While Homie and Trashy were off completing the Top Ten in a marathon 14 hour dash, I was sleeping in my bed. At least for part of it. I didn't even awake until 6 a.m. and my first thoughts were that those two met in Eldo an hour earlier. You'd think such thoughts would have propelled me out of bed and quickly toward the rocks, but I moved slowly and by the time I left the house everyone was up. I drove to Chautauqua Park and started hiking up the trail at 7:30 a.m. I carried a 60-meter 8.1mm rope, a small rack, harness, shoes, food, guidebook, hat, gloves, pile sweater, and my MP3 player. Thinking it was going to be cool today, I didn't bother re-filling my Camelback and it only contained about ten ounces of water. That wouldn't be a big mistake, but I did get a bit thirsty.
My first goal was the 1911 Gully on the Third Flatiron. Finding the start to this route was a bit confusing, but I did and started up, wearing my huge load. I stayed in my approach shoes for the first three climbs of the day. For the first hour of the morning I listened to the end of the Green Mile by Stephen King. This was loaded into my MP3 player along with a number of songs.
At the top of the first slab there are a couple of very tricky boulders to get by. I thought the climbing here was F6/7 and it took me awhile to pass the last boulder. I thought I was stumped for awhile. It might be possible to go under the boulders, but that didn't appear obvious to me. Above was a brushy gully filled mostly with ferns. I didn't notice any poison ivy in here. The upper part of this route is very good and a bit challenging with my load. I envisioned myself a bit like Dean Potter or Hans Florine. I was climbing with a rope and a pack on my back. When things got tricky, I just went slow and stayed solid. This route took me 30 minutes to climb. It was the longest and toughest route of the day. The upper section is solid three stars; the lower section is two stars. I really enjoyed this climbing and would quickly do it again. I forgot to even look for the sport climbs that rise out of the brushy meadow.
At the top of the 1911 Gully, I descended the Southwest Chimney route. Instead of passing the initial boulder on the north, this time I tried going under the boulder, thinking it might provide a more secure and less exposed passage. It did not and this is not recommended. I descended to the ground and then down the brushy and slabby gully to the south and eventually the Royal Arch Trail. I followed this to Royal Arch itself and then headed west to the Fifth Flatiron and a route called Catscratch Cracks. This route, like all the others on the Fifth, is great. Positive holds and great rock make for a fun romp. I climbed this 700 foot route in 15 minutes.
At the top of the Fifth, I used my rope for the first and last time. I never used any of the rack I brought. I rappelled 75 overhanging feet to the ground and coiled the rope. I descended east and south to the base of the very unpleasant Hourglass. Climbing up this chossy, pine needle and lichen covered loose rock was by far the lowest point of the day. This was definitely the scariest climbing I did all day. I was bothered by the rope falling around my back and into my way. It wasn't until later that I realized by far the best way to wear a pack and a rope is to put on the rope first and the pack on top of it.
The Hourglass is a big rock. The book claims it is only 450 feet, but it seemed longer than the 650 foot Fist above, but maybe that's just because it was so unpleasant. It took me fifteen minutes to climb this rock also. The downclimb off the back side was easy and I found myself right up against the Fist - my final objective for the day. I had climbed the North Face route on the Fist many months ago with Mark Oveson and Steve Mathias. That day we left a sling and a rappel ring on a horn below the summit. Today I wanted to climb the remaining three routes, all rated 5.6, on the Fist.
I descended to the base of the South Ridge and, for the first time all day, put on my slippers. I then soloed up perfect rock to a steep wall. Here I traversed east across a ledge where this route merges with the East Face route. They both follow a beautiful 5.6 hand crack from here to the summit block. I decided to leave my pack here and climb with just the rope. My plan was to solo up the crack, find a tree or a horn or something and rappel back down. The crack itself is one of the best in the Flatirons. This 2-3 inch crack goes on for about half a rope length. I know of no other cracks in the Flatirons that are so consistent for that long. The crack is quite rough though and care needs to be used with the jamming. I found this crack to be extremely easy. It was definitely easier than the East Face of the Hourglass and I'd rate it 5.4 at most.
On top, I discovered that the sling we had left months before was gone. Because of its location, I hadn't planned on using that for my descent anyway. Unfortunately, I found nothing to rappel off of. No problem, I'd just down solo the crack. This was also very easy and I felt much more secure downclimbing this crack than downclimbing the last pitch on the Third Flatiron. Soon I was back at my pack, which I put on over the rope (finally figuring this out!) and downclimbed the rest of the East Face route. I downgraded Mark's four start rating of the East Face of the Fist to three stars and gave the much better South Ridge of the Fist four stars. The only thing really good about the East Face is the hand crack which both routes share and the South Ridge is quite a bit better on the lower section.
I descended past the base of the South Ridge and around to a route called the South Ramp. This route is a beautiful and fun slab climb which is mostly easy, but starts with a tricky F5 section which is the hardest part of the whole route despite the F6 rating. There are two other fun sections, but with my rock shoes on, they seemed very secure and easy.
Soon I was at the top again and still there were no anchors. I had some slings with me, but they were all sewn slings and not very useful for slinging horns or chockstones. I considered downclimbing the hand crack again, but that would put me on the wrong side of the rock. While looking for an anchor on the west side I peered down the wall. It was only about fifty feet to the ground and I could see some holds on the wall. After some contemplation about whether it was stupid or not to solo down a wall that didn't even have a route on it, I started down going very slow and being very deliberate with my movements. I felt solid and pieced a route together to the ground. In fact, I'd recommend this route, though there is no gear on it. It was probably only F5/6 to get down.
I now felt invincible. Everything had gone so well. All the climbs felt easy and solid. I switched shoes, turned on my tunes, and powered up the slope to East Green Mountain and then down to north and the Greenman Trail. I ran down this trail to the Saddle Rock Trail (probably a mistake as this goes uphill a bit too much) and then the Amphitheater Trail. I then took a trail across the meadow back to the car. The entire outing had taken 4 hours and 11 minutes. In that time I climbed six routes and 25 pitches, gained 3600 vertical feet in four laps, and probably covered 6-7 miles. It was an incredibly satisfying morning. I finished two more chapters: Third and Fifth Flatirons. I only have four chapters to go and 26 routes - 22 of those routes are located in the Dinosaur Mountain chapter.
Today, I also went over 365,000 vertical feet for the year. Which means that I'll average over 1000 vertical feet a day for every day this year. I'm actually averaging 1,200 vertical a day so far. Also, I climbed 13 days in the month of October (a record for the month) and did 170 pitches (a record for any month). I've climbed 97 days this year (previous best was 74 in 1995) and 54 of those days were in the Flatirons. Before this year I had only climbed 26 days in the Flatirons since moving back to Colorado in 1994. I done 301 routes (previous best was 215 in 1998) and 904 pitches (previous best was 509 last year) so far this year, though mostly in the easy grades.
Later that night the Trashman called me with two bits of good news. First, and foremost, he and Homie completed the Top Ten in a single day. What a great day for them! These guys are tough as this is a HUGE day that involves almost 9000 feet of climbing. They had to contend with short daylight hours also and did the North Face of the Matron completely by headlamp. I think most people would have said the hell with it at that point, but they didn't set out to do the Top Nine in day. They finished what they started.
Oh, the second bit of good news? They didn't break the record Tom and I set last October (10:26), though they did best the previous record time (15:15). They finished in 14:06! Congratulations, Homie and Trashy!!