From the slabs at the base of the wall, scramble all the way left on exposed 4th class terrain to a bolted belay station overlooking a big drop.  Start here and climb straight upward, following thin cracks.  Eventually, bear right and climb up to another bolted belay station.  The second pitch goes up and slightly left until you can move back right on a rounded rib in the white rock.  This will take you to a hand crack and the summit.  There is a third bolted station next to the handcrack on the top of the formation.

Cheap Drills

Summerset

Okie from Muskogee

Tres Bon

Les Miserables

This is probably the line that Harrington and Overholtz referred to as a "super-forgettable grovel," but it is really not so bad.  Climb up the gradually steepening crack system and belay above a small overhang.  The second pitch follows thin cracks through the white rock to a wide ledge with some large bushes.  The third pitch goes up and right (with possible variations) to another ledge to the right of a big corner system.  Easier climbing leads to the top.

Midway between Tres Bon and Les Miserables, there is a faint, ramp-like weakness running up and right on the varnished face.  It leads generally to the right-hand of the two parallel cracks in the upper white wall.  Follow this to a gear belay.  The second pitch continues straight to a crack on the white face.  When this crack peters out, move left to join the upper jam crack on Tres Bon.

Start at the same point as Cheap Drills, but follow thin cracks that slant up and to the right.  Set up a gear belay beneath a small bulge.  The second pitch goes straight up via thin crack, friction, and ultimately hand jams in the left-hand of the two parallel cracks in the upper wall.

On the right side of the Oakey Buttress, the formation is cleaved at the top by a gully, that becomes a chimney, that becomes a water-worn groove, and finally peters out half way down the cliff.  Climb the dirty, loose, and not-very-pleasant cracks beneath the groove, then follow the chimney to the top.  

The Oakey Buttress is on the western end of the west ridge of Cactus Flower Tower.  It overlooks the first fork in Oak Creek. The buttress sits somewhat below and to the west of the Blood Wall, and is distinguished from that area by differing descent routes and character of climbing. 

  The first recorded climbing in the area took place in the late 1970's.  Bob Harrington, Alan Bartlett, and Bill St. Jean put up Oakey Dokey.  They had originally intended to name the route "High Anxiety," after the recently released Mel Brooks movie, but found that the name had already been grabbed by the Uriostes for a route on the Brownstone Wall.  At around the same time, Harrington teamed up with Ron Overholtz climbed another line farther to the east.  Bob called it a "super-forgettable grovel... that didn't merit naming."  This line probably coincides with Okie from Muskogee.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Oakey Buttress