We only climbed P1, but there are two others. We spied the line rappeling from the Seal. Rossiter has an excellent topo on p. 75 of his Flatirons book, incidentally.
In any case, I'll only describe P1. The rock on the entire slab up to the fifth or sixth bolt is covered with lichens, so it can be pretty exciting. The first several clips are in the 5.9 range, then it gets very tricky and thin at the light orange band with larger quartz sand grains after the lichen rock. This section starts getting into 5.11+ territory and continues into a red-brown section of fractured rock. This affords some jug holds, and though overhung, is a bit easier to climb than the thin face below. Mounting the ledge to the left to reach the anchor involves pulling on a poor sidecling on the left from a good handhold. We did not climb it clean. P2 looks fearsome, but P3 is just amazingly blank. I gave it a good look on rappel and just grimmaced.
So if you have just done the Seal and you don't care to hike elsewhere, give it a go.
P2 addendum from Steve Annecone: The second pitch was very wild and exposed, and the bolts seemed adequate. Working up into the alcove above the belay, beware of loose rock and don't go too high before traversing out left. The moves working out left, out of the alcove and onto the steep face, were fun and wild and hard, maybe 11c.... I grabbed a jug and had to cut loose with both feet to get established onto the face. Pretty fun couple of pitches if you don't mind the approach (which is steep, occasionally loose, and long).
P3 addendum from Andy Donson: An excellent pitch only slightly marred an out of place bolt at the crux. Weave up the beautiful rippled face to a vague twin crack feature which trends slightly right. Where this ends make crux moves back left to a bucket (big throw) - this move is made extra exciting by the unclippable bolt out to the left. A few more hard moves to stand in the bucket and it's all over.
By Tim Stich From: Colorado Springs, Colorado Jun 6, 2004
Some of the hangers higher up on P1 are an older style Metolius that is just a bent piece of bar stock with a hole drilled in them. They are difficult if not impossible to insert more than one draw or quicklink into while you are hanging, so retreating will be very difficult. Press on.
Too bad you did not try the other pitches. While the first pitch is a bomb, the second is quite memorable. Not as hard as it looks, and as you pull the crux, you can see all of Boulder between your legs. Very short pitch with some loose sections, but very fun and quite the outing. The third pitch is fun if you like 13 slabs, and there is a hueco about half way that breaks up the lack of holds. Not a bomb route, but rather a fun adventure. It has been a few years since I have done this route, but still remember it fondly.
Tim, just curious, how is someone without a guidebook going to know how to get to this climb? Nothing in your description gives those details. I pity the fool that tries to find any route based solely on descriptions here, with the exception of new routes going up in Boulder Canyon like Plotinus Wall where the people posting have been thorough in their descriptions.
I can add a bit about the 1st and 2nd pitches, but haven't done the 3rd pitch. I thought the first pitch was nice and exciting, a bit runout lower down. The first 2 or 3 clips were sporty, then the pro improved. I didn't think the moves were as hard as shown in the Rossitter guide, maybe more like 11a. The second pitch was very wild and exposed, and the bolts seemed adequate. Working up into the alcove above the belay, beware of loose rock and don't go too high before traversing out left. The moves working out left, out of the alcove and onto the steep face, were fun and wild and hard, maybe 11c.... I grabbed a jug and had to cut loose with both feet to get established onto the face. Pretty fun couple of pitches if you don't mind the approach (which is steep, occasionally loose, and long).
Tim- despite your assertions to the contrary, it seems that you are way oversensitive. You post a route that you have not climbed, and then throw a fit when people call you on it. I guess that kind of stuff flies over at rc.com, which by the way, this is not.
Anyone who has done this route care to post a real route description?
Tim, I know what you might be thinking..."Man, all these people are coming down on me just for posting this route. Ok, maybe I didn't do the whole thing, but I said that in the description. But at least the route is in the database now. Better than nothing."
I have to agree with some of the other posters. If you haven't done, or even tried the route, then try and refrain from entering that route into the database. I could enter hundreds of routes that I have walked by or glanced at while rappelling down, But I don't have intimate knowledge of the route description and can't speak to its quality, so I don't post those routes. Over at RC.com there are thousands of routes with horrible descriptions, usually no description at all. I guess they expect someone will come in later and revise it. That doesn't happen very often. Moral of the story: try and do it right the first time or don't do it at all.
Andy is much too humble to get into this fray, and Pat is too busy teaching his son how big "big as the sky" really is. Better to leave it to one of the Boulder Canyon real-estate specialists to speculate on that which they will never know.
Pitch 1. as described above. OK with one tricky move right at the end. Pitch 2: as above. Flambouyant. Pitch 3: An excellent pitch only slightly marred an out of place bolt at the crux. Weave up the beautiful rippled face to a vague twin crack feature which trends slightly right. Where this ends make crux moves back left to a bucket (big throw) - this move is made extra exciting by the unclippable bolt out to the left. A few more hard moves to stand in the bucket and it's all over.
A good route to escape the heat but not the crowds - every time I've climbed on this wall there have been hordes of people rappeling down from the Sea of Joy anchors.
The AO rating refers to Rossiter's rest point - It's actually a pretty doable 13a, if you're wearing planks - a grade easier than Rainbow Wall.
Seal Rock
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