Winter Dreams / Gene and George's Excellent Adventure 

The left start follows a dirty crack in the dihedral that you can't see on the photo, and goes at 5.8. The 5.11- indicated follows Telegraph's bolts on the arete 10 feet toward the camera.

28Oct06
Cleaned the first pitch.
Towards the end of the climb after the hand crack we went left about 15 feet then through the overhangs, there was pro and climbing was 5.9ish
--Ross

P1: Scrambly, junky start, one star. Handcrack to ledge, then crack and jug climbing to a ledge, three stars.

P2: Amazing corner to roof jamming and laybacking, classic! Too bad it ends too soon.

FA: Gene Ellis, George Watson, late '80s, though I would not deny that someone may have done this earlier.

I'm pretty sure this is quite a bit older. If I remember correctly, Craig Lightburn did this in the mid to late '70s, most likely w/ Mason Frichette.

I have long suspected that this line and several others had previously been climbed. They are obvious lines on the crag, well protected and somewhat pleasant. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the possible first ascentionists chose not to make the information concerning these routes generally available to the local climbing community, leading to the confusion. I suppose until this information becomes solidly known, that we can leave the FAs indeterminate and use the names given them by my partners and myself. It's not of tremendous consequence to me, though it may be to others.

Slim, Craig Lightburn! there's a name from the past. He and I went to Golden High School together. I knew he was a climber but he was already pushing the hard stuff when I was leading 5.7s in the early to mid '70s. Do you have any idea of where he is nowadays?

Yeah George, it's quite possible they didn't make their FA known. I knew lots of guys from that time that put up FAs in the Platte and Clear Creek that climbed FAs for the thrill of the unknown and the challenge of route finding on an asthetic line....imagine that? :-)

Ydpl8s, he is in Colorado Springs these days. I climbed quite a bit with him several years ago- great guy, great climber, great biker, great fly-fisherman, ... great at everything. He was pulling down really hard.

I moved, and then he moved out to Grand Junction for a while, so we haven't seen each other for a while. He moved to the Springs a year or two ago. Hopefully I will hang out with him again before too long.

Thanks Slim, yeah he was always one of those quiet guys that didn't talk about it, but just did everything he did better than anybody else.

Before some guys went a little bolt happy on this nice cliff, I remember climbing this as one of my first 10s. This place felt adventurous and exciting. The crag is watered down now with bolt lines, but Winter Dreams still remains and excellent little adventure. Expect a large intimidating roof with great feet and positive hands. The real crux is an awesome steep section at the top of the route.