The route starts near the upper section of the ridge. Pass by the [prominent] roof (described in the rock section) and continue up the gully past some chossy cliffs. The upper section will be apparent when some reasonable looking routes start appearing. As the gully steepens, the trail turns from grass/dirt to more talus and scree. Before the very top of the ridge, the trail turns to rock slabs. Before this section, about 50-60m down the hill, look for a bolted arete and a right-facing dihedral. Rush Buick takes the dihedral.
Whew...If you manage to locate the route, you'll have some fun. There are two cruxes on the route--the first is negotiating the first bulge, then 10m later, another bulge. Some fun liebacking/stemming gets you through these sections up to an easy ramp. Take the ramp up 15m to a belay on the right with a bunch of slings. Rap 100' to the ground from here.
I hesitated giving this route two stars, but it was just long enough with an excellent crack. Maybe 1.75 stars. ;-)
Protection
Standard rack up to #3 Friend. Either a 60m rope or double ropes are required to rap back down.
Descent
Slings have appeared from time to time for a rappel descent. Alternatively, you can traverse to and rappel off the Heart of Gold anchors. Finally, you can rappel of the Nobody's Home anchors.
How about 2.5 stars. 5.7 corners don't get much better than this. I look forward to doing this route again but the approach was kinda crummy. Fun route, though.
Nice solid route. It could use a new rap sling and removing about half of the six that are there would make it easier to clip. The existing slings look pretty weathered.
This route is easy to find using the picture below.
Rating history:In the 1970 High Over Boulder and Ament's 1972 "5.10" this is rated 5.4!In Ament's 1980 "Eldorado" it's rated 5.5 or 5.6.In Erickson's 1980 Rocky Heights it's rated 5.6.
My partner and I climbed on Saturday, April 6th just before the snowfall. Great ridge in the winter...no wind and we had the warmth of the sun (probably 45 degrees in Boulder). We didn't have too much trouble finding the route...just make sure you get off the East Slab [descent] trail early and head towards the ridge. We went a bit high and had to back track as we weren't certain we could cross over from high up. The actual route was easy to spot thanks to the picture posted by Scott : - ).
As a semi new leader it felt all of 5.7 (and a tiny bit harder than Calypso) because the crux is so close to the ground. It did protect...this I know because I sewed it up. There is a good sequence that took me a while to figure out but once you get it...it is so fun. It was just not obvious at first. I used every small cam on my rack.
Once finished you can top rope a fun 5.9+ just to the right. Oh, we cut out one of the old crusty slings and added a new one.
I will go back and do it again. It is unique but aren't they all?
I climbed the route today and the slings were gone from the horn that's been used for about 20 years to rappel. Maybe just as well as the structual integrity of the horn seems [questionable]. As far I can figure, this leaves 2 ways to get off. Climb to the rappel bolts on Heart of Gold on the left (second rappel station further down). It's troublesome getting to the bolts. The second way down is to do an easy pitch to the top and then scramble to the very north end of the ridge. Makes for a long descent. A rappel station on the left wall would be a welcome addition.
By Derek Lawrence From: Bailey Sep 16, 2004 rating: 5.7+
Climbed this on Labor day. Since there were no anchors at the top of the route - we went up and left along the rotten band at the top to near the top of Heart of -Gold. There is a small tree w/ slings (I added a quick link) about 10 feet back. A 60m rope will just barely get you down the bushy corner below the tree. Anchors more in line with the route would be nice.
By Ron Olsen Administrator From: Boulder, CO Nov 7, 2005 rating: 5.7
Gear Alert
A great climb for the first 70 feet. After that, easy but runout climbing. I continued up, looking for the anchor mentioned in Rossiter's guidebook: "Rappel 100 feet". There is NO rappel anchor for this route: not on a horn, not on a tree.
I continued to a loose ledge about 110' up, managed to get in a decent anchor (after a 40' runout) and brought up my partner, who scanned the area for rap anchors. The only anchor in sight was the bolts at the top of Heart of Gold. My partner climbed a ramp to a tree just above the Heart of Gold bolts.
From the tree, we managed to get down to the Heart of Gold bolts, which are on a vertical wall with a hanging stance. A 60m rope got us to the ground with a little rope to spare. This descent is NOT recommended; it's not easy getting to the Heart of Gold anchor from the tree.
It might be possible to install a rap anchor on this tree, but the tree is less than 6" in diameter and doesn't instill confidence. We also weren't sure if a 60m rope would reach the ground from the tree (in retrospect, it probably would just make it).
Another alternative may be to continue to the top of the ridge and then descend to the left, but the rock is junky and loose. Traversing left on the ledge system at 110' also looks possible, but this is littered with loose rock as well.
Anyone doing this route in the future should bring slings and rings and look for a good place to install a rap anchor as soon as the difficulties end after 70' of climbing. We had brought up slings, rings, quick links, and a knife, but by the time I got 100' up, there was no place to install an anchor, other than the aforementioned tree.
Rob Calm and Ron Olsen, the slings are back at the top of the ramp. Climbed this 8/21/06 (my birthday!) and rapped off the questionable horn. It's less questionable than other raps in Eldo, but that ain't saying much!
Hawk-Eagle Ridge
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