Sweet Colorado ice climb. A bit of scrambling to a bench/alcove that will protect belayer. Climb steep and a bit long waterfall ice. Protect with rock pro and ice screws. Top out into trees. Brilliant, a must do.
Protection
Small/medium nuts & SLCDs, ice screws, runners and draws, half (double) ropes will do, slung tree of rappel.
I'm not sure what Joey T meant by the comment "half ropes will do ". The pitch is fairly long and requires 2 60 meter ropes for the rap (50 meters might make it to the low angle snow). A good belay can be set off to the right side of the icefall on a sunny bench. There are a couple pockets there that will take a #1 Camalot and a yellow Alien. Be sure to set the belay well to the right. Under the conditions we did it (2-4-03) no rock gear needs to be taken by the leader. The lead is solid WI4 and currently similar to the Rigid Designator in difficulty.
This route was first climbed in '75 or '76 and was named for Choppo (my nick name for Charlie Fowler) who was just learning to ice climb at the time. He learned really fast ! This was one of his first leads if I remember correctly. Best Kevin Donald
Topping out can be hairy on this one. Rap bolts on block behind Evergreen tree. It's precarious, I know it's hard, but the little tree is getting trashed from crampons.
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