from bottom of eagledance/lev29, contour left and down to bottom of broken shoulder on left of bowl. traverse left here on ledges and ramps and then go straight down buttress arete for a couple hundred yards. dodge left and down on slabs to avoid steep cliff below arete, and after a few minutes angle slacks off. (black orpheus descent joins in here) traverse back right and down on easy ramps to arete again. stay just barely left of arete all the way down to saddle (looks steep here, but is fine). see big round obvious boulder sitting on saddle. go to it, then traverse right across slabs, staying high where possible. at the bushy platform take the gully down left (cairns here), and walk down rock fin on right side of gully until angle slacks off. break off right and down exposed class 4 slabs, then contour right on varnished ledges with bushes. just before ledge system ends at slabs, hop down off the boulder and go down broken class 4 terrain for several yards, then ski/buttslide down polished slab to the water. from here it takes about 45 minutes to get back to start of black orpheus. it can take as little as 20 minutes if you walk quick and there isn't much water in the canyon. from under black orpheus its about another hour to the car, more or less depending on your pace.  something like three hours from base of eagle wall to pullout. (your mileage may vary).<P>

this also seems like a pretty doable approach to the eagle wall. im assuming the normal approach takes longer, and leaves the canyon later. to work this as an approach, walk up the oak creek canyon to the fork, take a right, and see the huge arch on the right. walk past the arch to where polished unfeatured light colored slabs drop directly into the running creek (running in late spring 05, anyway). futz your way up these polished slabs to the ledge above and you're golden. take a right and start walking.<P>

g. urioste reccomends an even shorter approach. quoted from memory: walk up canyon, see huge arch on right before the fork, just after black orpheus. see buttress/ramp system just left of arch. you're supposed to go up this. from the wash, the easiest way to get to these ramps looks like to go up past the arete of the buttress, round the corner, and try to find a way to get up from there. dont start early from the black orpheus start area. you'll do more swhwacking than you need to. its supposed to be sustained class 3/4 slabs to top, looks like a big shortcut to halfway up first described descent/approach.<P>

rapping eagle wall routes- you can rap the 'normal' pitches of eagle dance with a single 70m rope (if you dont top out, avoiding the last lower angle pitch to the summit). and according to george urioste if you do summit with two ropes, mountain beast affords the straightest rap line. to find it, top out eagle dance. walk towards vegas to a huge dead pine tree. then walk just a bit more towards vegas to find a two bolt rap anchor. second anchor is blocks. all other anchors are double bolts. not sure if this is the reccomended route because it doesnt get traffic and you wont be in other people's way, or because the rap line is straighter. disclaimer: i havent done the m.beast rap. just heresay, and i may have heard it wrong. have fun..