Flake Route is the quintessential Devil's Lake climb--thin technical crimping on a vertical face.
Start up the center of "Campus Wall" directly underneath the alcove on Upper Diagonal. Climb straight up to the alcove, where you will find a fixed pin and a sneaky no-hands rest. Next, cast right and up, following small square cut crimpers up the center of the wall.
This climb is actually better protected than it looks if you place gear (.5 and .75 Camalots) on Upper-D, a few feet above the alcove.
Protection
On lead: .5 and .75 Camalots, small stoppers including brassies, small TCUs.
the first lead of the "FLAKE ROUTE" was by Steve Sangdahl 1979. I do not know who originally top-roped it. I named the route "Flakes!Flakes!" after the song by Frank Zappa (Sheik Yer Bouti /album.
By Jay Knower Administrator From: Plymouth, NH May 16, 2002
Steve, There used to be a picture in the old Silverdale of someone on Flakes holding an oil can of Fosters while on lead (or was he aiding? I don't remember). Was that you? Do you know the pic I am talking about?
Jay,I remember leading flake route with a couple of beers clipped on to my rack, but idoubt if it was fosters .it was probably some hedious cheap swill such as BLATZ, etc. I also remember that the flake that we thought we were so clever tying off was easily kicked off at a later date.
Jay - the photo you asked about of flake route is of a guy I know as 'Cheeze'who moved to CO a few years back. He was aiding the route and Tom Colemann lowered him the fosters for the picture. Then as the story goes he started throwing snowballs at Cheeze.
Let the DL purists flay me alive, I led the start of Upper Diagonal into Flake Route instead of doing the real start over the dead tree (AKA the huge spike). Since Upper-D trends left and the Flake crux traverses right, I used double ropes. This perfectly eliminated the rope drag and, as a bonus, made me feel extra cool on the airy upper crux.
It was a quintessentially Devil's Lake experience. I had a half-moon at my back for most of the climb, with the lake and talus below glowing in the sunset. A sizable group of hikers at the top were singing about getting home before dark. A guy climbing beside me on Birch Tree acknowledged a "bit of help" from the top-rope, but explained that it was not a true "girlfriend take". He then asked me if Flakes was my first ever lead. It was perfect.
I thought that was the proper way to lead "Flake Route"....(not the double ropes part). So did the group singing up above you suck or did they sound good? This would make all the difference to me....
Interesting. I wonder which start is more standard -- the "right" start by DL standards. I know routes are often strictly defined here. I definitely enjoyed starting on Upper-D though.
The singing as a whole was pretty chaotic, but one of them at least had a real set of pipes.
Whoops- re-read your post Kayte.... I guess the proper route according to DL "holders of the way" is to lead (or climb) straight up from the tree..... but who cares.. doesn't diminish the ascent one bit.... nor the "girl friend take" comment either... was the guys girl friend belaying... hee hee I woulda dropped him a few feet.
Devils Lake crimpin'! A #000 C3 helped kill the runout after the flake. The other cams buried well in the seams. I don't think the alternative start on Upper D would make a difference to the grade, just make it easier to protect the bottom. But, I do really like straight lines. I should have used runners on the upper pieces, that would have eliminated rope drag but it wasn't too bad.
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