The Nose / Idiot Wind Variation 

Some extra advice for the Nose (sorry, I just can't keep my yap shut, but this really could help I think): P1-if taking the (excellent) right hand crack, have at least a #3 Camalot, and maybe a #4--also, twice, I've done this in 2 pitches (very long as one). P2-a beautiful variation splits right at the top of the first corner, heads up a splitter crack, and then does an exciting foot traverse left to the belay (5.9). P3-almost everyone I know does it in 2 pitches. Very tricky pro, but a safe fall line, except for the 5.8 runout (I know from experience!...)

Idiot Wind:

Combine pitch 3 (.10c) and pitch 4 (.9).

This eliminnates the manky belay (look for a small tri-cam placement before the station) and allows you to climb the route faster. Double ropes help eliminate drag.

Don't waste time looking for pro on the bolted face. The bolts are old but there are several. The exposure here is simply awesome. Enjoy it!

Bring comfy shoes for the descent.

This particular one I haven't done, though that descent trail is more than familiar. Barefoot is the only way. Ok maybe not the only, just that the trail isn't really all that bad.

Some comments about the Nose:

P1 We did 100ft of 5.6ish rock on the right and belayed below and to the right of the obvious rf dihedral with the wider crack. P2 Used a 3 Camalot and a 4 Friend on the layback crack. I did some squeezing, laybacking, some ow, and some fist to get through it. I slid the 4 Friend up a couple times. A group coming up behind us on Idiot Wind linked the first two pitches on the left and raved about it. P3 The 5.9 crack on the right is really nice, but too short. Call it 9-. The face moves back left are the hardest part, I think. P4 Climb up to the roof, go left, then up to a small ledge. Belay here for rope drag reasons. P5 The crux pitch - go up the corner to the crack shooting up to the left (the first one). There was no fixed wire here 8/01 - but I got bomber hand sized cams at my feet and a decent RP and 00 TCU at head level. Head left, then up, call it tenuous 5.10. Follow the crack up about 25 feet or so to some jugs, this is where you head back right. I wanted to head right too early, but it was harder than 5.8. Belay at a bolt and piton, backed up with nuts. P6 is probably the best of the climb - skirt the roof on the right and follow the crack system to a sloping ledge. P7 Head left on no pro 4th class, then back right on the big ledge system. P8 I climbed 5.6 rock up an obvious crack/flake, then headed straight up the easy face (no pro) for 120 feet or so to the summit.

Re: Idiot Wind . highly recommended. I personally think the difficulties of the crux pitch and the 5.9 face pitch are about the same - 5.10b, and a bit run out. Recommend the 5.10 corner finish after the .9 face. We useed a 60m rope and ran the crux/face together without much rope drag. enjoy. A great route.climbed 8/19/01 Bert Honea

For an easier descent:

When one reaches the large, slabby terrace that is about 80 feet or so above the upper roof, scramble to its eastern terminous and look for rap slings, which are a bit hidden. Rap 165 feet to broken ledges and do some careful scrambling to get to a second 60 foot rap, and then another 160 foot rappel.

These raps deposit one very near the bottom of The Nose, so one will only have to hike down a trail for a minimal distance to get back to the base. Also, it is much quicker and safer to take this option than to climb the last two 5.6 pitches to the top and then down climb the steep 4th class off the summit - especially when a typical Lumpy storm is rolling in! I wish I would have known this when I did the route.

Just a couple of comments on this route.

Pitches 3 and 5 (crux 5.10 if you split the 4th pitch in two) and 7 (called 4th class in Rossiter topo, more like 5.4) have some serious run outs.

On pitch 6 (5 according to Rossiter) after you turn the bulge, you start climbing the left crack and eventually traverse to the right crack when the left one petters out (8+). If you traverse too early you will be faced with a 5.9 OW that narrows to thin fingers...

We did the rappel descent and had no problems finding the anchors. The so called 3rd/4th class scramble after the first rappel was more like 5.6...

WT

One comment on the 5.8 runout above the 5.10 crux: it's really scary. I have done it two ways. First, wander up an incipient crack, place a cam, then go up about 20 feet on thin sloping holds to a sloping ledge. traverse right into a shallow dihedral and an old bolt and pin anchor will be at foothold height. Second, you can traverse right from a sloping ledge above the cam but the holds are smaller and the shallow dihedral is hard to protect. Either way, this section seems worse than the crux which has nice but thin pro.

If doing the rappel decent, bring replacement webbing. Most was well weathered (7/12/02). I found it easy to access each rappel, one 70m works.

This is a great route. The only reason I give it 2 instead of 3 is because of the non-sustained nature of the climb, the crappy 1st pitch, and the sorta loose quartzy stuff on the pitch after the crux. I did not do the Idiot Wind variation.

Replacing old bolts on Idiot Wind/ adding a rap station on the big ledge and the top of Icarus: (Please email me or call for comment qualitylighting@hotmail.com or 970-267-8685, ask for Charlie.

I am trying to contact the first ascentionist. However they are not on this site nor can I find an individual site for them, no luck so far. I am hoping the replacement of bad existing bolts will not be a problem on Idiot Wind. The real additions to the cliff would be two rap stations that get you from the big ledge to the ground. The middle station is the existing station below the 5.10A roof on Idiot Wind that is presently existing. The bottom of the three stations would be located at the top of the Icarus pitch which is presently a natural pro belay station. The upper station would be at the top of Idiot Wind on the big ledgewere many routes end. With the advent of these stations there would be an easy way to get back to the ground. If I only added the station on top of Icarus, it would afford an escape from the station under the 5.10A roof on Idiot Wind. The 5.10B pitch before this station goes up over a roof and then takes a steep left climbing pattern for the rest of the pitch, making it almost impossible to retreat if weather comes in. I spent a few hours last weekend at this station in a deluge, and had to pull the 5.10A roof in the rain. With the addition of the Icarus station, we could have been out of the rain and lightening in two easy raps.

Please reply too this issue. Again thanks, and I am treating this issue with kid gloves. I am trying to reach all that I can. The last thing I want is to have a "Wanted Poster" posted in rock and Ice and the Climbingboulder site. I will keep seeking the orginal ascentionist. Any help would be appreciated. If I do not hear from anyone in two weeks, I will start this project.

Hey Charlie,

Replacing old bolts is fine. But, with all due respect, please do not install the rap station bolts you're suggesting. I agree that it is a bummer to be caught in the rain and lightning, yet that is a risk we all assume when we leave the ground. Adding the rap stations reduces the commitment for one and all. And that is contrary to the Lumpy experience. Climbing on Lumpy Ridge requires more chutzpah than most single pitch / crag-type areas. Let's keep it that way. The first ascentionists and Lord knows how many subsequent parties over the years have not felt a compelling need to add rap/belay bolts. I don't feel you have presented a compelling need either.

My guess is that if you and your partner wanted off you could have rigged anchors with your own gear and headed down, lickity-split. I'm not suggesting you would have liked that but if a very intense storm were ripping through, you would have found a way to get down.

It was good of you to go public and encourage comment before wielding the hammer.

Replacing crappy quarter inch bolts is a no brainer in my book. I fully commend and appreciate your efforts to update the route.

However, I'm opposed to adding a bolted rappel route. I have climbed the Nose route twice and the first time we were caught a few pitches from the top as the afternoon thundershowers moved in. We raced to the top to be greeted by lightning strikes and a wicked down pour. It was wild and scary. This happens to me at least 50% of the time I climb at Lumpy and sometimes I'm lucky enough to have completed the route before it lets loose.This is never a surprise and part of the adventure of climbing at Lumpy. An easy retreat would diminish the commitment. The climbing at Lumpy feels like alpine climbing rather than cragging to me, so I always get up early, bring warm clothes, climb fast and mentally prepare myself to part with my rack if necessary.

If you can justify adding a rappel route to hasten stormy descents to this route, why not add rappel routes to the hundreds of classic routes where people might get caught in an afternoon storm? To me that's not what Lumpy is about.

Replace bolts: yes, great idea.

New rap anchors: not in the tradition of Lumpy climbing. Tough luck on the weather, but you could have left a few stoppers if you had to bail. I suspect that new bolted anchors will get chopped.

Hey Bosch Cassidy...

I think fixed raps are a bad idea, the CMS has quitely been adding convienence anchors here and there, and they definitely diminish from the original character of the routes they bastardize.

Do whatever...some peoples chisels are sharper than their wit though.

Please leave Lumpy alone! It still has some flavor and the supertopo fixed anchor crap will only change what isn't broken.

Don't you people know it usually rains regularly on lumpy? I've been caught numerous times with only shorts and no rope up there, just wait 20 minutes and then the weather is usually more splitter than before. Worst case you are a paltry 5 pitches up and rapping in the rain... can you dig it?

The comforts of Ed's Cantina are still no more than 30 minutes away.

Many places more alpine and wild than Lumpy have routes w/ bolted/fixed belays on each pitch, e.g., some routes on the Diamond, many routes on El Cap, and several other random routes in the Park. Having said that - Lumpy still seems to be one of the last areas to go down this path of bolted belays. IMP it should stay that way, sans bolted belays. Definitely replace those __ bolts though. Not sure why CMS is quietly bolting the belays on many on the Classics, i.e., Fat City?

Charlie, I'd echo what everyone else has said so far (and thanks for taking this to a forum before whipping out the drill!). There is not one multi-pitch route, traditional route at Lumpy that has its own rappel route. I've been climbing at Lumpy for a long time, I've climbed there more than I have anywhere else, and that's one of the things I love about it. I've retreated off the Nose in a storm, and I've raced a storm to the top, up the Nose. Sundance in particular still retains an fairly untamed feel, in large part due to the lack of sport climbs and proliferation of fixed bolted anchors and rap routes. I like doing those routes in shorts and a T-shirt, knowing that it's not possible for me just to zip on down when the storms come in, as they often do. It requires a measure of commitment, and forces me to rely on what judgment and skill I have. You're always welcome to wear a pack, carry some extra clothes and prepare yourself to wait it out, but don't change the nature of these route for everyone. It's virtually always possible to retreat if you're willing to leave gear, too--that's part of the game when you're climbing at Lumpy.

I'm also confused about where you want to put these acnhors. I can't see any benefit to intstalling a bolt anchor on the big ledge where Turnkorner, Idiot Wind, the Nose, etc. meet. It's about one pitch of 5.6 to the top from there, and there is a rap route off to the side already--2 raps on natural anchors I believe, though I've never done it.

On a related note, I wonder whether these nice bolted rap routes are ultimately safer. As an example, about 6 months after I started leading, I twice went up to climb the Diamond in late September. Both times, conditions and the weather report were dubious, but we headed up to Broadway anyhow, knowing we could just zip down Crack of Delight if things got nasty. In both cases, things did get nasty (first time, lots of falling ice from the chimneys on top of the wall, second time, complete white-out), and we would have been much better off if we had never gone up to Broadway in the first place. Which we *never* would have done in those questionable conditions had we known our only escape route would have been the North Chimney! Food for thought.

Climbed The Nose last Saturday 9/27/03 under stellar fall conditions. No weather to speak of but sun and a mild breeze. For replacing existing bolts I'm all for it, on the third belay which has two old ones, albiet there is a good crack there for natural pro. You could rappel from here to get off in weather and it would make it safe to be on new steel instead of an old buttonhead, and 1/4 in. spinner. The belay above has a new bolt so why not the one below ??Also on the second crux roof do not be fooled into the upper roof where there is two fixed nuts, avoid them and continue up the lower roof. You will know which roof it is, as you will never forget the first roof with it's great exposure, and the second is the first one you encounter after ascending the crack. Great route with some unforgettable pitches of climbing. If you plan to rap off the North side of the rock, bring two ropes, or continue up to the summit and walk off with a one rope rap.

The belay station after the crux traverse has been updated with 2 new 3/8'' bolts, noticed this after an ascent on 01-02-05, but I think they were replaced last fall. I think it now works best to combine pitches 4 and 5 as one, then an easy scramble to the rap ledge.

Idiot Wind and The Nose are each awesome routes, and I would encourage anyone to do both, without trying to somehow get the best of each one by doing some sort of combination. Obviously they do share a pitch, one that is so good you won't mind doing it twice.

Idiot Wind: 4 stars
Nose: 3 stars

Great Route (The Nose). After doing the 4th pitch, (I would advise breaking 4 into two pitches for rope drag reasons), the runout 8 feels really solid and casual. Overall 5.10a; relax on the 9+ leftward traverse above the roof, commit and pull through. It's all there.

The Nose and Idiot Wind are actually two separate routes that share part of pitch 3. The first two pitches of Idiot Wind are not described here but are worth doing.

The first pitch of Idiot Wind follows a crack 100' left of the start of the Nose which does not reach the ground. Climb a thin crack and then face climb up and right to reach the base of the main crack (runout 5.9, which is why the start is not often done, I guess). Then climb the surprisingly awkward crack to a belay. The second pitch is only about 60 feet long, 5.7ish and lies just left of the second pitch of the Nose. The crux is a slanting crack which leads back right to the bolted belay. These two pitches could be combined with a 70m rope, a 60m might make it too.