Camouflage is a challenging crimp-fest between the Center Route and Rincon, well-bolted (although unfortunately with ring bolts that are hard to clip), continuous, and quite thin. Prepare thy tips for battle.
Start either on Rincon and move left to the first bolt, or you can stick clip the first bolt (or clip from Rincon and downclimb) and attack the little boulder problem leading directly to the first bolt. Now proceed to edge and crimp your way up the clean wall, past a definite crux at the bolt below the roof. At the roof move a bit right, into the corner. Above this you have to reach out left blindly to clip the bolts, and then do a couple of tenuous and difficult moves to big holds and a 2-bolt anchor up and right.
Crisp temperatures, good edging shoes, and fresh tips all help significantly, as does having the holds chalked up- they can be difficult to locate if not. This is a really exquisite bit of technical face climbing.
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Feb 1, 2002 rating: 5.12
The crimps on this route are small, and hard to find (thus the namesake), but didn't tear my fingers up like some sharper routes have. I still had fun on this. Going to the first bolt on lead is difficult but it did not seem unreasonably hard to get to. After the initial roof is beat you are high up there, but not at a crux. The route also moves hard right and then back, between the second and third bolts. I had not looked at the topo and tried to stay the direct line. This proved to be extremely difficult, (impossible for me) and even when resorting to aiding though and attempting to TR it, I still failed to get it direct.
I never did manage to redpoint the route, but it was a good time anyway. I don't care too much for sport-climbing in general, but this route offers a fairly fun and unique opportunity to do something a little different, and do it safely.
Sport climbing in Eldo... Wow. Dogged/"aided" this route on a hot day in July. A cooler day (or earlier in the morning before the sun hits) would probably make it a bit easier. We ended up clipping the first bolt while rapping from Center Route, but the moves going from the right is not difficult (if a bit dicey). My fingers took most of damage between bolt 2 & 3 while trying to figure out the moves. Otherwise, the crimps are not too unfriendly.
I'll definitely have to come back for the redpoint (and free the crux move below the roof) someday.
The route description says to go right into the corner after the slab. Does anyone know how hard it is to climb the arete (which looks way better!) that is above the slab instead of the corner?
Saw a strong climber going directly onto the arete and got it clean last weekend. He said it was a lot harder than going to the right but didn't elaborate on the grade.
Rincon - Center Route & R
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