This route is in a non-descript area of the West Ridge between Handcracker Direct and Practice Climb 101. Rossiter describes it as 'good in parts', the beginning is good, but contrary to the paper book, I'd give it a serious rating. There is little gear at the bottom, and ground fall potential exists from quite high.
Start at the bottom of a nice looking slab with a ledge 10 feet up or so. Climb the slab, I wiggled in two RPs and got a funny Alien placement. Then climb up and left a bit on improving holds. You'll see a mess of slings above you. Pass these and continue through short steps with plenty of choss atop each ledge. Lots of belay options exist.
Do a funny traverse across a block to a neat dihedral then climb some mungy thing to the top.
There are three trees with rap slings on them. The first rap is short, the second is exactly 100'. With a 50 m rope you'll downclimb.
Fun for the adventure, but not classic by any means.
I got on this route earlier this year. Rossiter's Eldo guide has a star on this multipitch 5.7, I was hoping I had discovered a hidden gem. After climbing this the only thing I felt I discovered was a typo in the book (the star should be a bomb).
First pitch is solid and actual climbing. After that, the only fun part I found was the 'funny traverse across a block to a neat dihedral'. The crux of the route seemed to be keeping all the loose blocks from sliding onto your belay.
When we did this route the last rap tree / first belay (visible from below) had purple and yellow slings - a good way to recognize the route.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Oct 23, 2003
Feels like mountaineering in a place known for rock climbing. Helmet recommended. There are many variations possible. Only for those interested in obscurity or who done every other route in Eldo of the grade. Worth a star in FL.
I'd do the first pitch and then rap to the ground. We didn't actually go up the right side of the slab--my partner headed up to the left (up a groove), then back right. This was ok, but the left side looked like more fun (at least on rap). Wouldn't bother with the rest of the route, though. As above, lots of loose blocks and scrambling rather than climbing.
Who knows if we were on route or not but we had fun. From the ground we could see a tree with slings just above and slightly right a nice slab with what appeared to be little to no gear placements. We started up just to the right side of this slab where gear could be placed in a crack system. We were forced to traverse back slightly left and on up to the visible tree with slings. This was a fun 5.7 and as others say, you could stop here.
But NO, we had to keep going. The next pitch did require light footing so as to not dislodge an avalanche of rocks. P2 was dismal but there was a little reward for the suffering. Once we hit what seemed to be the rotten band at the end of this pitch, we carefully walked right (maybe 10-15 feet) and found one final short pitch (30 feet) of good climbing up a slot with good gear. We made three raps from the top to the ground landing 40 feet right of the start of the climb.
We need not do it again, but it was fun for a season opener.
West Ridge - Pony Express to Long John
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