This is a great first route for beginners. A little bit of face at the bottom, a lot of crack work.It can be topped, but need some long slings, a 60m rope, and a willingness to lay into the belay a little since the friction on the rope is pretty strong.
The Boulderado is a good crag for working on easy leads. The line left of Idle Hands, marked 2 on the above picture is called Ho Hum, 5.4 in the guidebook. I didn't figure it was worth a separate write up, but it's as good as Idle Hands and the short diheadral above and left of the tree offers an opportunity to practice jams.
I think this would be a good lead for a beginner or for someone looking to build back confidence with trad (me in both cases!). Be sure that your belayer is anchored - we used a sling around a big boulder at the base - since any falls before the first piece about 10 feet up would send you and your partner to the highway. It's very consistent climbing, with no real crux except for the top, which we went to the right of making for an easier finish (the same as for Mons, the crack to the right).
A nice obvious line on solid rock. A nice practice route for the beginner leader, though I found it a little tricky to protect up at the final more vertical crux, but a couple of small nuts seemed to do the trick. And yes, rope drag can be a bit of an issue.
Very fun route! Leave all the mid- and large-sized gear behind, though. I led this with a half-set of wallnuts, smaller aliens, and one #1 camalot. And that was sewing it up.
Bolted anchor? Isn't there a large tree less than ten feet back from the top of this route?
By Ron Olsen Administrator From: Boulder, CO May 28, 2007
Richard Rossiter placed four bolt anchors at the Boulderado in March 2007 at the request of The Spot gym. See my comment and Photo. Richard has the first known ascents of these routes on the Boulderado; see Richard's comment.
The Boulderado
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