Rock One Route 

I did this route after seeing it listed on Neptune's "favorites." I figured it would be an easy romp to go on with a friend, but that it would be pretty fun if it made the favorites list....

Normally I don't like to trash a route, but this is by far the worst route I have ever been on at Lumpy, and quite possibly in Colorado. The approach is annoying... the faint use trail is overgrown and hard to follow. Now I don't mind taking a bad trail when doing some alpine stuff, but to get directly above McGregor Ranch on a poor quality route it is not worth it. (Especially considering all of the nice trails that go to fantastic climbing almost everywhere you look at Lumpy.)

As for the route... I split what is described as the first pitch here into two and combined the last two pitches in one for a total of three pitches. The fallen dead tree in front of the chimney makes it a hassle to deal with rope drag, so I just set up a belay at its base and again at the top... from there I basically followed the description and went up easy ground to the top (I'm pretty sure I was close to the route... saw an old piton up there...).

The chimney is very lush and full of ferns. The climbing isn't particularly interesting and all of the vegetation is annoying. (the rock itself is high friction and generally solid, although mostly covered in lichen).

I would recommend that if you are looking for a very easy route in Lumpy that you do Batman and Robin on Batman Pinnacle instead. It is comparable in length and almost the same difficulty, but much cleaner and more interesting climbing with a cool pinnacle summit.

Finally, for those that still want to do this route, here is some more beta on finding the start. We walked right by it in the morning, since there are dead trees everywhere, and when approaching from the east, the profile of the rock looks very different than the picture taken from the west.

When you get to just below the base, you will see a dead tree "stump". It isn't really just a stump but a huge trunk of a dead tree that apparently broke off a while ago. It is the most unmistakable thing around there and the start of the route is just above. The "trail" sort of takes you right below that dead stump and there is a cairn below. Scramble up about 30 feet of class 3/4 rock or go up easier terrain to the left and cut back right. The rest of the route is pretty straightforward.

This climb is more like bushwhacking than climbing. Expect to step over numerous dead trees on the approach and either be very careful or get scratched up... the walk off is easy and not exposed, but once again you are stepping over rotting trees trying to not get too scratched up....

There is a good horn to sling to bail from at the top of the first pitch. There is currently a red sling with a rap ring in good condition we used to bail in the rain last weekend.