PRINT: Rock Climb Brown Flake, City of Rocks

Brown Flake

5.10d, Trad, 90 ft (27 m),

Avg: 3.5 from 149 votes
FA: Greg Lowe, 1965
Idaho > S Idaho > City of Rocks > Morning Glory Spire

Access Issue: (1) Weather Wall, Yellow Wall, & all the crags north of Twin Sisters are CLOSED. (2) No trash cans. (3) Highlining temporary ban in place for CIRO and CRSP Details

(1) The area, crags, and routes just north of the Twin Sisters are on private land and the landowner recently posted no trespassing notices at the gated road/trail to the area. Any access of these areas and routes is trespassing. The area was closed by the landowner due to trespassing, illegal camping, fires & trash, and disregard of owner's privacy.
Please be respectful of the land owner's wishes and do not climb or hike here until further notice. This includes White Lightning, Skinner Roof, Weather Wall, Yellow Wall, Larry's Annihilation, Needle Rock, Mississippi Fred's, and Secret Tom's. Park officials and CRAG are working to regain access to this valuable climbing resource. Be patient and check back for updates.
(2) No trash cans anywhere in City of Rocks: urlzs.com/c4eZH
(3) HIGHLINING IS PROHIBITED
By the authority of the park manager, Highlining at City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park is temporarily prohibited as of August 28, 2019.

The park(s) is reviewing highlining activities. Here are Google Drive links to the closure and the updated Code of Regulations for CIRO. drive.google.com/open?id=1y… and drive.google.com/open?id=1Y…

Description

This route begins just to the left of Strategic Defense 5.11c. The opening moves follow a left facing dihedral and are tough to stop and place gear.

A rest is had before a 1 inch crack, follow this crack and traverse to the left. Work out some thin gear in the cracks and setup for the traverse back to the right.

This is where the fun begins. Lieback the flake, and work hard to protect yourself. The gear can be good, but it is pumpy to place. Race to the ledge before your hands open up on their own. Traverse to the right and rap on the S.D. anchors.

Protection

TCU's, lowe balls, medium cams, and nuts

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

JAG on-sights The Brown Flake

Brown Flake - climber about to embark on the thin laybacking section toward the top of the climb.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Dougald MacDonald

An experienced City climber suggested this route was more like 5.11a before we did it, and I wouldn't argue. With bolts it would be a cruise, but placing the pro requires an ever-evolving battle between the rising pump and the desire for security. Many will need to punch it to reach the jugs near the top, and then they'll wish those jugs were bigger. Great stuff! Aug 29, 2006

mountainsense

pumpy! Sep 16, 2008

Jeffrey Gagliano
Pennsburg, PA

Lead this on the morning of 9/12/2010...day 4 of a vicious 7-day C-Diff infection....and handn't eaten a bite for 18+ hrs. IMO, this is a tougher on-sight than Crack-Of-Doom...and a lot more rewarding as a climb. More-varied, both gymnastically and in gear placements. I was pumped out of my mind at the tope the flake. I rarely emote on routes, but this time I did! Sep 18, 2010

Ben Folsom

Jeffrey, I saw you do this when you were feeling really sick. Nice work. I hope you guys had a good rest of your trip.
Really good route, and for sure pumpy. Funny how Fall Line is .10c and this gets .10d, and Brown Flake feels a whole # grade harder. Sep 20, 2010

Kevin Volkening

5.10d

Great pitch and a must do! Watch rope drag, use extendable runners on most of your pieces before you get to the brown flake. Jun 6, 2011

camhead
Vandalia, Appalachia

Fun route, I can't believe I waited so long to get on it. In my opinion, it's not so bad, and feels right on at 10+ (certainly easier than Tiny Town or Scar Tissue). Takes more nuts than cams. The nearest anchors are for Skyline, so on a busy weekend you'll have to make a gear anchor. Aug 22, 2011

Kevin Hansen
Melba Idaho

youtu.be/Pubo2PNpwSo Mar 4, 2016

telepaulk

5.10d

great route! I found it safer and more fun to climb on two ropes. May 16, 2016

poudrecracks

Quite heads up for the grade. May 6, 2019

Prametheus
Teton Valley

I was glad to have green and red c3s on the rack for top of flake. such a quality pitch! May 15, 2019

Adam Knutson
Salt Lake City, UT

The layback flake is deceiving. It's more shallow than I expected, and didn't take the gear I had left with me. I made it to the flake already pretty pumped, and expected to get some solid hand jams, and place some #1 cams but I was way wrong... Climbing above a #1 that I just slammed in any which way, and not having the energy or small gear left to place proper gear above it, I took a whip on that #1 with only 2 lobes in the crack. Super thankful and still amazed it held because I tried and failed (whipped) a couple more times on that same #1 before finally backcleaning a .75 and getting in a decent placement to finish the route up. Great route, will have to come back and redpoint it some time, but I think some really small gear, like blue / green totem basics would *maybe* fit in the small seam behind the layback crack, the .75 was OK but not great That or some good endurance would help for the top. Sep 27, 2020

Russ Keane
Salt Lake

5.10d

As fun as it gets..... An uber-classic in my book. Jul 6, 2022