavy Spider Karma- 60’- 5.6/

Raptor- 620’- 5.10c/ For whatever reason most all of the pitch lengths on Raptor in the local guide as well as on MP.com, are exaggerated by quite a bit, over 40’ on three of them.  The route is also given a PG13 rating on MP.com which I didn't experience.  It seemed well protected and supplemented with bolts at the cruxes. The first pitch is simply using anyone of several existing routes to reach the top of the obvious 60’ leaning block tower against the wall.  The 3rd pitch is the crux of the route and sustained at the grade.   It is a trad pitch that relies on several bolts as the corner, crack, seam you are following blanks out in the middle of the pitch.  The crux of the route is the exit from this crack/seam, but if you utilize the holds up and right, it is manageable at the grade.  The fourth pitch starts up a fun corner but becomes typical 5^th class ground on large featured sandstone in short order.  Same can be said for the fifth pitch.  The rap descent is down a treed gully and although not fun, it seemed to function without glitch. Dow

Topless Twins- 70’- 5.9/  A cool pitch, but looking up from the base of the route it does not look that exciting. At about 2/3rds up are a couple of fun moves staying in the right crack. Start up an easy corner and eventually you come to several cracks. The right goes at the grade, but you can protect in the left crack a time or two as well. The one hard balance move makes the pitch worthwhile. Traverse left to a shared rap station. Single rack to 3” is adequate pro. Dow

Mushroom People- 110’- 5.10d/

Bush Pilots- 70’- 5.10a/

Fungus Folks- 60’- 5.11b/

No Laughing Matter- 110’- 5.10a/

Serious Business- 100’- 5.11a/

Varnishing Point- 160’- 5.8+/ Watch the damn bees on rappel. They were mad as hell in early March. There is a bee hive in a hole in the wall on your left. Stay right and be ready to rap a little faster than usual. They will follow the rope down if pissed off. The first pitch is an easy 5.4 just to avoid rope drag. The 100’ 2nd pitch is fantastic for the grade. Start up the easy corner, traverse left and build a station at the bottom of the next corner left. Run up past an awkward mantel move to easier corner climbing above. Finish on top of a pedestal at a fixed belay, or to save time, just put a draw here and down climb to the fixed rappel chains on the other side of the pedestal and bring the 2nd up that way. Single rack to 4”. Dow

Go Greyhound- 120’- 5.11a/

One Stop in Tonopah- 150’- 5.10c/

Simpatico- 130’- 5.10a/

The Bus Stops Here- 130’- 5.8R/

Super Greens-Super S- 840'- 5.9+PG/ These are relatively new routes (2023) that when linked together land you on the upper shelf of Brass Wall.  The route is a bit contrived in that it wanders, at times on poor rock, and does not offer much sustained climbing at the grade.  However the linking of Super Greens pitches (5.8+) and the first pitch of Super S offer worthy climbing.  Super Greens offers a cool stem roof pull at the grade and the 2^nd pitch easily stems up a cool chimney section.  The 2^nd pitch of Super S is where the wandering starts and the rock quality, particularly on this pitch, leaves much to be desired. You pull a roof on sketch rock and follow the crack as it traverses up and left to the base of a short chimney where you have to traverse up and right on fragile runout face before finding decent varnish.   You end up traversing left again and up to a massive ledge with a fixed rap which is the only hardware on the route as of 2024.  The rest of the route from there involved as much scrambling as it did climbing although the final roped pitch did offer decent face climbing on good varnish below the grade. Dow