Behind The Sun

Behind The Sun begins in the furthest right sector of the wall, right of and below the prominent arete that forms the crux of Steve Landin's route "Floorshow".

BTS uses the first one or two pitches of Floorshow to gain the grassy ledge at 140 ft. This sector can be split into two pitches if desired, and both have double bolt anchor systems. At the grassy ledge, the belay anchor and rap station for BTS be found 30 ft to the right of Floorshow. Note carefully: the rap to the ground from the right hand station is a single 140 ft rap. If you cannot make this rap, use the Floorshow station because a second rap station is in place at 70 ft.

The climbing above the ledge on BTS starts by angling right from the belay a short way to surmount a small roof. Technical climbing and some powerful sequences follow in this crux pitch. I found this pitch to be a bit intimidating, being not overly bolted and run out in the 5.12b crux, frankly a bit scary. This third pitch ends at a sloping ledge, 90 ft above. What follows is a moderate, 5.10d/5.11a swim over a short head wall that leads into the dramatic dihedral above. Continue with easy climbing on big holds to the flat-out-airest belay in Clear Creek. A stem at the top of the dihedral clips the anchors with close to 300 ft of air below your butt.

Initially red pointed as separate pitches, the whole route was red pointed first by Greg and Rich Purnell in the Spring of 2000. At least two stars for the climbing, the continuity, the brilliant crux pitch, and the amazing air on the last pitch.

QD only. This is a long route by Clear Creek standards. It can be done either as four pitches or as three. In either case, two 60m ropes are the best way to go, although the raps can be broken down into 100 ft sections.