Morning Thunder 

Consider finishing the Route on the [variation called] Jam Con. This will give a jamming and roof finish that will make the climb longer and give it more variety and pump. In my opinion, the two linked together go at 5.10.

O.K. I have some issues about the rating thing here on west ridge. First we say that Pos. 4th is 10a ? Hmm, well I guess not. Then we say that 'Morning Thunder', which is more sustained than 'Pos. 4th' albeit short. I give Pos. maybe 5.9 and Morning Thunder 5.10a and as far as the #1 cam goes, leave it on the ground where it can be used for the belayer out to the right for a ground anchor point. Cheers..

Climbed on 5.25.02. Great route. Short and strenous. The grade is actually just right on for an older 5.9+ route i.e. appropriately sandbagged! The gear is mostly small nuts with sub-optimal stances for placement but don't leave all of your big pieces at the belay as you can EASILY get a #3 Friend in just before the crux.

I love this route, if it was twice as long it would be more popular than the bastille crack! I think it's definitely 5.9+, if you're finding it harder than that look around for some face holds. If you stick with the crack only it gets to be 5.10. Well protected by wires and small cams.

Great climb that I didn't know existed until about a month ago when I did Allosaur and say Morning Thunder in the guide just to the right. It's extremely obvious from the road (see photo), yet I had never noticed it.

Link this to Allosaur by walking left from the top of Morning Thunder to the start of Allosaur.

The biggest piece we used was a #2 Friend right off the ledge as a directional. Lots of brass nuts to start, Aliens... We expected it to be a handcrack based on Rossiter's #3 Friend recommendation, but there's only one hand jam, in a short diagonal crack. You could place a bigger piece here, but then you'd lose the hand jam. Above, in the triangular inset, you can get a knee lock and a no hands rest.

Is this the easiest Christian Griffith climb?

There's a bizarre-looking 12a called Thunderbolts From Hell that starts the same as Morning Thunder. Rossiter says, "Move left and sashay up the strenuous arete, using holds on both sides, past 3 bolts..." But the "arete" is essentially the lip of a roof, close to horizontal. You can see the line left of Chuck in the first photo of Chuck Graves that I posted yesterday. The bolts are barely visible--the first one is above Chuck's head.

Tony (or anyone),

Where does Jam Con go? We were looking for it. Does it climb over the chockstone (rather than hike around it) that's clearly visible in the photo? And then over the overhang above onto the 45 degree arete?

A few answers/comments.

Jam Con goes up part the top [??] of Morning Thunder, back to the right hand side of the massive chockstone wedged between the top of the M.T. wall and the wall above and to the right. This is the same boulder casting a shadow in your first picture, Ivan. Stem and jam up it's right side. It's about 15 feet of independent climbing.

Secondly, [Thunderbolts] From Heck is a pretty stout route- and a few of the little flakes you will yard on are flexing and dubous at best. Be mindful that a fall from the wrong place will result in smashing your face into the rock. Placing the wires to get [up to] the [first] bolt is also a little [strenuous], so think in terms of doing solid 5.12 while a little pumped and also with a bad fall pending. I talked with Steve about the bolt placements at some length, during which discussion he mentioned that G.R. broke some teeth out on a failed lead attempt, and also conceeded that the 12a grade might be a sandbag, but also stated that was GR's rating, not his. I'll try to find the resources to scan in the slides I have of this and 1000's of other Eldo/BC/RMNP/[SPlatte]/etc climbs some day.

Short and sweet. Excellent finger jams with good feet! Very enjoyable.

This is a beauty ! sustained, excellent rock, exciting opening moves

I agree with earlier comment: definitely harder (I wrote easier before by accident) than Positively 4th St, and, really, about as long. Both are short. Strenuous off the ground with heady climbing above small gear--I ended up taking probably too much time fiddling with small pieces and tired out more than I should have. Awesome route. Too bad it's a little short. bring TCUs. and small/med nuts or offsets.

"Definitely easier than Positively 4th Street"? Don't think so. this is solid 5.9 with small gear at the beginning (where you really need it) while 4th Street is a piss up with tons of jugs and easy protection.

Short and steep with good pro and good feet, great body positions. Lots of good hand holds (fingers), just use TCUs and keep moving. I'll come back and do this one again.

I led this yesterday and noticed two fixed stoppers on the route. It's still a heads up lead but given that it's such a short pitch, the fixed gear has changed the nature of the climb. Still a high quality route, good rock, and great moves.

There is no longer any fixed gear on this route