P1- Climb up the dihedral past some bad rock, to a belay in a chimney. 5.10d about 100'
P2- Cut left out of the chimney on bolts to a hanging belay on the face. C1, 30' (Note that this pitch looked as if it would go free without too much trouble 5.11+?)
P3- Aid crux thin gear. 30' of manky rock to a splitter crack, that leads to another hanging belay. C2- 70' (Note that this pitch also looked as if it would go free, the crux of which would be the manky rock on dicey gear)
P4-Continue up the widening crack system to a belay. 5.10 or C1 70'
P5- Climb 20' of 5.9 to a thin crack in a tight dihedral, (loweballs make this go clean) Continue to a wide crack and fun climbing, drilled pins and an interesting mantel gets you to the summit. 5.9 C1 130' (Note that everything but the last 30' of this pitch will go free without to much trouble. The last 30' might go free with a variation out left instead of following the bolts out right.)
We short fixed pitch 2 thinking it was much longer then it was, I would combine pitches 1 and 2 in the future. We combined pitches 3 and 4 with no problems.
This route will likely go free at hard 5.12.
Location
To find Five Finger Discount, walk about a mile past the Liberty Cap cragging area up Ute Canyon, Safeway Spire is obvious. Start on the south-east face.
Protection
Double set of cams to #3 Camalot. #3.5, #4, #4.5, #5. Loweballs, stoppers, can't remember using tri-cams, Belay chair? NO PITONS AND HAMMER!
Add PhotoPhotos of Safeway Spire - Five Finger Discount
Aaron on the first pitch.
Ben on pitch 3.
Aaron jugging pitch 5.
BETA PHOTO: Bolt I pulled out with my finger tips on the rappe...
Add CommentComments on Safeway Spire - Five Finger Discount
Ben, I had a go at this 3 years ago but could not find the bolts/angles/bootied-angle-holes/whatever leading out left on the second pitch. We saw hardware higher up but nothing low enough to get us out of the chimney. We fixed a large hex and bailed.
Did you have to pendulum way out to find them or have they just been replaced since then?
The pins/bolts must have been replaced, because we had no trouble finding them. Aaron climbed the first pitch and fixed it, and then short fixed and was at the second belay by the time I had reached the first. There were some new bolts at the anchors (like the one pictured out of the rock), so maybe there were some bolts added to the beginning of the second pitch also. Sorry can't remember for sure.
Ben
By Airbiscuit From: grand junction, co Feb 26, 2007
No anchor there when we did it back in '98. Shame folks counldn't leave well enough alone and climb another 30 feet of bolt ladder. Instead of busting out the drill right away. Burns' memory must have been a little cloudy when he gave the topo to Eric. I really don't think there ever was a belay at the top of the chimney. Bryan, we did have a bit of trouble finding the bolt ladder as you. I recall we climbed to high in the chinmey and had to downclimb and then move over via some face moves.
Liberty Cap
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