This is the farthest left bolted route on the Ironsides. According to the Gillett guidebook, it was originally bolted as Gypsies in the Palace, which is the 5.8 section up to the first anchors. It was finished by a later party to the top of the wall. As with the other routes on this wall, the bolts are sparse, but where you need them. Bring 2 ropes or rap to the mid anchors, Approx 150 feet total.
The first "pitch" takes you up the low angled slab until the overlap. This is slightly run out 5.8. A few small pieces can be placed to relieve stress.
Pull up onto the hanging headwall on thin holds 5.10, and fire up through the crux (10c)on underclings and crimps (height helps). I climbed this prior to the guide book coming out, and recorded it in my notes as being a little harder.
Protection
12 bolts. You can tuck a few small pieces in the bottom section.
By Ken Heiser From: Boulder, CO Sep 27, 2004 rating: 5.11a
This is a really cool sequential face climb. I think someone used to 10c sport climbing in Dream, BC, CCC, etc would find this to be a big sandbag so I decided to go out on a limb a bit and rate this a bit higher at least for me. I am also positive that some holds are missing from when this was first put up that made the sequence by the third bolt (above the 2 bolt anchor on the 8) much thinner than it used to be. Also a green Alien in a horizontal crack can make getting to the first bolt feel a bit better.
All my opinion of course. I really like this short, super steep climb:)
Contrary to the guidebook, I found the hardest move to be moving past the first bolt on the 5.10 section of the wall. Perhaps some flake has come off from that area? Anyway, that one move might be harder than 10c.
10c seems fair by trad standards. We don't want to rate all areas by the (mostly) soft modern Boulder and Dream Canyon sport ratings. Do we? Much easier than Alloy Madness. Although the technical difficulty of the crux moves may be similar, the difficult climbing on Alloy Madness lasts for about 8 bolts vs 2 on Fire Widow.
The bolts on top are set back a bit from the face, so you probably don't want to TR or lower off using the rings. Rap to the ground with a 70m rope or (probably) to a ledge with a 60m and scramble off. Having the bolts set back seems annoying, but it may be a good way to reduce wear on the rings due to TR'ing or lowering.
Ironsides
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![Draws hung on 1st pitch [Gypsies In The Palace 5.8] & 2nd pitch [Fire Widow 5.10c]](http://www.mountainproject.com/images/85/4/105818504_small_f3d5e2.jpg)
