Short But Sweet

"Barf" That's the word I'll start with... barf. The other expletives I'd use to describe this climb are not appropriate for an all-ages newsgroup. I've climbed a lot of routes in my life, and a lot of routes around here--600-some in Boulder Canyon now, and this was the worst of them. It wasn't dangerous like my warnings for

Cardinal Richelieu

in Eldo, with death blocks abounding, but it was more like free climbing rock on the famous bad sections in the Black Canyon or up in Cody, Wyoming. It's like climbing on frozen kitty litter in several spots. In case I have not discouraged you from climbing this route, here are the details:

This line looks nice from below. From the Castle Rock parking lot, this is the obvious dihedral-to-a-roof system you can see up on Mountain Rose Crag. Approach as you will, or as described for Mt. Rose Crag and go to the far right below this dihedral. The 'texture" you see on the right is not lichen, it is constantly exfoliating rock. On the left the glassy smooth slab is a thin veneer over more of the same total crap. Don't trust any of your gear - I broke off a few large knobs by torquing them in my hands.

To ascend this route, climb terrible but otherwise uninteresting rock for 30 feet of discontinuous junk to reach a ledge - perhaps 10' below the roof. Find the 2 good holds in the crack below the roof - please don't break them off, since the rest are bad. Put a visor on your belayer, and don't say "watch me", because if he looks up, he'll get grains of rock in his eyes. It is possible to climb either left or right out of the roof toward the top, but the rock is so bad on the right (where most of the chalk was) that I broke most of the holds I tested by a pinch and snap of my fingers. It seemed marginally better to the left, where the route is "supposed to go" but not much.

So after 8 years here of 'collecting' obscure routes, this one now takes the cake for the least pleasurable I have been on. Not the most dangerous, but the least pleasurable. If you are into that, have a go at it!

A few nuts and a few cams. It's all crap in that rock anyway.