Chris pulling over the crux on the Nine Lives Boul...
Description
Located on the seclusive Nine Lives boulder, the arete offers a great problem in an awesome location.
Beta: Left hand in a tiny pocket with a drop-knee starts the problem. Move through sharp pockets to a large left-hand pinch. Put-up a high right heel-hook and then reach for a decent slot (heel-hook is key for the static move, otherwise just launching to the slot is a ton of fun). Reach-up past the side-pull to a crimp, find feet and throw to the back of the bulge to find something to hold onto; work your toes-up and pull the mantle. Now you have another 20 feet of easy and exciting slab climbing.
Location
To find this boulder ignore the directions in the Colorado Bouldering guidebook. Approach is actually decent(compared to a lot of the other bouldering in the wood).
Park in the “West Trail Head” parking lot at the North Entrance (the one just south of the port-o-potty area) and take the trail that heads towards the river/mud-cliffs. This trail goes through some switch-backs and right after that you come to a fork in the road. Take the path on your right (heading south) for only 15-20 feet and you will notice a ravine heading towards the river. Follow this ravine down to the river and be mindful of the path you take as the erosion in this area is high. On the otherside of the river there is a fallen pine tree that is where you will climb out of the riverbed at onto flat ground. 50 yards past the tree the Nine Lives Boulder sits in all of its glory. Of course you can always take the bush-whacking route and start at the falls area river crossing and head north for a while staying near the cliffs.
Protection
Landing is flat, however the crux is high. Several pads are useful and a spotter once you get to the crux area.
This is a stunning problem with fun movement but nowhere near V5. I cringe at my own grade squabbling, but compared to V5s in the rest of the Front Range it is considerably easier. As the submitter stated above be vary mindful of erosion and human impact while finding this boulder, it is a gem but really hard to locate. It might be best to have someone who has been to the problem before show you the way to minimize the disturbance.
The original rating in Colorado Bouldering had it at V5 which is what I inputted for the problem here. However it appears that it is more in the V3/4 range from everyone I have ever been with and I think the original rating may be related to not knowing about some of the hidden beta on the climb.
There is also another real nice variation to the climb that starts the same but instead of going to the slot with your right hand there is a hidden right side-pull just below the slot. You then go to the slot with your left hand and rock around to the right-side of the boulder.
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