Steppin' Out

This is a blue collar route with some interesting climbing to say the least. The Williams guidebook gives this route 5.9... but I’ve climbed a lot of 5.9 in Colorado and I think I’d disagree. Regardless of the grade this is a “fun” climb.

Pitch 1: climb right on a flake to gain an arete, and follow the ridge upwards on peg slab to a short squeeze chimney. Set belay at bottom of splitter offwidth.

Pitch 2: climb the clean and perfect offwidth crack till you gain the hands and the top, and pull onto a large, sloping ledge. Climb up and left to belay at the bottom of next offwidth on fixed pins. Make sure to put in a directional for your second.

Pitch 3: climb up a funky offwidth until you are under roof. Traverse under roof working to find optimal gear until it reaches arete. Make an exposed traverse around the outside corner, and belay in horizontal directly under huge squeeze chimney.

Pitch 4: while the previous pitch was definitely the technical crux, the route isn’t over. Don’t worry, it protects much better than you’d think. Climb up the challenging squeeze chimney to belay on the rim.

Walk to the right side of the Alimony Wall following the faint trail up steep terrain to a small, loose ledge at the base of the wall.

Doubles to 4”. You could place bigger cams as well, but they are not necessary.