To find this great route, please follow the directions to get to the [Headstone]. At the base of the [Headstone], approximately center of the face (right of [Topaz] approx 100 ft), there are 2 bolted slab routes just to the right of a right facing flake. The left route of these is the 5.9 slab route that approaches the awesome looking 12d stemming route on the upper headwall. The righthand bolted route is [Scratchy Face].
Move up easy rock with good holds, sometimes through slightly wet or dirty material. The climbing steadily gets more difficult. After approximately 4 or 5 bolts, the moves will get more tenuous as you gun for a ledge/stance. When you gain the stance, spend some time looking at the gorgeous laser cut slab in front of you, and try to piece together a series of pinches and toe work on little crystals and edges to get you to the next ledge. This bit, while only being 10b, will have you focusing pretty intensely! When you have reached the good ledge, above you will be a flake-roof. Getting established at the roof is a bit more difficult than it looks. My partner went left on small face holds to get there. I went slightly right and pinched the roof-flake and pulled into an undercling. In either case, be aware of the lichen on the face or you will be hanging on the end of the rope faster than you can blink. Pull the roof via the usual slab overlap techniques and head to the anchors on the big ledge.
Descent: Several options. With two ropes, rappel to ground from anchors. With a 60 meter rope, you can rap to about 15 feet above the ground and downclimb. Other option, walk climber's right on the ledge to a large block with a wide crack. Climb up the block to some anchors on the main wall. Rap from these anchors down 50 feet to another set of anchors. Rap from second set of anchors to ground.
The ledge that you stand on underneath the roof mentioned above is really a giant flake. The left 3-4 feet has broken off and is just teetering (literally) on the remaining flake below. It might be worth cleaning this extremely loose block although it is left of where anyone would really want to go on this climb, but I stepped on it nevertheless.
I have to point out that crux slab section, reached before the roof, seems somewhat tricky for 10b. You will have to think through this for a while and there are no feet to speak of. The hands are micro crimpers and an angular crystal about 5mm wide that you must pinch twixt thumb and forefinger. The section is very slabby though.
To reach the jug under the roof, I too found a small undercling in the lowest portion of the roof flake and walked the feet up for a couple of layback moves to reach the jug. Then pulling the roof isn't terribly tricky. The jug can also be reached by slab climbing, which may be necessary for shorter people, but the slab looked pretty thin to me.
You can rappel or lower with a 60m rope, but it doesn't reach the ground so be sure to tie knots. Downclimbing the last 10' is easy.
By John McNamee Administrator From: Littleton, CO Aug 21, 2006
The anchor on top of this route was fixed on 8/30/06. Previously it had standard flat hangers with one quick link per hanger. This setup will DESTROY your rope. There is now one cold shut and one regular hanger with 2 quick links.
By Kat A From: Bart and Lisa Ville, CO Sep 23, 2007
Watch out for the rope eating flake left of this route - esp if the winds are blowing from the south.
By Ben Mottinger Founding Father Nov 9, 2008 rating: 5.10d
Felt a bit tougher than Topaz, but maybe I'm just out of slab climbing shape.
By FC John From: Fort Collins, CO Jun 7, 2009 rating: 5.11a
Based on the 10a rating in Tod's guidebook, we thought this was the biggest sandbag in the history of climbing. Good to see that the consensus on MP.com calls this route a bit harder. Thought the slabbly headwall on this pitch was more difficult than the 11s on Crimpfest. I would call pulling the roof solid at the grade for 10a
By percious From: Arvada, CO Jul 20, 2009 rating: 5.10d
Agree, a sandbag at 5.10b. I actually find the blank face preceding the overhang to be the crux. Head right to easier climbing.... Straight up thru here probably goes at 11+. The overhang turns at 10b. This climb is well bolted, so if you are comfortable on 5.10 and wanting to push it a bit, hop on.
So, having climbed this quite a few times, it finally felt 10b the last time I was on it. The trick is to cut right 6-7 ft at the slab crux, and this becomes more 10b-ish, otherwise I completely agree with 10d.
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