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Last Payment (5.11, 4p, ~400′)

Alimony Wall

Route:

Last Payment

5.11, 4p, ~400'

Last Payment is perhaps the best route on the wall, climbing a crack system to the top of Alimony Wall, with comfortable belay ledges every 100 feet, and a thoughtful 5.11 offwidth crux.

Region: Colorado

Elev: 6,000-7,000 ft

Rock type: Gneiss

Type:

Date(s): May 24, 2020 (Sun)

Partner(s): Michael Cantrell

Related trip reports:

Black Canyon of the Gunnison Main Page

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Intro

The 400-foot Alimony Wall is as close to cragging as you get on the South Rim. It is located mere minutes from the road, and has a number of 3-4 pitch climbs on good rock. Plus, Alimony Wall is shaded for most of the day. Last Payment is perhaps the best route on the wall, climbing a crack system to the top of the wall, with comfortable belay ledges every 100 feet, and a thoughtful 5.11 offwidth crux.

Michael and I climbed Last Payment as the second of three climbs during a trip to the Black in May 2020, where we did two climbs on the South Rim (Blackjack and Last Payment) before driving 1.5 hours to the North Rim, where we did one more climb (Escape Artist). This was my first time checking out the South Rim, and Michael's first trip to the Black. At the thinnest points on the rim, the South Rim and North Rim are a mere 1,100 feet apart, but it took 1.5 hours to drive around the Black Canyon to get from one rim to the other!

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Park at the Painted Wall Overlook, walk up the road a few hundred yards, and then cut through the oak brush to the head of a steep gully that descends alongside Alimony Wall. There is a giant chockstone in the gully. Descend the gully (3rd and 4th), and to get to the base of Last Payment, bushwhack uphill to the base of the wall and start in a junky crack system on the right of the alcove.

Pitch 1

5.8

Vic Zeilman's topo says to take the "least shitty" crack system, which is a great description of the first pitch. Belay at a grassy ledge above.

Pitch 2

5.9

Climb up the nice hand-to-fist crack to a large, sloping ledge.

Pitch 3

5.11

Climb a fun hand crack, and then puzzle your way through the steep 5.11 offwidth/flare. A #5 cam is nice to have here. (A 5.10 variation to the right avoids the 5.11 flare, but why do that, this part is cool!). Belay at another ledge above.

Pitch 4

5.8

Continue up a crack/corner, exit right through a notch, and then finish left in a chimney system.

Top out

Top out on the top of Alimony Wall. A quick hike brings you back to the road and the Painted Wall overlook.

Other photos

Random photos from the afternoon. This was a short route and we finished around noon. We debated climbing Alimony as well, but decided to spend the afternoon driving to the North Rim (~1.5 hours drive from South Rim), nab a campsite with a cell signal in the BLM land, get some work done (Michael had a paper to write and I had some overlays needing to be created), and relax in preparation for another climb the next day.