After several attempts to find this route I was lucky enough to run into Stewart Green at Shelf Road. He emailed me some directions to it (thanks Stewart!). The Martyr has been described as some of the best 300 feet of crack climbing in Colorado. The route was much different than I thought it would be. I expected the rounded lip cracks that are generally found in the Platte. The cracks on The Martyr are square lipped and pretty damn steep. They kind of reminded me more of the desert than Turkey or Cynical Pinnacle. The climbing is super, the gear is plentiful, and the views are hard to beat. It is north facing and offers beloved shade when the rest of the world is frying.
To find The Martyr, drive approximately 13 miles west from the Broadmoor Hotel on the Old Stage Road to the St. Peter's Overlook. There will be a small dirt pulloff parking lot on the right hand (north) side of the road that overlooks the city. There are several very large boulders in this parking lot area. Note that the classic climbs volume 4 Pike's Peak area lists this as being approximately 18 miles. This has definitely lead a fair amount of people on wild goose chases.
Park at this pulloff. Facing the city, turn your head to the left approximately 90 degrees and you will see a steep tree covered ridge a couple hundred yards away. Start hiking straight up the side of the ridge, aiming for slightly right of the highest point. There is kind of a trail that goes straight (and I mean STRAIGHT) up the hillside, but don't worry too much about finding it. When you get to the top of the ridge, look over the other side and you will see some rock on the left. There is kind of a little cliff band that extends for a couple hundred yards. this is the sanctum. If you follow this cliffband with your eyes and keep looking to the right, this eventually merges into the top of the backside of the Aiguille de St. Peter. Below you the trees will fade into a large random talus field after a couple hundred feet. Just start heading down (minor bushwhacking might be involved) and you can't miss this talus field. Boulder hop down and after a couple hundred yards you can bear left along the base of the east face of the Aiguille until you can cut left at the base of the north face. The Martyr is RIGHT HERE.
The first pitch of this line is very striking and you will know when you see it. Look above and there will be a left facing corner with a finger crack in the back. On the left face there are also a pair of perfect finger cracks, capped by a small roof above.
Pitch 1 - Clamber up the initial blocks to get to the base of the finger cracks. Jam any or all of these beauties and head towards the roof, passing an antique piton. Instinctively, you will probably want to pull the roof on the right side. I haven't done this variation, but it looked like there might be a few troublesome flakes. Instead of going right, step left into a nice thin hands to hands crack. Follow this until you can pull around the arete on your left and over the roof into a flake undercling. These are some fantastic moves. Surmount the flake and rail up a sweet hand crack. Be sure to keep looking to the right for a decent place to belay. It will be very tempting to go up to a ledge on the left with a GORGEOUS thin crack system above. Instead of doing this, climb upwards until you see a very large ledge on your right hand side. Belay some where in this area.
To get to the base of pitch 2, belay your partner as he/she steps to the right onto the big ledge. This involves a weird step across with a large pillar trying to throw you off. Highly entertaining.
Pitch 2 - There are several options here, each of which looks like fun.
A) On the left side of this face above the ledge is a gorgeous lightning bolt crack that tears upward into a crazy looking offwidth right on the upper arete. Where it goes from there I am not sure. Or, just below the offwidth you can trend right on a ramp to a stunning lichen yellow corner.
B) Face climb straight up on large edges and flakes with big moves. nice and steep. There is an old pin driven down behind a flake about 15' up that is hidden from below. You can then head towards the offwidth or bust right on the ramp system to the corner.
C) From a pair of bolts on the right side of the ledge, head up a dirty looking dihedral. This actually climbs much better than it looks. Great Eldo-esque stemming past an ancient pin will get you up to the ramp system and the yellow corner.
From the base of this yellow corner, jam and stem with perfect hands until you can rock over onto a ledge. This section is steep and classic. After you have achieved the ledge, either step left and up the crack, or climb the crack straight above you (be careful for a couple scary flakes!). Pull a small weird boulder and you are on the summit.
The descent is pretty crummy. If you are brave you can do the small downclimb off of the backside of the summit. otherwise, bring some webbing so you can sling a block and rap off. We followed the gully down the west side of the formation and then traversed over to our stuff at the base of the route. This involved bushwhacking and mangy rubble. Use caution. Perhaps Julian Smith can suggest a better descent.
Protection
Standard rack to #3 Camalot/3.5 Friend. Bring extra small hands to hands pieces. If you are doing the offwidth above 2nd pitch then #4.5 Camalot of #5 Camalot might be useful.
I have mixed feeling having this area [illusrated] on climbingboulder.com. [I] have climbed this area a number of times. The area is in the spirit of adventure climbing. The area is pristine and deserves a senstive [treatment]. I hope that the inclusion does not diminish the value of the area at all.
I have to agree with Dan. While I have never personally taken the opportunity to climb this reportedly amazing [crag], I have known about it for a while and have also known it to be widely considered one of the more "hush hush" rocks in the Pikes Peak region. I'm not opposed to posting non-guidebook [crags] in principle, but it would be a sad day indeed to see Garden of the Gods-style hordes show up on Old Stage. There are several of these lesser-known areas within several hours of Colorado Springs, and for my money, I'd just as soon see them remain word-of-mouth only. Just one [opinion], no disrespect intended.
For the descent, just downclimb the back of the summit tower. It's no harder than 5.4 at most, and if you can climb the route, the downclimb is a joke. Then just hike straight down the hill to the base (if you left gear) or straight up the hill back to the trail above the Sanctum.
Take option (A) on the second pitch to the yellow corner. The downclimb has just one sketchy move which, although only 5.4, would have fatal consequences if you slipped.Don't let the comments here sandbag you into thinking that you're a wimp if you want to rap off.. If you feel the least bit uncomfortable, add 5 minutes to the descent and drop a rope.The post-climb beers always taste better when you're alive.
It's unlikely that the Garden traffic will ever be seen here, although there are some interesting points raised above. I think there's a balance to be struck on these crags - you can acknowledge their existence while preserving the adventure. I have come full circle on this, and wish to thank Bob for publishing this (and some other very good routes not found on this site) in his Garden guidebook. I suspect he got some flak for even naming the routes, although his directions were purposefully ambiguous, vague, and in some cases completely incorrect. It's been an adventure just tracking them down.
4.5 stars
The rating is right on. You can add some mid-5.10 at various places if you so desire.
Just for the record, I wasn't trying to sandbag anyone. Just pointing out that I found the downclimb very comfortable. If a rap seems preferable, by all means break out the rope.
while i can understand the concerns regarding [St Peter's Dome] becoming the next [Sport Park], i am surprised that people think of this as an unpublished area. i can think of 5 publications immediately that give general directions to it ([Climb, Climb II, Vertigo Games, Rock'n'road, Bob D'Antonio's Pikes Peak] guide) and several others that mention its existence. when i climbed there last summer i found discarded powerbar wrappers, tape, and chalk caked all over the cracks. i don't mean to start an argument or anything, but if you think that [St Peter's Dome] is an obscure crag you need to get out and explore more.
Instead of descending to the base of the climb directly, it is easy enough with a 70m to set an anchor on top of the climb and do two raps directly to the base - just barely. Each rap is a stretcher for a 70m rope (set your anchor as low as possible on the top of the tower with nuts). The walk from the base of the Martyr to Pearly Gates is much better done from on top and down - it's a grunt from below. And no, a single 70m rap won't put you at the start of Pearly Gates from the top. Unfortunately. Stellar, both.
I know that this is a hush-hush area, but for those who are interested, and haven't found the route yet. I've made a small topo map(from Topo Scout) of how to get to the base of the route. email me at myarros@hotmail.com and I'll send it to you. Keep in mind that just getting to the base of the route is a tough hike. This place isn't for those looking for routes right off the road :)
So many stars... A true gem. This is the one route I miss most in Colorado since I moved away - even living near Yosemite hasn't made me stop missing this one. I thought of this climb the first time I climbed Lunatic Fringe - that's how much I love it. Great personal value to me.
After the wild step across, on top of pitch 1, try one of the airier variations. The corner is good climbing, no doubt - but staying out near the arete is better. (We always did the 'step' as a grunter mantle, lol).
One warning: it's hard to spot weather before it's right on top of you. A rogue summer hail storm caught us one day... hello hypothermia!
Fantastic Climb! I don't know if I would call it the best 300' of crack climbing in Colorado, but it is good. The grade is right on, and fairly steep for 5.9, amazing exposure as well.
Note: Go left as soon as you clip the first piton, moving out of the dihedral, this will put you up on some beautiful cracks. The dihedral looks pretty good, but not as good as the others out to the left. Climbing right off the belay through the yellow corner is fun, but it's real easy to find yourself on some 10 before you know it.
On the descent no need to take out your whole rope, just take a coredellete and you can sling it around a part of the boulder you downclimb, hold on to it as an extra hold and lower yourself...seriously decreases the fear factor.
By Brandon Schirm From: colorado springs, co Oct 1, 2007
Wow, I did this climb on top rope on 9-23-2007 and had to go back for my first trad lead the next weekend. Stellar route. It has everything, on the last pitch traverse right to a ledge then up a crack to a big roof pull it on two jugs then finish up to the top. What a great climb. It eats gear up and is very safe (until the downclimb, watch out).
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