View of the South Ridge. Photo Greg Dooley.

All Locations > Colorado > Alpine Rock > RMNP - Rock > Notchtop > Direct S Ridge (5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a)

View of the South Ridge. Photo Greg Dooley.

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Roland at the belay above the 5.9 dihedral on P1.

Unknown climber following the gorgeous P4 5.9 pitch.

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Cam Reade

Aug 4, 2009

“View of the South Ridge. Photo Greg Dooley.”

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Nearby Photos

Upper face on Notchtop.

Tobin leading off on first pitch of the South Ridge. This route is excellent, quality climbing on all pitches, in my opinion.

Two variations for finishing the South Ridge. Ivan has close up pictures of the 5.9 finger crack on the left face.

Approaching the ceiling on P2. The hand crack is great and hand-friendly. There are good stances if you need to slide up your gear. I used two #1/red Camalots above the lip of the roof.<br>
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Photo by Luke Clarke.

Luke in a big stem at the start of the final hard sequence. Above this about 70' of easier climbing leads to the summit.

The Direct South Ridge of Notchtop follows the left skyline to the summit.

Downclimbing / traversing off of the summit of Notchtop.

Pitch 4 options. Full info in comment below (too long to fit here).

Nathan in what might be the "mysterious chimney" off the big ledge belay leading to the 5.9+ direct finish. Note the yellow lichen. The grade felt closer to 5.8 than 5.6.

The first rap station. We used two 60m for the raps.

Beta for reaching the P5 5.9 without doing the 5.10 variation.

The P4 10+ seam var, just R/east of the arete, & linked into P5 5.9 crack. The seam is only like 3 moves, thin & techy - small stoppers/RPs, + could place a tiny cam, purple/0 Metolius or such. Pitch begins at ledge about 50' below, just L/west of arete.

Here is a shot from the belay below the elusive P4 "chimney". Look for the rock pinnacle when you crest over the first part of P3. The traverse comes pretty quickly after you start P3 (which is why I suspect most people miss it).

This is the route that depicts mine and John's understanding of the "Original Finish". Sometime between the 5.8 pitch and the traverse we found route finding/description confusing. We bailed due to high winds right before the traverse - literally blowing us off the rock. Any corrective knowledge would be great - we'd like to climb it cleanly.

Here is the elusive "chimney" on P4. On this pitch, we went too high before traversing onto the face (we ended up above the 5.9 finger crack). There is a lower notch on the arete (with white-ish rock) that feels like it should lead to the base of the 5.9 pitch. You can see it on the skyline where it looks like a roof jutting out.

Dean leading the 3rd pitch...

Myself following. Pitch 4 perhaps. Photo by A. Badeau.

An overview of where the chimney pitch is on the formation. Note the traverse left behind a gendarme at the beginning, and there is a slight traverse back right at the end.

Fun stemming gets you through the first roof. Although the crack continues through the second roof, as indicated in the comments, the easiest (and fun) way is to angle right above the first roof.<br>
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Photo by Luke Clarke.

Roland at the belay above the 5.9 dihedral on P1.

View of the South Ridge. Photo Greg Dooley.

Unknown climber following the gorgeous P4 5.9 pitch.

From the top of the looker's left summit, you can hike along ledges into this little bowl and find a bolted rap anchor in the circle. From there, rap over the big ledge with all the pitons and down to another bolted rap anchor.

Kreighton Bieger on the Direct South Ridge. This pitch departs from the Spiral Route and is the first real pitch of DSR. The overhang above Kreighton's helmet is climbed on the next pitch and is the crux of the lower part of the route.

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