Routes as trad in Rocky Mountain National Park

Location

Route starts just left of the start of J-Crack (a blocky, loose-looking scramble up a steep ramp). Look for the thick flake going straight up the wall with finger-sized and smaller protection.

Gear

60m rope, single rack up to #3, plenty of nuts.

P1 5.9

Follow the blocky flake straight up until it ends at a tat rappel sling. Clip the sling and do a diagonal traverse beneath the small roof. Continue a bit further left until you reach a good belay ledge (also the first belay for Pear Buttress).

P2 5.9

Continue traversing the sloping belay ledge until you reach the left of two finger cracks (the first is Visual Aids 5.10b). Place good protection here, so you don't take a swinging factor 2 off the crux of the route. The crack starts as a shallow, flaring hand crack with good fingers if you reach deeper. It then eases up to solid hand jams taking you up the rest of the pitch. Towards the top, tend slightly right to reach a belay ledge just wide and long enough to take a well-deserved nap on.

P3 5.9

Start going straight up the crack on the right side of the belay ledge to reach the bottom of a large diagonal roof. Undercling traverse up and left under the roof until you can make an awkward exit up it's left end. Continue up several more feet, to a large belay ledge.

P4 5.7

Look for "The Cave", an obvious cave above and right of your belay stance. Scramble up easy slabs to get inside the cave, then heroically navigate the roof to finish the route. Tall climbers will be able to clip a piton before getting into the business.

Descent

Walk off the back side of the wall down a dirty gully. Optionally skip the worst part of the descent rappelling off a large pine tree accessible by traversing a sloping ledge at the top of the descent. Follow the trail until it returns to the J Crack Slab.

The freed version of Fair Weather Friends.

Climbing the right-leaning flared crack up the slab past a small dead tree to bolted anchors.

Starts about 20m left of George's Tree at a left-facing corner with a wide crack in the back.

P1.150ft, climb the left-facing corner & crack to a comfortable ledge on the right. P2. 50ft, climb crack or cracks to ledge with tree belay. P3. 180ft climb right-facing corner to fang ledge. P4. Step off top of fang and up cracks to ledge below upper headwall. P5. Exit up and left.