Ascent Notes for: Armatron - 5.9 popular Average Rating : 4.82/5

up with Myster Z for a 10 hour car to car day. Thought P1 was the most heady with some potentially fragile rock and interesting bolt spacing. P2 was the crux but well protected. Finished it up to the top and walked off in a couple inches of snow; don't forget to sign the summit register!

A modern classic. 2.5 hr approach was well worth it for the spacious setting. 6 beautiful pitches to the top of the pillar. The plates on the "money pitch" are varnished and generally close together - RPs could help there if you have them. Pitches 5 & 6 are very cool - following an arete to the top of the pillar. We rapped with a 70 meter rope from chains at top of the pillar to a flat pedestal - there are anchors there on a route just right of Arm., then to the top of 4th pitch of Arm., then two raps to the dihedral route left of Arm. and back to the top of the 1st Arm. pitch.

Great climb! Easy walkoff. I would suggest going to the top. Last two pitches are ok, but can be combined into one with a single 70m. Amazing summit view.

very fun to top out and bag Gunsight Notch Peak, and descend thru the gunsight.

Armatron is the full meal deal: great approach, impeccable setting, engaging climbing. You will not be disappointed if you punch this route to the top--the summit view is searing. I personally found the 5.9 pitch to be the best and most secure pitch on the route. The 5.6 plates are unique, but the left leaning feel of the climbing kept me from relaxing. Did any one else feel that way? Anyhow, we had the misfortune of listening to a rescue go down on Crimson. Helicopters are distracting.

fun, enjoyable climb thats well protected. the third pitch is worth fighting for. link this with Myster Z for a long, but totally doable day. top out on Armatron to save the weight of a second rope- the descent is casual.

The approach up Juniper Canyon takes a little time but is well worth it. All the pitches are good. The 3rd pitch is unique with it's dinner plate features. This looks like a horror show to rapel, but was snag free for us. If you rap the route, do a single rope rap from P4-P3, this is the most highly featured face and looks like the biggest problem. I think the anchors are well placed to avoid snags. The next 3 rap's were no problem. I did slide the knot past possible problems on the rap's to be sure. More fun than really hard.

The Brownstone Wall is a beautiful setting, brimming with quality routes. The 1 1/2 hr hike went quickly(we parked at Oak Creek instead of Pine Creek). I led p1 & 3. Exciting exposure and sweet varnish make the climb flow easily. Didn't feel any run outs; plenty of nut placements everywhere, a couple spots for cams(sparse). At the top of p4, we rapped down to the climbers right(across the black chimney) to the belay station of the arete(5.8) pitch of Requiem for Tadpole. I led this exciting, airy pitch and felt rather nervous about one section(between the 3rd and 4th bolts, I think??). That one spot felt sketchy pro-wise, but maybe because I traversed into the move rather than going straight up to the bolt which felt just out of reach; otherwise, the route seemed well bolted and easily supplemented with gear where you wanted extra security. From the top of this pitch, we rapped back over to the Armatron and rappelled that route. Great place to enjoy some sun on a breezy day.

This is a nice route. Just did Requiem for a Tadpole as well. Would be a solid fun day of climbing to combine both of these routes. Where Armatron gives you that incredible 5.6 3rd pitch, Requiem offers a spectacular arete pitch on the same quality rock, a variation of pitch 4. Maybe do Armatron first, rap, then to the top with Requiem...but only if no one is behind you on Armatron.

We followed a guide up Myster Z and ended our day by continuing up this. It's fairly vertical and a nice regular flat wall. The 5.8 section was nice and balancy and probably not a terrifying lead. The 5.9 had a pretty wicked finger crack (.75 C4?) for 20 or 30 feet that required some tricky stemming across wide sections (at least for me) and it was a lot of fun. Just after that crack you get a bolt as reward for your hard work. Seemed like a bold lead to me but very fun. Above begins what I was thinking of as the brownstone road. Black varnished plates regularly cracked into mostly rectangles made it look like you were climbing a slightly rolling cobblestone road. Really cool. Very regular handholds and much easier (5.6ish I believe) than below. The sun started setting and we were getting cold so we skipped out on the last pitch but it was supposedly more varnished-brick-road. Highly recommended if you get up this high. The down scramble on the slab and boulder hopping was tedious and time consuming (45 min to the base of Myster Z) but felt fairly safe. All three belays were were on were bolted, albeit varying degrees of hanging.