Thanks, Michael. Fair question. There are instances where I think it’s easier to scramble up a minor technical route than to scramble down it. In the case of Crack-in-the-Wall, I think the scrambling itself is easy enough to do in either direction. The harder part would be that you’d have to haul packs up that short, two-section cliff, rather than simply lowering them down it. Again, that’s certainly not impossible or terribly difficult (although I might want to have leather gloves for hauling a pack using a thin utility cord). Some people for whom relatively easy scrambling might feel challenging might prefer going down it than up.

Plus, the “trail” of sorts from the bottom of Crack-in-the-Wall to Coyote Gulch is very sandy, which would be more strenuous going up than down. By camping in lower Coyote Gulch, near the trail to Crack-in-the-Wall, you’d have a shorter last day to finish the trip than hiking out from one of the last camps with good water higher up in Coyote Gulch. But then, you’d have to have a vehicle that can handle to road to the Forty Mile Ridge Trailhead waiting for you, too.

That pretty much sums it up. Thanks for the question.

Thank you, Dorothy, and I share your hope that future generations will still have a natural world they can still enjoy. If our generation is willing to ensure that.