A strange and interesting climb, but not of great quality. The rock leaves something to be desired here, and so does the pro- or lack of it. This route is a tremendous sandbag at the formerly published 5.7 grade.
Both I and my partner laughed our butts off when we discovered that the weird, blind crux hold was in fact, a "piece of shit" as we passed it. Petrified or not, it was amusing to be dangling your weight from a polished pile of bird-crap.
Approach Via the 'express' trail to the North side of the First Pinnacle. Perhaps 8 meters to the right of the obvious "NE Chimney" route at the left edge of the !st Pinnacle, a strange line of features and pockets climbs up for 8 meters, bumps left and up (crux, decent pro = large cam in a pocket) past the 'pile' hold, and up and right, runout in odd grooves and face moves. Once on a good ledge, bump left and continue up to the summit on easier terrain, with some pro. You will encounter 2 modern bolts to belay on, just west of the true summit.
You can TR this with a top belay, or *perhaps* with a 70m rope.
Rap to the East from an old eye bolt with a 60m rope. (50 PROBABLY OK, have not tried it), or scramble off West and North.
Protection
A standard set of cams and nuts + some 2' slings to avoid drag. A few large pieces might be good, or some tied-off holes- large tricams might protect some funky pockets where I failed to get anything at all. NOT a good lead at your limit.
By Phil Lauffen From: Colorado Springs, CO Aug 22, 2008
I climbed this today, and was slightly repulsed and amused at grasping at a pile of bird crap for a hold. It was very solid, keep in mind. (Interesting question: what if an animal alters a climb in this way?). I went to the top and set up a TR by scrambling some fourth class terrain to the top and using about 20 foot runners. It worked well. I had a 60 meter rope and found that it was plenty long enough to reach the ground on the north side (though just barely if attached by single-length runners to the two hanger-bolts. Fun crux move followed by easy terrain.
The Amphitheater
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