Hanging Garden is a nice route of moderate difficulty. It has a little bit of loose rock on it. Nothing to worry about too much.
Pitch 1 - Head straight up from the tree on the ledge. Work your way up an arete, changing sides. Jog sharply to the left to the anchor.
Pitch 2 - Wander straight up to anchors.
Protection
Mostly quickdraws with the addition of a few stoppers could make a nice rack for this route. To get off the route you do 2 single rope rappels or 1 200' rappel.
By Julian Smith From: Colorado Springs, CO May 12, 2002
Actually, I got it backwards. The anchors for the first pitch are straight up. On the second pitch, go up then sharply left. Continue angling up to the left to reach the anchors on a loose ledge, at the top of the second pitch. Each anchor consists of two bolts, one with a chain and one with a quicklink.
I did the first ascent of this route with Martha Morris over a couple days in May of 1999. It did require a bit of cleaning in a few spots. An old 1960s route climbed up the rotten corner to the left of pitch 1 and right of pitch 2. I pulled most of the old pins out and put the route on the cleaner faces. I recommend this as one of the best longer beginner routes in the Pikes Peak region...with easy access, good pro, fun climbing, and some exposure on the upper part. I did toprope and partially bolt a pitch 3 on the steep headwall above belay 2. It goes about .10a but still needs some bolts. Bring a rack of medium stoppers for the first pitch as it has only bolts.
We did this route last summer. The main difficulty was finding the start of the climb. I studied the cliffs for quite a while from the parking lot while comparing with Stewart Green's guide, found here:
Once we found it, the route was a lot of fun. Very well-protected, Stewart! Pitch 2 was especially enjoyable.
The only drag was dealing with a stuck rope...and prusik looping 200 feet back up...
By Erik Tullberg From: Colorado Springs Jun 22, 2008
Nathan and I did this route about a month ago. Watch out for the HUGE fire ant farm at the base. We set a belay about 10' up just to avoid the ants. I rated it 3 stars for the view - canyon view plus the city to the northeast. Well worth the climb. If you want something a tad harder, there's a 5.9 just to the left that uses the same 2nd pitch top anchors. We thought about going up to the 3rd pitch, but were unsure what we'd find since it appears to be a work in progress.
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