Armatron - 5.9

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.

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