VIDEO: Culp-Bossier Hallett Peak RMNP

The Culp-Bossier route on Hallett Peak is one of Colorado's most classic alpine lines. Usually accomplished in eight pitches, this famous moderate wall is known for long runouts on easier terrain and complex routefinding, so be confident in your skills despite the relatively easy grade of 5.8.

The following video shows some of the climbing on the line. Enjoy!

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Stranded on Monitor Rock Near Independence Pass

Monitor Rock. Trooper Traverse follows the prominent
 ramp/crack system in the center of the main face

We’re going to be on the news….

It was the only thought my panicked mind could summon. “Three rock climbers had to be rescued last night off Monitor Rock near Twin Lakes just east of Independence Pass. Reportedly, the group was stranded when their rope became stuck as they were rappelling from the 450-foot-tall rock.” Something like that. People on their couches at home would guffaw and grumble “idiots” before clicking around for something better. Now that we’d been in our predicament for over an hour, this scenario seemed not just possible, but likely.

On the positive side, we were on a solid ledge that had not one but two bolted anchors. At ten feet long, two feet wide and 350 feet off the ground, was it comfortable? No. But at least we were in no danger of falling. It was autumn, however, and evening was approaching. Though it had been a warm, bluebird day, once that sun went down, it was going to get cold.

“We can think this through,” said my wife, Ella, sounding much calmer than I felt.

“There is no reason to panic.”

“I also have this,” added my friend and often climbing partner, Trent. He reached into his backpack and retrieved a Spot Satellite GPS messenger. With one touch of the panic button, this little device would transmit an S.O.S along with our coordinates to emergency dispatch, and the finest in backcountry rescue services would be deployed to save us. But how long would it take them to arrive? Monitor Rock was 26 miles from Leadville, where it was likely any such rescue operation would be staged. The amount of time it would take to mobilize and travel here alone could be hours. Then they would have to climb to us, and get us down, and do whatever follow-up was required. I was guessing we’d be lucky to get home by midnight.

“Are we at that point?” I asked, watching his finger edge closer to the button. The three of us were silent. There was only so much pulling one could do on a stuck rope before giving in to the harsh reality.

Ella sighed. “We might be.”

The author leads the pitch 4 traverse pitch

I swore out loud, which didn’t help anything. The climb itself, a historical multi-pitch traditional route known as the Trooper Traverse (5 pitches, 5.8+) had been smooth. We’d swapped leads and made our way up the enjoyable line in decent time, even taking the more-difficult 5.9 crux variation for the final pitch. The setting for Monitor Rock was breathtaking, especially with the golds, oranges and yellows of fall at their peak. The cobalt sky was dotted with friendly, paintbrush clouds and the perfectly warm air was so still we could hear calls of “take” and “lowering” from the climbers cragging on other routes far below us at the base of the wall. I hated the stark juxtaposition of all that beauty against our current predicament.

“All right,” I said to Trent with a deep breath. “I guess we have to do it.”

Trent’s thumb hovered over the panic button.

* * *

It’s a common mountaineering axiom that the way down is the most dangerous part of an expedition. The descent occurs later in the day when we are exhausted and weather is more likely. And while going down, we are leading with our feet instead of our heads. Then there is complacency. Feeling that the summit, and the worst, is behind us, we lower our guard.

Rappelling is a special type of descent that can speed up our progress and allow us to cruise past gnarly sections that would be difficult or impossible to downclimb. Duane Raleigh, publisher of Rock & Ice magazine and first ascensionist of many Western Colorado rock climbs, asserts in his article “Rappelling-Surviving Climbing’s Diciest Business” that “of the myriad ways to kill yourself climbing, rappelling is the quickest.” This grim truism echoes through my head every time I fix myself to a rope to begin a rappel descent.

When done properly, however, rappelling is quite simple, easy and generally safe, but the consequences of any broken link in the chain are disastrous. There are many ways rappelling can go wrong, including anchor failure, knot failure, improper connections with the belay device, loss of brake-hand control, failure to tie backup knots, rappelling off the end of the rope, and more. One of the most common rappelling faux pas, however, is getting a rope stuck when pulling it.

Now, there is an advantage to this mistake over the others: you are at the bottom of the rappel when it happens. If it were just a single rappel then at worst you have to leave your expensive rope behind and hope you can come back for it later.

On a multi-rappel descent, getting your rope stuck up high can leave you stranded with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of feet still to the ground.

*               *               *

“Let me try it one more time,” said Trent, slipping the GPS tracker back into his bag. Taking both ends of the rope, he began to saw the two lines back and forth.

At first, nothing would budge. Then suddenly, a hundred feet above us, the knot popped free from whatever it had been stuck on and began pulling through the anchor. A minute later it hissed down the smooth granite and landed at our feet.

We stared at it with our mouths hanging open in shock. After more than an hour being stranded, we were free. We cheered. We hugged. We celebrated. No hours-long rescue. No Channel 5 News story. No being benighted on a two-foot-wide ledge at 10,000 feet elevation. We were going home.

Ella Wright just before the rope
became stuck

There were still two rappels to go however, and we couldn’t lose focus. The last thing we wanted was to get out of one bad situation by the skin of our teeth only to end up in a worse one. The best moment, however, of any rappel is when your feet and rope are back on the ground, and an hour later we were there. At the bottom of the rock we laid in the grass and gravel and tried to laugh off what had just happened. It seemed surreal, the sudden transition from danger to safety.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ella said after we packed up our bags. She started the march down the trail in the direction of our car.

“I couldn’t agree more,” added Trent and followed.

I looked back at sweeping heights of Monitor Rock. Evening was already almost at hand and the glistening gray rock was falling into shadow. I could still pick out the ledge where we had spent an hour stranded. I couldn’t help but think how close we’d come to still being up there.

“Maybe we need to go get a beer,” I added. I turned away from the rock to follow the others, and didn’t look back.

NOTE: This article was originally published in Our Backyard (Volume 11, Issue 3, June 2016), an outdoor publication that is inserted in The Nickel and the Moab Times-Independent. 

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The Next Level: The Future of Climbing and Mountaineering

Chris Sharma on La Dura Dura (5.15c).
Screenshot from BigUp's Reel Rock 7.

When Adam Ondra sent Change at Flatanger, Norway, the 20-year-old Czech climber had just pushed the of world climbing to a whole new level... or so it seemed. It was the first climb rated 5.15c (9b+), a grade that had once seemed impossible. Just a few months later, he and climbing legend Chris Sharma were sparring to redpoint something even harder: La Dura Dura. It was a climb that even Sharma, who at 20 years of age established the world's first 5.15a (9a+) when he sent Realization, had once called impossible. Though it was Ondra who first sent this futuristic climb, Sharma soon followed with a send of his own. The climbers set the rating at 5.15c (9b+). Both Ondra and Sharma agreed that La Dura Dura was probably the hardest rock climb in the world. Some have speculated that La Dura Dura may actually prove to be the world's first 5.15d.

There are only a handful of climbers in the world who can climb 5.15. The list is limited to names like Alex Megos, Ramon Julian, Dave Graham, Adam Ondra and, of course, Chris Sharma. Undoubtedly there are a few others, but this very small list shows just how hard the grade is. If these climbers, people like Sharma and Ondra, find these climbs to be at the very limits of their abilities, taking months of rehearsal and many many attempts to complete, just how much more difficult can climbing get? Have humans now reached the limits of physical capacity where, short of developing sticky pads on our fingers or some improbable gear innovation, we simply are not able to climb anything harder? Will we ever see a 5.15d or even a 5.16? How about bouldering? V16? V17? The alpine realm seems more open, with many peaks out there that still have yet to be climbed. But eventually, it seems, humans will soon have stood on every high point in this wide world. What then? Are the sports of climbing and mountaineering destined to fall in decrepit mediocrity without the excitement of progress? Already here in Colorado there are no exciting peaks still awaiting a first ascent. Even finding a new line on any of the major peaks is going to be hard to impossible (though Tommy Caldwell and Joe Mills did establish the first 5.14 line on the Diamond one month ago). Or will someone in the next generation prove that what is considered possible is never capped?

Cerro Torre, where Hayden Kennedy and 
Jason Kruk made the first "fair means"
ascent of the in famous Compressor Route.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Despite that the sports of climbing and mountaineering seem limited by the capacity of human physiology, new levels of achievement have been reached in recent years. Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk made the first "fair means" ascent of the legendary Compressor Route on Cerro Torre in the Torres Del Paine region of Patagonia in January of 2012. The Compressor Route is infamous in the history of mountaineering and considered by some the biggest atrocity in alpinism due to its excessive bolts and the abandonment of a heavy air-compressor on top of the mountain used to create the bolt ladder on the 1970 first ascent. Kennedy and Kruk decided, however, to chop the bolts off as they descended from the mountain after their ascent. A few days later, David Llama climbed the route completely free calling it 8a (5.13b). Though the chopping of the bolts was controversial, these two ascents show that what people believe to be possible in alpine climbing world has changed over the decades.

Another young climber who is proving that there are other ways than just pure difficulty which the sports of climbing and mountaineering can expand is Alex Honnold. In 2008 Honnold made the first free solo ascent of the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (VI 5.12b), climbing the 23-pitch route without a rope. Honnold's achievements have proven that newer generations of climbers are still willing to push the sport in "bold" directions. In 2012 Honnold managed to achieve a solo link-up Half Dome, the Nose and Mt. Watkins in a single day.

Modern Yosemite pioneer Tommy Caldwell also continues to push the sport of climbing. At 35 years of age, Caldwell has done more to push the sport of rock climbing to new levels than almost any one. In 2003 he put several months of hard work into a massive, overhanging cave on a remote wall in western Colorado, establishing Kryptonite, the country's first 5.14d (9a), and Flex Luthor, quite likely the first 5.15 in North America though it remains unrepeated and unconfirmed to this day. In recent years, Caldwell has been back where he feels most comfortable, on big walls, freeing old aid lines on Colorado's Diamond and Yosemite's Half Dome and El Capitan. Caldwell's free version of Mescalito on El Capitan, if completed, could be the hardest big-wall free climb in the world.

And what about the next generation? Young climbers today are better than ever. A crop of super-young, highly talented climbers are already scaling the best rock in the world, threatening to push the boundaries of a sport that has been accused of stagnation. 12-year-olds Mirko Caballero and Ashima Shiraishia have both climbed V13. Ashima, in fact, became the youngest person to climb that grade when she sent Crown of Aragorn at Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas at the age of 11. Other young climbers like Brooke Raboutou and Kai Lightner and others are all also climbing 5.14 and are all under 14 years of age.

The Ruth Glacier in Alaska. Photo courtesy
Wikimedia Commons.

And in the mountains, the great peaks of Karakoram and Chamonix continue to prove to be the forefront in the world of mountaineering, as new lines are found and ascended. Hard mixed routes and ice climbs are established each season. The popularity of the Ouray Ice Climbing Festival grows every year. Way up north, along the Great Gorge of the Ruth Glacier in Denali National Park, climbers have been climbing new faces and establishing brutal link-ups and traverses that nobody before had ever imagined. There are still many pitches of rock, ice and snow in this world that have yet to be climbed. These hotspots continue to produce neo-classic alpine routes that will entice and challenge mountaineers for generations to come. And there is more to be found. After all, 24,836-foot Gangkhar Puensum is generally considered the highest unclimbed mountain remaining in the world, and it is likely to stay that way for the time being, as climbing it is against the rules of the local governments. There are several other 7000m peaks that have yet to see a first ascent.

With all the growth in the sports of climbing and mountaineering, it is easy to think that we are reaching the limits of what is possible for a human. There are only so many mountains to explore. Someday soon we will have climbed them all. On the other hand, progressing into harder and harder difficulty too seems capped by simple human physiology. We can only hold onto to holds so small. Yet, despite these constraints, it seems that a new generation continues to surprise, finding and sending harder and harder climbs, or re-hashing old climbs in new style. Though maybe someday we will find that limit, for now the world of climbing and mountaineering continues to thrive.

Check out this video of Adam Ondra and Chris Sharma battling for the first ascent of La Dura Dura (5.15c):

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Climbing and mountaineering are dangerous!! Please see the DISCLAIMER page For information about how to contact us, visit this link

Get Better at Rock Climbing...Today! (Page 2)

(Continued from Page 1)

V4 boulder problem in Western Colorado

III. MENTAL
   There can be no doubt that climbing is almost equally mental as it is physical. So when is your mental state getting in the way? And what can be done to improve it? Here are a few tips to help improve your mental climbing acuity.
   A. Fear- All climbing inevitably engages some degree of fear. Fear is good; it stimulates adrenaline which helps you focus and sharpens your body's abilities to perform. This is why we have adrenal glands in the first place. Only a great fool would call themselves a "fearless" climber. Those are the sort of climbers I don't like to partner with. However, excessive fears are debilitating and will ultimately hinder your ability to climb at peak performance. Two types of fears in particular are especially non-productive: fear of failure/embarrassment, and the fear of falling. Both of which are quite common and somewhat easy to remedy.
     Fear of Failure- this is perhaps the silliest and easiest type of fear to rid yourself of. Being afraid of looking bad in front of your friends will hurt your performance. Don't hold yourself to the standards of others. While some friendly competition against your friends and/or peers will help keep you motivated, climbing is an individual sport. Measure your success against yourself only. Remembering that you are trying mainly to have fun and not send every climb you attempt the first time is a good way to keep yourself from falling into this trap.
     Fear of Falling- this is a common and natural fear, and one that stands in the way of many climbers, especially ones that are at the beginner/intermediate level. While it is important not to ignore the possibility of a dangerous fall, being afraid to fall on well-protected routes is a major hindrance for your climbing. It will keep you from attempting routes at the top-end of your skill level and create a mental block on your climbing progress. This is evident for some climbers who will struggle with a certain move while leading but will fire through the same move when on top-rope. The best way to get over your fear of falling is to fall. Find a good belayer who knows how to perform a safe "soft catch" and take a few lead falls. On a safe climb, start with some short falls in the 5-8 foot range and build up to 15 footers. Soon you will learn to embrace and even enjoy falling and this fear will no longer be present.

   B. Focus
     Another important aspect of your mental conditioning is learning to focus. There are many techniques for focusing your mind, and you may have to find the ones that work best for you. Most trainers in athletics of all types, however, will teach you a combination of visualization, breathing, and meditation. Instead of staring up at a climb you are about to attempt convincing yourself it is too hard for you and imagining all the things that could go wrong, instead convince yourself that the route is within your ability and you are in the best condition to do it. Picture yourself making the moves in detail. Imagine yourself succeeding, standing at the top of the climb having sent it. And remember that if you don't there is always tomorrow. During the climb, if you find yourself starting to lose your focus, take a moment to breath a few times and re-channel your energy. Most of all, remember that climbing is fun.

IV. NUTRITION
   Much can be said about nutrition and sports training, so I would go into too much detail here. Good nutrition, however, is a crucial part to getting your body to perform at its optimum levels and is therefore extremely important if you are training to climb. Eat well before a climb and after and you will find yourself feeling better and performing like you never dreamed. For the sake of this article I will break nutrition down into two categories: things that are good to eat, and things that aren't. For a more detailed nutrition regimen I would suggest seeking out any number of great resources that are already available.

THINGS TO EAT:
-Good carbs (in moderation) such as whole grains, oats, pastas.
-Foods high in healthy fats such as avocados, olive oil, etc. Remember that good fat is good and not all things that are "Low Fat" are healthy. Fat keeps your body satisified longer than carbs, making you feel hungry less often.
-Fruits and vegetables (but everybody knows this). If you struggle with the veggies, I suggest making smoothies or finding a taste for drinks such as V8.
-A high quality protein source is also crucial, lean meats relatively low in fat like chicken or turkey consumed as soon after a hard workout as possible will help your muscles recover and grow stronger. Protein supplements like Whey powder can also be helpful but avoid consuming too much protein, as it can lead to conditions such as gout.

THINGS NOT TO EAT:
-bad carbs high in refined sugars like soda, candy, milk chocolate, cakes, or any sweets. This group of foods is perhaps the worst thing you can consume for your body.
-Excessive amounts of saturated fat such as fatty red meats, butter, etc.
-And avoid excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs, these will certainly NOT help you to send that project!

V. SAMPLE ROUTINE 
Here is a sample workout routine that can be customized to suit your particular climbing needs and current physical conditioning. This particular workout lends itself to gym climbing where you can climb a lot of pitches in a short amount of time, as well as mix sport and/or trad with bouldering. However, this routine can be customized based on what you have available at your local climbing areas.

1. Cardio-
     A. 40 min jog. 5 min warm-up. 30 min running at a sustainable pace, gradually building in intensity followed by a 5 minute cool down walk. 3-4 times per week.

2. Climbing-
     A. 50 feet of easy warm-up climbing 2-3 number grades lower than your hardest redpoint.
     B. 250 feet (2-3 single pitch routes of 50-100' length) of onsight climbing from one letter grade to one number grade below your hardest redpoint (i.e. if your hardest redpoint is 5.11b, climb 5.10b to 5.11a onsight).
     C. 100 feet of downclimbing
     D. 75 feet of a project climb at or near your redpoint level. (recommended max: 5 attempts)

Or

           5-10 boulder problems at or near your redpoint level
     E. 2-5 boulder problems with 15-25 pounds of weight (either in the form of a weight belt or a partially loaded backpack. Could also substitute 50-100 feet of weight routed climbing 2-3 number grades below your redpoint limit. (Avoid strenuous crimps while weighted as they can cause tendon injury. Instead focus on jug holds and other "open" grip positions).
     F. 2 sets of 100 foot "sprints", climbing routes that are easy for you (3-4 number grades below your redpoint limit), focusing on moving fast without resting but still maintaining good form.

NOTE: It is recommended to alternate spending one day focusing on power and projects and the next focusing on reps and endurance on lower grades. Customize your routine to find and work your strengths and needs.

3. Muscle-
     A. Push-ups- 2 sets (enough reps that push your muscles to near failure)
     B. Sit-ups- 2 sets
     C. Wrist curls- 2 sets (enough weight to cause muscle failure in 20-30 reps).
     D. Reverse wrist curls- 2 sets
     E. Other- consider your personal weaknesses. For example, if your weakness is pure strength focus on lat pulls, bench press, bicep curls and other strength exercises.

This entire routine should be performed 3-4 times a week for a solid month, at which time re-evaluate and customize your routine for at least another month or for as long as you continue to see results. It is good, however, to take a full week off from a strenuous climbing routine every two months. Gradually increase your reps, aiming for what is known as the "Overload Principal," or increasing at a rate of about 10% per week. For example, if you are doing 20 reps, move up to 22. Or if you are lifting 150 pounds, bump it up to 165 (but don't do both!). Lower weights and higher reps will benefit endurance more, increasing weight will increase strength. Gradually increasing your workout will continually challenge your muscles and stimulate them to grow. Keeping your workout static will only maintain your current conditioning level.

All of this is a very brief and abridged theory about getting better at climbing. If you are serious about improving your climbing ability, I would suggest using this article as only one reference. I recommend reading broadly about the topic. Motivation and passion will go a long way toward helping you reach your climbing goals. If you start to find that climbing is not becoming fun, stop and re-evaluate what you are doing. Be honest and trying to pinpoint the source of your feelings. Although training is not always enjoyable, keep your eyes on the prize and always remember that climbing is supposed to be fun. Be safe and enjoy yourself out there. Climb on!

-Brian Wright

OTHER HOW-TO ARTICLES

Beginner's Guide to Crack Climbing- An introduction to crack climbing sizes and basic crack climbing technique.
Mountaineering 101- A basic look at mountaineering, including recomended gear, training and technical skills and more.
No Trace Ethic- A guide to abiding "No Trace" ethic to preserve the place we like to mountaineer for many years to come.

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Copyright notice: This website and all its contents are the intellectual property of www.coloradomountaineering.com and its authors. None of the content can be used or reproduced without the approval of www.coloradomountaineering.com.
Climbing and mountaineering are dangerous!! Please see the DISCLAIMER page For information about how to contact us, visit this link

Longs, Holy Cross, and McGregor Mountain

INTRODUCTION

As the end of summer approached, my girlfriend and I decided to take a week-long trip to climb Longs Peak and Mount of the Holy Cross, two classic peaks we had previously attempted but not made the summit (Holy Cross, in fact, we had attempted twice). We had decided not to climb the standard Keyhole on Longs this time but to instead try our luck at the North Face via the Old Cables Route. The North Face, we had heard, was a “technical” route at 5.4, but was quite easy and actually the fastest and most straightforward way to and from the summit as it takes a direct course from the boulderfield. It is the fastest way off Long's peak if you have a rope, also, so a good route to learn. More on that later…. Since we were going to travel so far and be carrying our climbing gear, we had a general idea that we would also be doing some other climbing. We had not decided where. Other areas within Rocky Mountain National Park like Lumpy or Jurassic Park or even nearby places such as Boulder or Eldorado Canyons were not out of the question. Since we had decided that our original plan, to follow Longs with an ascent of Wham Ridge on the San Juan’s Vestal Peak, entailed a bit too much driving, we thought we would clean up another peak, Holy Cross on the way home.

DAY 1: Jurassic Park

Though our original plan was to climb Longs Peak our first full day in the park, we decided on arrival that a day to “acclimate” seemed more appropriate. We decided to spend the first day sport climbing at Jurassic Park, a collection of granite fins and slabs just off the Peak to Peak Highway. Although Jurassic Park seemed like the tourist place to climb in RMNP, we wanted a casual day to rest and prep for an attempt at Longs’ North Face. Jurassic Park also is home to a rather famous climb, Edge of Time, which I (admittedly, much like a tourist) was itching to at least photograph if not climb. Given the park’s popularity and the ease of accessing these granite fins, we knew we were in for crowds.

We arrived at Lily Lake late morning, somewhere around 10:30 am, and did the short but surprisingly steep approach hike to the cliffs. The trail was steep and hiking with a full climbing rack is always a struggle, but if either of us was tired we didn’t dare admit it, knowing the approach we were soon in for on Longs. It seemed we were late, and many of the good climbs, including the famous Edge, were already taken. With few options, and wanting an easy warm-up, we found ourselves gearing up at the base of a climb called Index Toe on a slightly slabby wall called the Dinosaur’s Foot. The climb was rated 5.8+, which I figured would be no problem to onsight for either of us. Ella onsighted the route with only a mild hesitation at the crux. When it was my turn, however, I took the lead confidently only to find myself hopelessly stuck, flailing and second-guessing until I took a fifteen foot whipper infront of a sizeable crowd of onlookers. Pumped, dejected, and with an admittedly bruised ego, I lowered back to the ground in shame. After some cussing and stomping back and forth, however, I toughened up and went back up and stuck that redpoint.

After the minor set-back, we toured through the areas climbs and climbed a few other routes. The Edge of Time, unfortunately, never did (that I saw) become free, so after three or four more pitches of good fun (and no more falls) we retreated to our campsite and called it a day.

That evening we sorted out our gear and packed out packs for Longs the following morning. Longs is a notoriously lengthy climb by any route, and the weather had been consistently bad in the afternoons the past few days. We decided therefore to wake at midnight, that way we would be well back down before the afternoon storms. We had climbed plenty of mountains by this point, and were quite used to getting the 4 or 5 am “alpine early” start. But midnight was ambitious and we knew it was going to be tough. However, we thought it gave us the best chance to get the summit despite the poor weather outlook.

Shortly after 10 pm, we were wakened by a sudden deluge of rain and crashing thunder. We had barely gone to bed and were hoping to wake up in less than two hours. When midnight came and the storm hadn’t let up, we made the decision to forgo our attempt on Longs and go back to sleep. When morning came, we rose at 7:00 am to find perfect blue skies; an excellent day for climbing! Disappointed that we had missed a good chance to climb Longs, we decided we would try again the following day.

DAY 2: McGregor Mountain

It is hard to waste a perfect day, however, and we decided after a leisurely breakfast and coffee to attempt McGregor Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had read about the Left Standard route, an easy, three-pitch 5.3 climb up the left side of the mountain’s slabby Southwest Face. According to the book, the approach was an easy 30 minutes car-to-cliff and there was a walk-off after a few easy pitches. No problem….

We parked the car at the Fall River Visitor’s Center and stared up at the impressive feature above. Shouldering our packs, and starting toward the cliff, Ella commented that the approach “didn’t look so bad” and we started happily up the hill toward the glistening slab of granite above us. This would be a good little prep for our day on Longs tomorrow, we thought.

After a good hour of sweating, growling, and cursing up a steep and much longer than anticipated climber’s trail, we reached the bottom of the crag below the Right Standard route and Camel Toes at last. Hundreds of feet of granite towered above us, and we felt excitement for the impending climb. All the effort of the approach, which had been considerably more challenging than expected, was about to pay off. A short, bushy hike to the left side of the cliff brought us to the base of our intended route.

I geared up confident, intent to move quickly up the mountain placing as little gear as possible on the easy 5.3 climbing. After consulting the topo one last time, I started up the rock.

The first pitch proved to be excellent mild climbing, though slightly more difficult than expected, likely 5.5 and maybe even 5.6 in spots. I blew off this discrepancy, guessing that I had been slightly off route on the confusing network of grooves and dihedrals. After about 170’ I found a large chickenhead lassoed with webbing and rap rings and quickly established an anchor to top-belay Ella while she cleaned the pitch. Though it was still before noon, storm clouds were just starting to build in the direction of Meeker and Longs Peak. I began to feel a little uneasy about being exposed on the large face should the weather deteriorate. 

Ella reached the belay and after a quick re-shuffling of the gear started up ahead. She pulled an easy roof and disappeared from view. A breeze was starting up and once she rounded the corner it was impossible to communicate. Once or twice the rope would stall for what seemed like a long time and I would wonder what problem or climbing move she was pondering. The belay stance was not flat and quickly became uncomfortable. But every time I felt the rope eventually pull tighter and hiss quietly up the rock above me. When only about twenty feet of rope remained, I yelled up to tell her so but only a muffled response came back. I couldn’t be sure if she’d heard. With less then three feet to go the rope suddenly stopped and a few minutes later it pulled tight and I was informed by a distant voice from somewhere far above me that I was now on belay. I dismantled the anchor and started up the second pitch. 

Ella’s second pitch weaved around a bulge and into a long, slanting dihedral with excellent exposure, perhaps the best 5.4 pitch I have ever climbed. Impressed with her economy of gear placements, at times running it out thirty or more feet on continuous 5.4, I reached her belay stance on a comfortable ledge beneath a roof. The spot seemed to match the guidebook beta.

After a quick break and some water I arranged my rack and considered the options ahead. There were two: take on the roof left heading more or less directly toward our eventual goal but on rock clearly harder than 5.3 or do a dicey traverse right in ostensibly the wrong the direction. I decided on left. On route or not, the rock looked within my ability and reasonably protectable. Carefully bouldering up to good crack with no intention of Factor 2-ing on Ella’s belay anchor (which I am sure was solid but you never want to test), I threw in a piece and pulled upwards feeling the rush that only alpine multi-pitching can give, even in this mild form. The combination of the wind, the impending storm, and the exposed position above the beautiful valley in Rocky Mountain National Park made the afternoon very exciting. I thrutched a bit awkwardly over the roof following what seemed to be the path of least resistance at 5.7, threw in a blue alien in a small crack and rounded an arête onto yet another unbelievable but easy ramp dihedral. This one probably 5.4. Comfortable I threw in a BD #1 and reached a bit of a fork in the road.

The ramp ended on a small pinnacle and a large expanse on rock opened above. Slightly to the right above me there was another dihedral system with obvious jugs and looked well protected. My instinct was to go for it but I soon encountered a troubling move that felt borderline 5.9ish. Already I was a good ten feet above my last cam. A twenty footer on a ledgy slab was not what I had in mind so I downclimbed a bit pondered the other option. About twenty feet left was a very large dihedral. This system I guessed, was the one we were supposed to be in all along, hence the much higher than 5.3 climbing. I decided to do a rising traverse over to it. 

I soon found myself in a dicey predicament on tricky rock on the face between, facing what looked like a difficult move to reach the dihedral. To add to it, I was now a good twenty feet above my last cam and had added swing potential to the possible fall. I started to traverse back feeling the rise of that panicky, might fall feeling knowing that any fall now could be catastrophic. Ella had disappeared from view long before and the rope felt heavy with drag on the winding pitch despite my liberal use of slings on all placements thus far. I wanted now to return to the move right but the downclimbing traverse back seemed suddenly much harder. Panic started to sink in. The leg started to do the Elvis wobble. I tried to sink a nut in a seam in front of me but I knew the placement was pathetic and useless. I would take on it much less trust it for even a small fall. 

Feeling stuck and facing what was could be catastrophe, I started up the unprotectable seam knowing that my only way out of this dilemma was up. I climbed ten more unprotected feet at 5.8  in a blur, the dihedral still a dangerous reach. Then ten more. The very serious danger of falling now threatened my every move. I heard a tinging sound below me and I looked down in time to see the meager nut I had placed slide down the rope out of view. It was disheartening despite that I had already known it was useless. Ella yelled something vague far below me.  My leg started shaking worse than ever. I climbed on. 

Another fifteen feet. My last piece was out of view, some fifty feet or more below me now. Finally I reached a small ledge at the base of a short dihedral and threw in a BD #.4 and clipped in. I felt like howling, my head was spinning. I placed a second cam inches away just to ensure that that runnout was behind me. I’d never before faced the possibility of a 100+ foot fall while negotiating tricky 5.8. Another 50 feet farther and I reached a ledge where I could tell a walkoff might be possible. I built an anchor with three bomber pieces feeling safe at last and belayed Ella up.

We reached the top happy to have made it without real incident but anxious to get down to avoid what looked like rapidly building weather. While the exposure wasn’t overly threatening on the ledge it was still there. Following the path of least resistance we reached a long section of what looked to be slippery 5th class downclimbing. Luckily we had kept our harnesses on almost expecting something like this. No matter, a nearby tree was well slung and we did three single rope raps to gully where a brushy class 3 to 4 downclimb drought us back to the base of the wall. A long, slippery hike down to our cars and we were thoroughly exhausted.

DAY 3: Longs Peak

After a big dinner in Estes following our unexpected adventures on McGregor Peak, we returned to our camp at a Forest Service lot just off the Park near the Longs Trailhead. We sorted out our gear and prepared for weather that had been threatening all afternoon. The slow-moving storm reached us at 6 pm.

We set the alarm for 1 am, hoping that the storms would cease by then. Given Longs reputation as a long, exposed mountain by any route, we wanted to be well off the mountain by the time the afternoon showers arrive, which had been anytime between 12 and 6 pm on the mountain itself. It was still raining when we decided to try to sleep at eight. 

But when the alarm jarred me out of a very strange dream at 1 am, the skies were perfectly clear and I had a feeling that nothing was going to stop us this time. I felt like we had only ourselves to get in the way.

We hit the trail at 1:45 am along with not a lot but several other climbers. Most were headed to the Keyhole, one to the Diamond. We hiked the long approach, our packs heavy with climbing gear, in the dark for several hours before there was any sign it was getting lighter. The lights of Boulder and Denver sparkled below and for some strange reason I almost liked them. They couldn't get me up there anyway.

We reached the bottom of the Boulder field sometime around 5 am. The Diamond materialized out of the darkness. As a lover of rock and rock climbing it was amazing to see this world famous face at such close range. There is also something very special about an alpine sunrise. See a few of these in a place like this and the question “why climb mountains?” becomes irrelevant.

The Keyhole (center-right) and Keyhole Ridge

The North Face at dawn. Part of the Diamond also visible

An hour later we left the mounting Keyhole crowd and snaked up the scree towards the crux of our route. 

At 6 o’clock we were getting very close and that awesome feeling of exposure was rising in me. Perhaps it was the apparent though mostly invisible presence of the east face which was very close now. We reached the bottom of the first pitch as the first beams of direct sunlight crested over the ridge.

I racked up to lead.

Pitch one was a ramp-dihedral, reminiscent in my groggy, sleep-and-oxygen deprived brain to what we’d done yesterday. It was easy, though wet. I place a red C3 and a hex and topped a ledged to the first eyebolt. The longer, crux pitch was just ahead and it looked more confusing and perhaps longer than expected.

I belayed Ella up, re-racked and continued. This pitch was immediately more difficult, and quickly I encountered water. The recent rain had saturated the mountain. The surface of the rock was wet and slippery, and the cracks gushed like a small creek. I did a strange, high foot jam in a fist-sized crack and pulled up to a ledge. My rock shoes were thoroughly wet. After slinging an eyebolt, I moved out onto some unprotected friction climbing on the face to avoid the water before returning. I placed a cam in a wet crack, having few other options, and continued up to the final crux, a wet “roof” before a final eyebolt. After deliberating for a minute about the easier way to surmount the roof (really a section of vertical rock on an otherwise slabby ramp) and not falling, I did a high-step move left to avoid the running water at something like 5.6 and anchored to the top eye-bolt to belay Ella behind me.

Once we were through the technical section we tiptoed carefully up the loose, soggy class 3 terrain and reached the summit just after 8 am, six hours and fifteen minutes after we set out from the trailhead at the Longs Peak Ranger Station.

The wet crux pitch

We didn't stay long on top, feeling the length of the descent we still had ahead. We tiptoed smoothly down the loose north face and reached the eyebolts in good time. Three single rope raps off and we were at the bottom. We took a minute to peak over the edge at a perfect view of the Diamond.

The Diamond--Colorado's most famous alpine cliff

Though the hike back to the car was long and arduous, we were ecstatic by having finally climbed Longs Peak. We celebrated with a huge pizza in Estes Park before traveling to Boulder for a day off with friends.

DAY 4: Mount of the Holy Cross

Feeling a bit run down on the way home, we stopped anyway at the trailhead for Holy Cross. It would be our third time attempting this mountain. While the North Ridge of Holy Cross was a technically easy route, it was in one of our favorite little corners of Colorado. Things had been going our way on this trip so far, though not without adventure. We’d been able to summit Longs as well as climb both sport and trad in RMNP. We felt destined for success.

After sorting out our gear and packing our backpacks we started up the trail toward Half Moon Pass, the first obstacle barring an easy ascent of Mount of the Holy Cross. Getting to the top of Half Moon Pass takes about two miles and 1,300 feet of elevation gain. Despite having given ourselves only one day off after Longs and the climbing in RMNP, we felt strong and made it to the pass’s summit in good time. After a brief rest and snack, we dropped down towards East Cross Creek, getting our first views of Holy Cross and the basin. To me, this view—looking down from the trail into the East Cross Creek basin with its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and Mt. of the Holy Cross towering over it all—is one of my Colorado favorites, right there with the Maroon Bells or Chasm Lake or the Grenadiers. This is a special place.

We set up camp at the bottom of the canyon after descending a thousand feet. For all the work we had only netted 300 measly feet since the trailhead. Feeling a strange combination of fatigue from our full week of climbing and contentment to be in such a beautiful place, we stretched a set of hammocks out in the trees and played a casual game of Travel Chess in the beautiful afternoon. After dinner we took care of our chores—dishes, pumping water, hanging our food, etc—and laid down once more in the hammocks while the evening rolled on. We set our alarm for 5:00 am.

Morning comes early, and in no time we found ourselves plodding upward yet again as the sun rose over the mountains. Amazing hues and long shafts of first light illuminated the nearby peaks and ridges of the Gore Range. We climbed quietly through a pristine forest to treeline where the north ridge proper began.

We hiked uphill along an increasingly rock-studded trail, past a CFI crew working hard to more effectively channelize future Holy Cross traffic to a flat section at the top of Angelica Couloir.

Holy Cross getting closer

The last section of Holy Cross is steep scampering (solid class 2) up three hundred feet of surprisingly stable talus. Starting to feel the effects of well-over 10,000 feet of vertical gain in the past five days and the usual hypoxia of the 13,000+ elevation level, I found myself having to take more frequent breaks. Suddenly, the terrain flattened out and we were on the summit. I set my bag down in a flat spot in a cairn-shelter and stood on the caprock with the embedded benchmark. 14,005’, Colorado’s third-lowest fourteener.

We spent some time on the summit, talking with other summiteers and peering down the Cross Couloir on the peaks other face. The North Ridge Route on Holy Cross is perhaps my favorite class 2 route on all the fourteeners I have done (29 total to this point), but one significant downfall is the lack of any vantage of the famous cross. You must do Halo Ridge or the Cross itself to see it if you are climbing the mountain. After a good half hour of snacking and talking, we started back down the mountain feeling surprisingly fresh and in good spirits. Before too long we were back at camp where we rested briefly before packing up and starting out escape.

Storms built rapidly as we hiked back up—with fully loaded packs now—Half Moon Pass. Stopping at the last overlook we said our final goodbyes and plodded the final few hundred feet of elevation to the pass’s summit. The sky was getting dark now, and sharp growls of thunder seemed to be coming from both the east and the west. We cleared Half Moon Pass, however, with only some sprinkles and no lightning closer than 8 seconds between flash and boom. With what was left of our legs, we hustled down the last two miles to our car to avoid being thoroughly soaked in the mounting weather. When the parking lot appeared at last we celebrated with a little cheer and high five. Second later the pack were off our tired shoulders and the hiking boots were off my feet replaced by Chacos. Life seemed good.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall it was an excellent seven days in some of my favorite Colorado places. Longs Peak is perhaps Colorado’s most diverse, famous, and dramatic fourteener. Its steep ridges, rugged stature, and signature east face beckons with the power of a siren to those who love the mountains. Being able to get out and sample just a small flavor of what that amazing mountain has to offer and to stand on its summit at last after a previous failed attempt was a privilege. The entire Estes/RMNP region, in fact, is a wonderland of perfect granite and serene alpine terrain. I am excited to go back.

After two failed attempts at Mount of the Holy Cross, it was a relief to finally stand on the mountain’s summit. I do believe after this trip that Holy Cross is possibly in the top five of the over 30 fourteeners that I have climbed or attempted. It is simply one of the most beautiful peaks in the state. I am excited to visit the region again, perhaps to climb Halo Ridge on perhaps one of the couloirs. Even the North Ridge standard route, while not technically challenging, is a route that I would love to one day return to.

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