Climbed this route on Friday the 13th, so the hailstorm shouldn't have been such a surprise. This route receives no praise in the guidebooks in the form of stars, but we thought it was a great two pitches of mostly wide hands with a few wider sections.
Hike up to the start of the gully on the left side of Wigwam Dome. The route starts in the first left-facing dihedral you come across. There are several leftward bulges in the crack ~50' up.
Climb 100' to a sling belay on a ledge on the right. Pitch two continues up the crack through a fun roof for about 150' to a bolted belay on the face to the left. A more comfortable belay can be had on a chockstone in the crack. Rappel down and over the overhang on the left, to the gully. Our 60m made it on rope stretch. It would also be possible to rappel down the slab. I'm not sure if a 60m would make it.
Great route! we definitely felt it was 3 stars. Couple notes (or opinions):
Bring 2 60 meter ropes to get off (by rapping off of the 3 bolts at the top). As Brian said, rap towards the climber's left, and you will go over a wild, exposed arete and into an overhanging corner. There is one little spot where there is a slight crease in the arete that the ropes will settle into and keep them form grinding on the lip of the arete.
I think the first pitch was about 120'. This pitch felt 10 times harder than any 8 at Turkey. YMMV.
Second pitch. Wow. This felt about 10 times harder than any 9 at Turkey. Again YMMV. The pitch is deceptively long and more strenuous than I would have guessed. If you are even remotely challenged at 5.9 (such as myself), you will want to carry your body weight in #3 Camalots and #4 Friends. We had a double set of Camalots and 2 #4 Friends. I lead the first 60 feet and was pretty much out of wide hand/fist gear. I wussed, and my partner lead it. He cleaned one of the #3 Camalots and shoved it for about 100' (I think he was able to dump one or maybe 2 pieces in the #1 to #2 Camalot range.
The anchor was ok, but not the best. One 1/4" Star Dryvin, one 1/4" button, and one 3/8" that looked ok. Probably won't kill anybody in the next 6 months.
First pitch felt 10 times harder than any 5.8 at Turkey, second pitch felt 10 times harder than any 5.9 at Turkey. Second pitch is deceptively long and fairly uniform in the big-hands to fist-range for gear. from the ground this pitch looks like a piece of cake, but it has weird awkward geometry that makes it kind of strenuous (for me anyway). Most people will want to carry a lot of #3 Camalots and #4 Friends. We had a relatively small rack in this size, and my partner shoved a #3 Camalot for the last 100 feet. I think he was able to dump a #2 Camalot and a #1 Camalot along the way. Damn good route.
The Trout guide says, paraphrased, "Your happiness on this route will be in direct proportion to the number of #4 Friends you carry." He's referring to P2.
Here is the massive amount of gear we used (wide crack masters can ignore this): P1: singles to red Camalot, doubles to #4 Camalot. P2: Triples from .75 to #3/blue Camalot, #4 Friend, 3.5 Camalot, double #4 Camalots. I used 3 .75 Camalots and a #1 plus a couple of Aliens for the belay at the top of P2 (I didn't want to delay at the sketchy rap bolts on the slab). And with all this gear I had to leap frog a long way below the low-angle trough. I should have started leap frogging from the the start on P2. The pitch is long!
The rap bolts on the left are pretty bad. There is one 3/8" bolt sticking way out plus 2 old 1/4" bolts. We rigged the rap from the gully rather than have 3 of us hanging from the bolts at one time.
By Jonathan White From: littleton, co Oct 15, 2007 rating: 5.9+
Fun climb; however, you need a 65m+ rope to rap and bring extra 2,3,4 Camalots for the second pitch.
By Trevor From: Cottonwood Heights, UT May 19, 2008
Among the best in the Platte! It is possible to rap hard to climber's left from top of pitch 2 with a 60m.
By Alan Searcy From: Pine, Colorado Jun 2, 2008 rating: 5.10a/b
Can be done as one very long pitch if your second simul climbs the first 30 feet. Not recommended that you do it thataway. It's a bonafide runout, burn-your-underwear, feels like 10b, asswhuppin' horror show if done as one.
By Sergio P From: Idaho Springs, CO Jul 14, 2008 rating: 5.9+
You can rap off the 1st pitch with one 60m rope at the sling belay.
You can rap from the anchors just left of the end of the 2nd pitch with a 60m rope IF YOU GO TO THE TREE 40 feet below and rap again from there. Two of the anchors are 1/4 inchers (one Star dryven, if I remember correctly) but the 3rd is bomber. Be sure to have your mid-point pretty precise and you can get down the hanging gully, too (on stretch).