Bullet the Blue Sky 

A truly stunning route. Just trust yourself and be confident on the dyno at the start, then get into your best zen-balance mode for the rest of the arete. A spectacular climb on perfect rock- a must do for any 5.12 climber!

This is the most stunning sport climb I've seen in Colorado. The climbing is excellent, with memorable moves, following the arete for the entire length of the climb.

The beginning slab is thin and delicate, with a dyno from the slab and arete pinch to a big flake and the last rest (on a ledge) before the real business.

The arete above the rest is the crux, with extreme pinching and body tension to milk the tiny wrinkles for feet. Once you get into the huecos on the upper section (on your right hand side) the climbing eases up quite a bit.

An amazing climb.

I did. It was so ironic that I had to find out if there was any truth to it.

Jonah; There is no truth to it.

Unfortunate to hear Herman Gollner chipped these pockets. A little hard to believe on a 12c because he runs laps on 13c at Rifle. He's anything but fat. More of a ripped human specimen. They don't call him the Herminator for nothing. But maybe this all happened before he was that strong. Does anyone have any more details on this chipping incident? When it happened, etc?

it seems this was going on over here and then polite banter stopped and all was quiet.....http://www.texasclimbers.com/cgi-texasclimbers/beta/157.shtm>>>>>

Too bad Herman G. stooped to those levels. The guy is a good climber so I don't know why he bothered with chipping. Thanks for the info, Bob.

I think this Alf character might be a bit of a legend. At the Enchanted Tower in NM last March some friends and I ran into Alf -- it must be the same guy, how many people are called Alf? He introduced himself and asked if he could climb with us with a Glock strapped to his hip. How could we say no? For the next three days he did some climbing with us. He claimed to be an astrophysicist and that he lived in a school bus in nearby Datil until some local hooligans took it over, shooting at him to keep him away. He was a pathological liar but he makes a good story. Hearsay has it that he manufactured many holds on established climbs at the Enchanted Tower. Still a wicked cool area, though. He may introduce himself with a gun strapped to himself but he's harmless. To people anyway.

Being an ex-NM person, I've met Alf a number of times at the Box and Enchanted Tower. He actually comes across as a nice, albeit insane, guy. I can't begin to tell you how many Alf tales (some tall) I've heard. They range from the egregious (chipping next to 45 degree wall at Hueco(see Verm's Hueco guide), threating people with guns, etc...) to the more mundane (destroying the access trail at E.T.). The guy has an "...in a Blender" problem at Hueco named after him, after all. Glad to see new "Alf" incidents are being experienced to this day.

Incredible dyno, sweet moves, very balancy.

I am by no means a 5.12 climber, but I would love a chance to hop on this classic line. Is it possible to reach the chain anchors from above to throw down a TR?

I have TR'd this many times by climbing Huecos and then reaching left to the chain.

While the aesthetics and exposure of this route are indeed fantastic, I thought it would be worth mentioning that for a shorter climber (as with many routes at Penitente) the positions for clipping on this route are very strenuous and perhaps even dangerous. I enjoyed this climb but thought that poor bolting greatly took away from its status as 'best sport route in Colorado' (?). Maybe with the draws hanging it would be better...who knows....

I felt some of Jonathan's pain on this. Since fixed draws are quite common for hard stuff, like at Rifle, it can feel satisfying to redpoint on fixed draws. Isn't the Euro-rule: If you hang/grab the draws yourself, then do it that day, that's a redpoint? I'm guessing the FA was done this way.

The second clip is a show-stopper for me. I hung a shoulder length sling on #2 and only clipped it once. No high clipping. This way trades an easier clip for increased commitment getting on the ledge. I call this method moving-a-bolt-without-screwing-up-a-masterpiece.

When Iraq was invaded, our son, Tim, was on the ground with the Marines. We were bummerized by all the war-monger propaganda in the news then. What a relief to see Bob up at Cactus. The first thing he said was "This war sucks!" I'll always be grateful for his morale boost!

I agree the bolt placements on the meat of this climb are pretty high, but I think the vast majority of people will pre-hang draws by climbing the Hueco'd 5.10 to the right. As for the 2nd bolt, you are looking at either a serious groundfall if you blow the dyno, or at the very least a bad swinging fall into the arete. Unless you walk this grade in your sleep, you will most certainly want to have that one preclipped.

Best Sport Route I have ever seen.

Climb tanks for huecos and pre-place draws.
Pre-clip second bolt to save your ass.

Drove 5 hours just to do this route.
It was worth every minute...

This is one of the best single pitch lines I have ever done!

As far as safety goes: I think it is mostly a safe bolt up. It can definitely feel a bit spicy throwing the dyno, but I feel like you could flub it and take the fall free from harm as long as your belayer was attentive. The third bolt was fine for me but a shorter climber might want to have a draw prehung on that one (the second bolt is quite a ways below you at this point). The rest of the bolts seemed fine.

Do this climb. Commit to the dyno (it's not that hard), then get prepared for a wild ride up an outrageous arete!