Lost in America

The Direct Start to the South Face is listed in old and most recent editions of Ament’s High over Boulder, Rossiter’s Flatirons, and Haas’s Flatirons guidebooks. None of the authors seem to agree on the route description. The ratings go from 5.7 A3 to 5.10 to 10d to 11a, respectively. Not really knowing what to expect, we hoped for sun and a high of 50 degrees in town.

I was in town for a few days and wanted to climb something I had been wanting to for decades and which was about to get closed for raptor nesting. Ropegun Ross was a no-show, and my rack was still in California, so I cobbled together a B assortment of old cams and wires. Mike and I did the long approach to the remote, imposing south side of the Matron, only to find an abandoned pack. Continuing farther up, we encountered a living human.

Phil was scouting possibilities and agreed to lead the Direct Start or whatever appeared to be the only protectable possibility that seemed to align with a vague synthesis of the four route descriptions: from a scraggly tree at the base of the wall and directly below the summit, Phil led diagonally left for about 12 feet and then wandered up the flaky face. At around 90 feet, he made a 15-20-foot hand traverse to the right, before finishing straight up a short, shallow, left-facing dihedral-ish feature and pulling onto a ledge (crux, 5.9+). This brought us to near the lowest point of the traverse on the old South Face route.

SR, including one #4. Placements were often in fragile flakes. At one point, Phil slung a dead Bonsai (miniature) tree stump. He placed a tiny wired stopper to protect the hard move onto the ledge at the top of the pitch.