Skylight 

I think I did this climb back in '94, the thing that confuses me was there was WAY more ice than in either of these photos, no mixed climbing at all. Just a good year, I guess.

I did this thing back in the mid '80s and there was no exposed rock at all. The first pitch was kinda party ice and I was happy to follow it. The chimney lead was really fun, felt solid WI 3 (at least that's what it was rated at the time) and I placed six long solid screws (ahem) in 120 feet. It was really drippy though; for a while I didn't know if I was going to drown or freeze! I wound up nearly doing both. My partner wore glasses and couldn't hardly see what he was doing. We did a third pitch up a short, blue headwall to reach a rappel anchor. Over all, it was a good climb. I'd do it again if it were in similarly good condition.

Awesome climb! Finally finished it. Done the 1st pitch 3X, 2nd 2 X, 3rd 1X. Yeah, the conditions can be very different. Some fleshed out details if you want:

For safety, I do not recommend anyone climbing below another party on this climb! I nearly took out friends playing on the P1 while up in the chimney.

P1 can be harder mixed moves with rock pro or spectres on the L side of the boulder or fat ice (see Bruce below). Save a screw for a directional above the boulder if you belay at the tree to the R. 90 ft rap to the ground from this tree. You can belay here to continue or move the belay to just outside the chimney. You can't reach the top anchor above the chimney with a 60m rope belaying at the tree.

If you move the belay, a red Camalot, yellow TCU or yellow Alien, and medium wire work for an anchor just outside the chimney. Just stay out of the way of ice bombs from the chimney.

P2 can be short with a belay in the chimney. Fun stems in this part. It can be very chandeliered on this pitch. There is a pin, sling, frozen in anchor about 2/5 the way up the pitch. It is actually very protected from ice from above with room for 3 at least. But it is cold in there.

P3 is visually intimidating, but you get awesome rests quite frequently, at least in fat conditions like we found. There were many no hands rests to place screws. There is a choice to go in further (caving) or move out at one point. I moved in. The ice peters out at the top. Save a 13 cm stubby for just below exiting the chimney. There are some dry tool & crampons moves to exit. Not much pro after leaving the last stubby. Crux felt M4+ to me IMHO. Mostly WI4 or less.

There is an anchor with 2 good horizontal pins just 30 feet below the trees on top. It needs a link and probably a retying of the slings to equalize the pull. There is a wee bit of WI3 ice to top out. You can rap 190 feet from these pins to outside the chimney. Ropes pulled easily. You can't reach the tree with 60m ropes.

FA was Kevin Donald, Jeff Lowe, David Breashears. winter 74/75 We were testing early prototypes of Humming Bird ice tools that Greg Lowe had made for us and a new fabric called Gortex that Greg and Mike Lowe were sewing-up. We really enjoyed the climb and figured it to be an easier classic. Best Kevin Donald

I believe the first ascent of this lovely moderate route was by Kevin Donald, Jeff Lowe and David Breashears in '75. We were in Ouray scouting for routes for our International Alpine School Students. We climbed a number of short routes on the Camp Bird road as well as Gravity's Rainbow on the Engineer Pass road. On the first ascent the ice on the first pitch (Kevin's pitch) was so thick you could not even detect the large boulder at the top. We called the belay cave half-way up the chimney "the glove compartment" Really a nice easy climb when we did it.

For all you non-locals, there is a bolt anchor about 20-25 ft above the boulder crux on pitch 1 on the left wall of the rock buried in snow, that has 'been there for years' revealed to us by a friendly lad. Thanks to our knight with shining armour!

Please do not rappel this route when other climbers are on it. It's not cool to rap on top of other people in general, but on the Skylight it's particularly bad: the top of the climb is covered in rotten ice that gets funneled down onto climbers in the chimney. From the top, you can't see or hear the people below.

To descend, you can walk climber's left and rappel Choppo's Chimney or walk off far left.

On second thought, I think the route I have done is Choppo's Chimney. No wonder it didn't look familiar.

The plan that I've found to work best is to climb P1 all the way to the entrance to the chimney and then step right to the nice sunny snow shelf there in front of the headwall. There is a big ole hueco that turns into an awesome belay w/ a #4 and #3.5 (old style) Camalot. This allows you to go all the way to the trees in one rope stretching 60m pitch (might want to use a few long draws/slings on the first few screws). This keeps the belayer warm and completely out of harms way so more fun for all!

The bolt anchor at the top of the chockstone on P1 is one of the dumber things I've seen, and I sure would not shed a tear if someone removed that unnecessary metal from the rock. I'm guessing its only purpose is to allow some mis*guide*d souls to haul gumbies through the mixed section?

A terriffic route that ought not to be missed.