I have been dying to spray a little about Rick Leitner, and here is the chance. One mark of a good route must be our willingness and interest in returning to the climb over and over again. I have come back to this Rick Leitner route at least a dozen times. I climb it every trip to The Solar Dome, and it is always fun. The route is on the West side of the crag, on the right side of the overhang area. It begins in a left-leaning crack/flake system that takes you a good stance and a good rest before the crux. This first part has terrifically fun, kinesthetic movement. The crux bails out right from the stance and involves a few thin moves and a long reach over the top of a small overhang. Bail further right and up to the anchors.

This is one of the best routes at The Solar Dome, and it is certainly worth two stars in my book.

Walking On The Sun

Walking with the Homesteader

Willie's Wake Up Call Girl

Uptown Venus

Howl Of A Hungry Cat

Burning Up The Hillside

Morning Sunshine

Baditude

Altoids On the Beach

The Tanning Block

Lipstick Sunset

Walking On Burning Floodgates

Kelp Bed Freak Show

Sundance

Waves on the Beach

The Homesteader

Ice Hose Chopper Lunch Mob

Fire Starter

Lady Of The Light

Waves of Rays

Nuns on the Beach

Nimby

The Homesteader Burns Up The Hillside

Montana Floodgates

This is a link-up.

Begin on Walking On The Sun

, & climb to its 3rd bolt. Traverse left past 3rd bolt on

The Homesteader

to the 2rd bolt on

Sundance

. Go up the 3rd bolt on

Sundance

. Traverse left along a thin seam crack (.12a) to join

Burning Up The Hillside

at its 3rd bolt for its crux. At its 4th bolt, traverse left to join

Montana Floodgates

, & finish up this route. It is possible to finish up

Burning Up The Hillside

at the same grade for "Walking On A Burning Hillside" (9 bolts / 2 bolt anchor). Finishing up

Montana Floodgates

only adds length & enjoyment.

This is a combination of

Walking On the Sun

and

The Homesteader

. This combines the two routes into a good route for 5.10 climbers.

The starting crack provides fun holds up the crack for the first three bolts. There is a rest ledge here before you continue up the well-featured rock on

The Homesteader

to the left. I found the first 3 bolts hard to clip, but my partner is taller and had no problem with the clips.

Willie's runs into the highly visible slot on the right side of the crag and takes off from the ledge. Frankly, even good stone, which this has, cannot compensate for weird, awkward, and unpleasant. Shuffle up to the slot on moderate terrain. Stand up into the slot and to get an awkward, sharp jam. A power move on good opposition surfaces gains the anchor. I'm not sure why I dislike this line, not everyone does, but this line has never seemed to be worth the effort; I'd rather stay home and do pull-ups.

Climb the face and arete right of

Lady of Light

.

Step up on the block left of

Lady Of The Light

. Howl picks up one clip followed by a thin move to gain an entry rest. Fire a fingers crack for ten feet, swing left and then back right to gain a stance under a small roof. Huge hands set up the only power move that comes in pulling over the roof.

Overall, this line has several fines moves on excellent Boulder granite. For me, the crux seems to arise well below the roof, somewhere in entering or powering through the crack. I usually do this by stepping a bit left (for balance sake), and this may be the crux, although this may depend upon one's preferences. Howl is a good warm-up for some the more fingery climbs on the Solar Dome.

Hillside lies three routes left of

Walking On The Sun

where a narrow slot takes you up and left of several additional routes. The climbing starts in a short hand traverse on a good, detached flake. A crux move followed by a long reach up and a bit right leads to moderate face climbing on great, incut flakes. This route is a kick, and provides a good warm up for the harder climbs. I wouldn't miss it.

As you approach the Solar Dome from the Boulder Canyon trailhead, Morning Sunshine is the first bolt route encountered, just left of the jumbled east face. The start lies up and to the right of a large, detached boulder (which also has a short sport route) at the base of the Solar Dome. You're probably looking at the guidebook standing under this route when you arrive at the Solar Dome, so you might as well climb it. Better yet, send your aspiring leader up it to provide him or her an ego boost; this climb rings in at 5.2 until the one-move-wonder that brings the coveted 5.7 rating. Comfort bolted for the squeamish.

You're also probably assessing your opponents in the high stakes "climber's chess" game at the base on the Solar Dome, and this route is a good first move as

Altoids on the Beach

is probably being climbed [and queued], and you will be right in the batter's box for the much better climbs just to the left.

A half star route; your hands now have chalk on them, now time to climb....

Baditude climbs the face and overhang between

Kelp Bed Freak Show

and

Howl of a Hungry Cat

. The interesting bit comes at the overhang where humongous, interlocking blades of granite form an athletic jug ladder. They *feel* solid, but the consequences of collapse would be disastrous. The moves are fun, the bolts are good, but you've got to wonder about the stone. For mature audiences - venture at your own risk.

This bolt line fires up the center of the Solar Dome and is its longest route.  This provides a good warm up for the harder lines to be found.  Locate the climb at the center of the face, right of the overhung face and left of a clean slab.

The route is interesting (curious?) in that it can be climbed as a very easy 5.8 sport climb (read 5.6 trad) or you can avoid the obvious easy way and make it harder.  Pick your poison!  A good, safe training route for the beginning leader.

Tanning Block? I believe this refers to sunshine, but I will say that leather fingers would have been of some benefit on this line. The holds are a bit rough. The friction is nice to have tough, as the second clip is from a tenuous yet pumpy lieback move. The holds are small and techy.

It has reasonable climbing and is hard for such a short route. The climb is 30' in all, with all of the punch of the line in the first 18 feet.

This route ascends the overhanging arete on the boulder right by the trail, and south of The Solar Dome. Basically this is a high boulder problem on a rope, but the crux is interesting and fun. It would get more stars if it was longer. To set up a toprope, climb up the north side of the boulder to the anchors. You may want to clip into a couple of the bolts to avoid the large swing.

Kelp Bed Freak Show is a route with some good movement but is marred by ledges and rope position during a lead.

Unclip the 3rd and 5th bolts upon getting the 4th and 6th, respectively, to reduce rope drag and keep the rope from running horizontally below you during a crux move or potential fall.

Climb up past 2 bolts on vertical terrain to a awkward move and a 3rd bolt. Pull onto lower angle rock, and cruise up toward a corner, above another sloping ledge. Stay right in the corner, and do some palming and stemming until incuts are reached. Then climb these to the top. At the top, you can struggle up a pile of big round rocks, or you can find the one good jug below these (perhaps buried in dirt again, as it tends to be), and then move left good 4-finger edges and to the anchor on good rock, provided you keep your eyes open for that option.

Begin from a large juggy flake. Move up into a tiny, left-leaning corner & ascend the overhanging face, past 4 bolts (.11a/b). Gain a good rest shelf. The crux ascends a bulging face, past the 5th & 6th bolt, moving right to grab an arete (.11c/d).

This route begins in an obvious, right-facing corner just to the left of

Waves of Rays

. The first three bolts are on the right-facing wall. Climb over the arete, and join the upper half of

Waves of Rays

. They use the same anchors.

In the middle of the alcove on the far left side of the Solar Dome is an inverted V-slot. The Homesteader fires up the slot to gain a system of huge holds for a jug haul kick. The single hardest move at 5.11d comes right off the deck passing the first clip. After that, climbing is probably not much harder than 5.9 or 5.10. The stone is good, the holds are unbelivable, and the wall turns out to be very steep - if only there were several hundred more feet of the same climbing! The Homesteader is a fine addition to the crag and a nice cool down buzz for the end of the day.

This is a chunky-looking climb with a height-dependent start that might be the crux for shorter climbers.

There are 2 small detached towers at the base of Solar Dome. This route is the higher, East-facing route on the higher of the two towers. Start off in the afternoon shade at the base by clipping the first bolt prior to doing any moves, which is possible for a man of average height. If you can't reach this, then you might also find the opening moves harder than 11-. Reach up and left into a thin but sinker spot on the obvious flake, and paste a foot to hoist up and onto larger holds above. Climb up these, generally working up and right to the anchors up top. Note where the anchors are and that a few traverse moves will be required on the climb as opposed to riding the left arete the whole way. The holds are generally good, but a few might surprise you by being sloper if you don't feel around for the right spots on them.

Overall, this is a climb that is better than it looks.

Fire Starter flirts with the difficulty on Uptown Venus but stays moderate, unless you head right at the last bolt (5.11c).  Start by clipping the first two bolts of Uptown and veer right for 4 more clips.  There is an optional 5.11c finish on the right, but the natural line follows the roof crack.

There is a one bolt anchor, but most will prefer to use the anchor on Uptown Venus.

On the right side of the Solar Dome, as you face the climbing routes, is a ramp-slot-arete system that starts off a ledge, and just left of the arete is a clean, steep face that is called Lady Of The Light. The name has very personal meaning for Mark and many other Boulder climbers (just ask him the story). While a short route, Lady packs a lot of complex climbing in the distance it covers. Climbing starts rather blank for the feet and after a clip or so stabilizes with a good rest. From here to the anchors, the climbing just gets a bit harder with each move. This entails mostly edges and sidepulls with a long crux reach rightward for thin fingers. Another powerful move through a narrow slot gains the anchor.

I'll go with the three stars for the moves, continuity, and quality of the stone, but, to keep things in perspective, this not The Diamond here, just a brilliant, short problem with an important history. For my own preferences, I'd call Lady Of The Light the best route on the Solar Dome.

Per

Mark Rolofson

: the climb was named in memory of Elaine Chandler who died on December 5, 1997 from an illness. She was a climber, hang glider, and graphic artist. She started the

Sport Climbing Connection

, a climbing magazine published in the early 1990s.

Waves starts in the main dihedral in the center of the main wall. This is really a well-bolted slab with a few interesting moves that are very un-slab like. Good climbing on solid rock make Waves of Rays one of the better lines on the Solar Dome. Some folks rave about this line, and it is a good line with some interesting edge climbing to be had. Personally, I figure it's best feature is the tanning slab at the base which, from time to time, offers some of the best scenery in Boulder.

Nuns starts just right of

Waves of Rays

. Pick one of the two bolted starts to a sharp arete. The crux moves are pulling on to the slab above. Another bolt leads to a moderate finish to a two bolt anchor.

Looking for a moderate to warm up on?  Keep looking.

Leftmost on the wall, up a loose, unpleasant gully, a five bolt line staggers its way up the discontinuous face.  Good incut holds can be fold throughout the climb, but a sense of distrust is felt when climbing, especially past one large moveable rock unfortunetly right smack in the best line.

And did I mention the belay?  Maybe from the very base of the gully is best - but then you can't see the climber; so up high in the gully past a scramble - yet then you almost belay above the climber.  Hmmm.  This climb is best climbed to complete the tic list or to enjoy a little space from the crowds around the corner.  Then again the views of the Indian Peaks are best on this westerly face - yet so is the wind greatest here....ah, no matter.  Sample with discretion.

This is a link-up. Begin with

The Homesteader

via is right hand start (.11d). Preclipping the 2nd bolt is advised. Hang a long sling on the 3rd bolt, so it can be clipped. Don't climb up to the 3rd bolt & a good rest, but instead traverse left on overhanging moves to the 2nd bolt on

Sundance

. Move up to 3rd bolt on

Sundance

, & traverse left (.12a) along a thin, horizontal seam crack, to join

Burning Up The Hillside

at its 3rd bolt & its crux. Finish up this route. It is also possible to traverse left at 4th bolt & join

Montana Floodgates

without adding to the difficulty but increasing the length. This is called "The Homesteader Burns Up Floodgates" (.12b), 10-11 bolts / 2 bolt anchor.

The next face climb left of Hillside, Montana Floodgates starts with hard move right off the deck. I thought it was a bit harder than 11a. The move right, around a blocky bulge was a little spooky, leading off in thin hands with sub-par feet. The climbing settles down a long way for several bolts, picking up a few good moves with in-obvious sequences higher up. This is another great warm-up for the harder routes on the crag, or a fun romp by itself.

Description

Protection

Routes in The Solar Dome (aka Lighthouse)