Boy, bolts can be nice. About 70 feet left of the main dihedral that is P1 of The Red Dihedral, the Three Mousketeers is the left of two bolted routes. Actually, the climbing per se on Three Mousketeers is better than that on Perilous Journey. It's more continuous, devious, and fingery. While Fred and Will are still very much on the scene and getting better and better each year, Bill DeMaillie died of natural causes sometime in the 90s. Bill was a proponent of developing the fine lines to be had in Boulder whose development was shut down cold by the Boulder City Council. The last words I remember from him were that if the Council forbade development, then the routes would get done anyway - under "the belly up veil of secrecy". If only it were so. What a man, we are a lot worse off without his maverick voice, defiant to the end.
Overall a fun line. There's an initial hard move past the first bolt followed by sustained climbing to the crux at the second-to-last bolt. I found this last section to be very reachy and I'm 6'2. Also, the last 20 ft. felt a bit contrived to me. Not sure what the FA's had in mind here exactly, but whatever I did, it was fun.
The pin that comprises the first pro is high up. this is probably obvious to most (except me), but to clip it, hand traversing in from the left, along the rail to the left of of the pin is much easier, and far less spooky than trying to go straight up to the pin... a nasty deck fall loomed when going straight at it. Unless I missed something (quite possible.)
This isn't the right place for this comment, but since the submission discusses Bill DeMaillie I might set the record straight here also.
Bill didn't die of "natural causes". He committed suicide after years of battling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. My recollection is that this was in 1992. Prior to his illness, Bill was an energetic climber who loved doing new routes, cycling, and trail running.
The other thing that Bill did that has always impressed me was that he stood up for what he believed in and was not afraid to speak out in public. It was very clear, sometime in the 80's, that new route development in the Flatirons and in the rest of the Boulder City Parks jurisdiction was soon to close down. Bill obviously saw the impact on the tremendous, untapped potential for new, difficult routes. Certainly he was not alone. But when he stood up in front of the city council and told them what would be lost, told them why climbing mattered to Boulder, and told them what was likely to ensue if the park was closed to new route development, it was pretty damn cool. In fact, to this day, the voice I remember most from that time is Bill's.
Mickey Mouse Wall
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