Guanella Pass - roped routes?

While driving up Guanella Pass from Georgetown last weekend, I saw a large wall off to the left from the summit area. Looks like it could hold some routes, maybe up to 400'. Anyone know anything about it?

Me and a friend of mine have put up one route. I don't believe it has seen much more development. Lots of high quality alpine choss.

apparently tony bubb and jason hass did a line called handcrack my hass. But that's all I know, no info on the line, I kinda wish they would post it up.

I spell my name as Haas, but no worries. Our route was approached as for the bouldering at Mt. Evans near Echo Lake, not on the Guanella Pass side. The "Hand Crack My Haas" reference came from Tony because sometimes people think my name sounds like "ass" instead of a short "a" sound. That and the "hand crack" I viewed while bouldering turned out to be a Big Bro sized roof. Tony wasn't psyched if I remember correctly. Oops. :) Double pun I suppose. I'll add the route when I get a chance, otherwise just email me and I'll give you what details I remember of the route. Cheers,

Jason

here's what we did

Sorry about the spelling Jason, for some reason there was a post in the mt. evans area that made it sound like your route was over on the guanella pass side. Guess I was mistaken, I remember talking to you about that route what 2 summers ago? didn't realize it was an OW monster, sounds cool.

Here is a topo of the route my friend Dustin and I did a few years back on the Guanella Pass Sawtooth Wall. There is cool climbing to be had in those parts!

The view from guanella pass is a little deceiving, but there is room for route development. If conditions are right, some alpine ice comes in up there too.

The main wall proper is called the Wolf's Tooth; I figured Piz would have already been all over it, but I believe has yet to see a clean free line (anyone else know??). There is an overhanging gemcut like section in the headwall that just looks unreal.

One thing that would concern me is a trundle/rockfall from hikers; however, if climbing, the photo op from the Sawtooth would be amazing.

Nice topo tbol, love that fall in the ice danger, but you forgot the alligators whilst bushwacking; and don't forget land sharks.

Mark, I know about that headwall gemcut section you are talking about. There are some sick splitters below there but the headwall looks like it might be sick hard!? Trundling is definitely an issue. When we were up there we saw some younger fellas trundling across the way and wanted to have words with them. However, the landsharks and alligators are not a concern compared to the demonic lake troll that lives up there and eats mountain goats for breakfast!

I had wondered about that wall years ago when I did Bierstadt for the first time. Nice to see someone actually got on it.

Always wondered about that wall too. Figured that since it was such and obvious objective yet nothing was documented that the rock quality was shyte. Might be worth a reccy one of these days...

Yeah, the rock quality is certainly a little bit mank, but I think there might be a few diamonds in the rough up there.

If any of you guys ever want to ckeck it out I would love to go back up there too! I have some other ideas about new route development but I can't find anyone phsyched enough to go.

Guanella pass is open again all the way through. There is still active construction from the Georgetown side and the road is closed currently on that side from 1pm-3pm on the weekdays.

Was up there today, didn't make it to the wall since the snowshoes were at home. It's melting fast though, so probably a week or two should firm the approach up.

tbol wrote:Mark, I know about that headwall gemcut section you are talking about. There are some sick splitters below there but the headwall looks like it might be sick hard!?

Cap'n buzzkill is a jerk... forget about him. Topaz it is! We'll get around to climbing it soon, right?

I was up there a few weeks ago and noticed the "Topaz"" and figured it must have been documented already, or much worse quality than it looked. I promptly forgot about it...until now.

Also worth considering are the N and E face of Point 13,641 on the ridge east of Bierstadt, overlooking Abyss Lake. We scrambled the east ridge of Bierstadt from just below Abyss Lake on easy 3rd/4th class ledges, and there was definitely potential for technical lines....Actually thought about going back up there with a rack...If nothing else, the approach is short for a mountaineering route and the area is plenty scenic. There also looked like there was good bouldering around Abyss Lake.

If you go back let me know... I would like to do some more stuff up there. Hard to find partners for that though! I don't really know why.

I know that "bushwack" through the scrub oak(?). It is heinous, if it was in Alaska you'd be on the lookout for Grizzlies. It'd certainly be a lot easier to get through that it if you were a Grizz.

Yeah... instead of grizzlies you gotta watch out for rabbid yeti's up there!