Rigid Designator 

SOLID... a true WI5+ - WI6 .. We got first bags on it this weekend.. it was wonderfuly complicated and challenging...

The stairway is fat but chopped.

You don't have to rappel off the Rigid Designator. Walk east along a well-packed trail that is usually visible a little distance from the top of the climb. There is a (sometimes scary) little chimney in the rock that will dump you out (on your ass, if you aren't careful!) just a little west of the Spiral Staircase. I soloed the Rigid Designator 10 times and never abseiled once to get back down.

One can rap from the top anchors on a single 60m rope. Bear to climbers right as you rappel and prepare for a two meter down climb (maybe). Remember to knot the ends of your rope... getting dumped on your ass, however funny, could send you sledding down to the parking lot on your back. The Designator had a six foot wide chimney gaping from the back and flowing... little scary, very thin at top right!

It seemed fun, healed, and OK to us on 4/11/03. But given the warmish weather, I kept my eyes on the flanking widowmakers.

The Fang formed up and almost connected over Thanksgiving week, but collapsed over Thanksgiving weekend when it got warm.

The Dez needs to thicken up. A lot. If you climbed it now you would bring it down.

Other climbs in the area are in. Octopussy is in. Pitkin Falls is in and respectable. Firehouse everything is in. Racquet Club Falls is in and fat.

The cold temperatures during the week of Thanksgiving did a lot to improve the climbs up here.

The recent warm temperatures during the day bring snowmelt, and many of the flows around Vail are primarily fed by snowmelt.

FYI, this climb is NOT named after a dildo brand and has no X-rated connotation. It is in fact an esoteric linguistic term, I believe it was given this label by Bob Culp. Found on the web: "A rigid designator is a singular term that refers to the same thing in or when evaluated at every possible world in which it has any reference at all. A flaccid designator is a singular term that refers to one thing in one possible world and something else in at least one other possible world."

Something to contemplate on lead, anyway. Perhaps someone else can recall more of this name or the history of this climb....

Anyone ever do the 2nd pitch of ice above RD?

Please, do not toprope this climb when others are trying to lead it. If you insist on toproping while others lead, please, be polite and stay out of the leader's way. Being pummeled with ice while leading is not so fun.

There were 3 guys that finished their climb on Rigid Designator yesterday and they let my friend use their rope. I needed to pass the knot, so they handed me their belay device and carabiner. When he was done climbing, we all were side tracked and the device and carabiner weren't returned. Let me know if these are yours, so I can get them back to you. Sorry!

Hey PaulPaulMan. Thanks for posting about my belay device and carabiner. It's an orange Black Diamond carabiner, autolocking. I've been looking for that! That was a awesome day up in Vail. Especially the glissade down. Shoot me an email at mikemcg129@yahoo.com so we can figure something out. Thanks man.

Can someone give me any detailed info on the "walk off"??? I was hoping to go up this weekend and ascend the chimney mentioned above to set up a top rope on Spiral. Is this possible? I really want to climb at Vail this weekend, but I just started leading and I'm not comfortable leading WI4 yet. Thanks.

The walkoff is west of the Dez - you can see a purple fixed rope from below and a well traveled boot path above. To answer Justin Deal's question about accessing the Spiral from above, this descent is much closer to the Dez than the Staircase and any attempt at traversing all the way over there would involve lots of bushwhacking and wallowing through waist deep snow. How fun!

Beautiful! Funky ice this time of year, but unique. Getting out of the cauliflower was SICK! and higher up on the left was uber-awesome. A little thin to protect, wasn't too sure about my screws holding, ice seemed to be a bit airy in spots.