To protect nesting and roosting sites of falcons, Redgarden Wall from the Naked Edge (pitch 3 – top) through Sidetrack is closed from February 1st – July 31st or until further notice. Occasionally, these closures are lifted earlier.
This includes the following routes: • The Naked Edge (last 3 pitches only) • The Diving Board • Centaur • Redguard (last three pitches) • Semi-Wild • Anthill Direct (last three pitches) • The Sidetrack
It's surprising that this multi-pitch 5.9 hasn't been added to the site yet. Perhaps it's the long walk up to the route.... regardless, this route sees very little traffic, and has a definite alpine flavor to it (it did rain/hail on us a couple of times during the route, which added to that feeling). Loose rock on most of the pitches, routefinding challenges, and some curious gear opportunities give this route an 's' rating.
About 50 yards past the Darkness 'til Dawn dihedral and just before a rotten band (home of choss-fest Outer Space) lies an obvious chimney/slot with two large chockstones 40 and 70 feet up. Immediately right of this chimney is a well-chalked crack that is Disappearing Act.
P1: Ascend the chimney, awkward 5.6. Optional belay on top of the second chockstone. It's better, however, to continue up the dihedral to it's exit, 150 feet high, to a tree with slings. Be careful for loose rocks on exit from the dihedral.
P2: Scramble up the easy dihedral for about 60 feet to another tree with slings and belay just under a bulge with a hand-sized chockstone.
P3: Here's where it got interesting. Your clear target is the ledge 20 feet to the right of the enormous tree on the face above you. However, chossy rock is between you and that belay ledge. We turned the bulge, hand-traversed out the wide crack, then gingerly climbed up large, loose, licheny blocks before a final traverse back right to the ledge. Continuing up the dihedral from the belay and then coming back left *might* be a better strategy, but that looked pretty loose too. 50 feet.
P4: Ascend the fingers-size crack in a small ramp/RF dihedral that curls back to the right for 60 feet, before turning a roof. Again, this is where it got interesting, as above this roof the route and pro becomes indistinct. Kreighton Bieger was heard whining that he would "give his first-born for a good piece of pro" on lead in this area. Supposedly follow the line of least resistence; we moved left and up, back and right to sling a horn, and then traversed left on an airy and exciting ramp before heading up more loose rock for 25 feet to finish. 150 feet.
We're still unsure if we went the correct way; no chalk marks anywhere gave us hints. Regardless, a little-climbed route that probably deserves more ascents.
Protection
Standard rack up to a #3 Camalot. Doubles of fingers size and smaller comes in handy on the last pitch.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Apr 27, 2002
Two stars might be a wee bit generous, even by your description with all the "loose rock" and "chossy" elements to your description. We did it a few years back in less exciting conditions, so we might not have gotten full value. One star IMHO.
In my experience, bad rock does not always equate to a bad climb in Eldo. If anyone out there knows, it's probably me. There are other factors to be considered. Sunstar is at the top end of Redgarden, and has fabulous views and position. The moves are fun, and although the rock is a bit "chunky" it's not bad [rock], there are just a lot of loose bricks and blocks. The area is never clear enough to clean the route very safely.
That said, Sunstar is [definitely] no 3* classic, but it was fun enough to [recommend], which according to this site, is a 2* route. 1* is "it was OK, but I wouldn't bother again" type of thing.
One final note: THIS ROUTE IS NO PLACE TO PUSH YOUR LIMITS. You could be seriously injured by a fall, and escape would be problematic, at best.
Whether this route deserves one, two or three stars may be beside the point, because it will and maybe should continue to have limited mass appeal.
Save for the first pitch, which is very nice, the rock on the rest of the route ranges from fractured and loose to a veritable minefield of loose and broken blocks. Routefinding is difficult, and the protection is sparse and difficult to place on the last two pitches.
That said, and as Tony mentioned, the route achieves spectacular position and in general the climbing is pretty good. Additionally, it starts high enough up on Redgarden that it offers a more 'remote' feel, if one is into that sort of thing.
One last thing - a helmet would be a very good idea. I sent at least one foothold down onto Myke's head.
I did part of this route a few weks ago starting with [Disappearing] Act as a first pitch variation instead of the chimney. I led up to the tree (pitch 3?) on the face in the picture and my partner started to lead out left on very loose rock. After about 10 feet on his lead my belay hand slipped and suddenly a 200lb. block that was my stance detached from the wall and smashed to the ground in about 4 seconds. Thank God no one was underneath (no one was hurt, but some people on Green Spur and [Grandmother's Challenge] were screaming and frightened). Debris slid down the entire slope and there were chunks taken out of the main trail up to Green Spur from the main piece of the detached block. The tree has some slings on it for rappel, but it would probably be best to stay away from this tree and the rock around it altogether, as there are stll loose blocks ready to come off. The Sunstar route stays to the right of this a little, so it shouldn't be a problem as long as you stick to the main line as shown in the picture although you'll still encounter plenty of smaller sized loose stuff. Cherio!
Be very careful topping out on the last pitch. Just after the obscure, difficult to protect section above the small roof, you pull onto a slanting ledge that is littered with death bombs just waiting to be dislodged. Also, we rapped down the giant corner to the right of the route. Plenty of loose rock there as well. Consider walking off, the rap didn't save much time. Overall the route was worth doing, but I doubt I would repeat it.
It's only 100' to the tree so it makes for a great pitch to combine the first two.
On the second pitch (or 3rd), it's best to stay in the corner, turn the two bulges, then angle up to the base of the corner. The climbing is better than it looks and the rock seemed pretty solid.
After reading the description and comments for this route, I was expecting more of a hair-raiser. It felt a little R on the last pitch but never S. Overall, I thought it was a great climb. Definitely 2 stars. The last 40 ft. of climbing was a little heady for me, with poor pro and not-so-great rock, but the climbing is probably only 5.6/7 here. Some really good climbing and excellent position.
Definite two star route..........superb position and climbing on the final pitch. Marred only by the sometimes crispy and lichenous rock on the final upper pitch. However, I did not lead the final pitch so cannot confirm nor deny the other trepiditious leader comments. I would agree that the pro seemed somewhat sparse, but not non existent. I did lead the middle pitch and found it easiest to stay in the dihedral and cut up and left on some stacked blocks to the ledge near the tree. Felt the second pitch protected well enough for a chain smoking .8 leader to feel secure.
By Shane Z From: Colorado Mar 21, 2004 rating: 5.9-
I combined the first two pitches easily. After that, I climbed over two bulges and to the ledge near the big tree which was not at all straight forward. I then followed the right facing dihedral, pulled the roof, and got into an area that had awkward protection placements(tcu's and aliens in bad rock). Lots of loose rock up there.
I would recommend combining the first two pitches and rapping down from the big ledge(two ropes). There are better routes to do in the area. Try 'Darkness til Dawn'.
The photo topo for the final pitch is marked wrong. The real top pitch is further left. The right-facing dihedral (shown in the action photo) is of course invisible on the topo photo. The huge black block, marked as being below the final belay, is actually right of, and above, the real belay.
That said, my partner and I both thought the route excellent. The description in the Rossiter guidebook works just fine, though it's worth walking up the trail a couple switchbacks with the book, to piece it together from the ground first. A little care prevents any loose rock coming off (neither of us pulled anything off). This climb, with no chalk on its holds, potential loose rock, and definite routefinding issues, is perhaps more challenging than technically harder long routes like Yellow Spur. Classic "obscure tour" material, providing a glimpse of how the [now-polished] classic Eldo route once felt. Of the whole route, the last pitch is by far the best bit, so don't even think of bailing from lower. This pitch is really exposed, sustained, thought-provoking 5.8 R. Requires routefinding skillls, yet is actually pretty direct. Not for the beginning 5.8 leader. And be aware that your belayer is directly under you!
The hike off is fine. There is a well-worn trail leading north, then west and up to a small notch about 500 feet away (even some cairns). Then an easy talus trail down to the main trail.
Taking care around a few areas of loose rock, especially at the summit, I found this route to have a lot of fun climbing with adequate pro. The third pitch is a little runout, but what a treat!
The top of this one is a bit dicey. If not for the GREAT view at the top I would give it a bomb. A fun but chossy alternative if Rewritten is crowded. 5.8 R IMO.
I did this with a friend recently and we did two variations that might interest people. First, it was unclear from the Rossiter guide where to cut left after the bulges in the dihedral. We finally chose to go left at the bulge with the wide crack (I believe that's the second bulge). That led to a finger crack that was well-protected but slightly harder than the crux on the second pitch (mid to hard 9). We wandered up some chossy rock towards the big tree and then cut back to the right for a belay. From that belay, instead of tackling the right-facing, corner system, we went up the chimney (more civilized than it looks) and then wandered up easier but runout terrain towards a notch. A couple of well-protected 5.7 moves got us to the notch and a large tree from which a belay can be set up. The notch in question is visible in Myke's beta photo of the upper pitches. It's directly above the letter "n" of "adventure!".
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