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The Golden Spike

5.11a/b, Trad, 55 ft (17 m),  Avg: 2.5 from 2 votes
FA: Steve Cheyney
Colorado > S Platte > W Creek > Sheep's Nose

Description

This is a short, South-facing route you'll encounter on your walk back to the base of Lost in Space from the rappels. It climbs a flared, left-facing dihedral in the off-fingers to tips width, to a walkoff.

Start in a pod with stemming on good feet, and plug your biggest piece. Stem and finger lock up to where the crack tapers into a seam. Make a thuggish move to the "Golden Spike", and get your rest. Moving off the spike may be the crux. From there, we pinched crystals and crimped straight up to gain the right-leaning finger crack above. Note that there is an obvious alternative (maybe original finish??) in the #5-6 offwidth to the left.

Pull over the crystals (or OW) onto a large, clean ledge with a horizontal crack. Either belay your second from here on small gear, or continue around climber's right to the easy-5th hand crack and go up for another 15'.

Descent: scramble off climber's left from the upper ledge.

Location

The start is about 150' West of P1 of LIS.

Protection

#0 c3 (green) to #0.5 BD Camalot.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Jared R. on the Golden Spike.
[Hide Photo] Jared R. on the Golden Spike.
The route.
[Hide Photo] The route.