Woah! Another new route at Rifle. That makes, let me see ... 3 this year! The Silver Surfer climbs the long gray streak on the left side of the Hawaiian-Two-Foot Wall (between the Skull Cave and Lower Tier). The Hawaiian Two-Foot Wall gets the bests afternoon sun exposure in Rifle in the winter (12:30 p.m. till 4 p.m.). We climbed this route in T-shirts in December.
The Silver Surfer is a sustained Rifle "slab", reminiscent of Ivory Tower but with harder cruxes (one at the start, one at the top) and more sustained. The route is still a little crisp and dusty, but the rock and position are outstanding. I'll stick my neck out (OK, it's my route!) and say that with traffic it will become a classic.
What else? Take 15 quickdraws. Ha _ I told you it was long.
Protection
13 bolts plus anchors. There's two quickdraws on the anchors at the moment. I'll add a fixed lowering station soon. Beware: This route is long. Your belayer will have to scramble up a few feet for you to be able to lower on a 60 meter rope.
I climbed this route June 14th (2003) and have two comments:
(1) I?ve climbed several Rifle routes near this grade and The Silver Surfer is as good as any of them. This is an awesome and airy, four star route (albeit sharp) that?s more sustained and more vertical than Dave?s description (see above) may lead one to believe.
(2) After clipping the third bolt of the route (the second bolt above the large ledge that marks the onset of the climbing ?proper?), I broke off part of an undercling/sidepull flake and, thanks to a snug and attentive belay, bounced onto the end of my rope before contacting the ledge below. The following day, a climber pulled two or three briefcase size blocks off the top of this route (somewhere left of the final clip). There were five or so people (a.k.a. ?rock dodgers?) near the base of climb and somehow only minor injuries occurred. Whew........
So........ go climb this amazing line, but be careful to not wander overly far from the bolt line.......... and perhaps The Silver Surfer will get a more thorough cleaning sometime soon. If or when it does , I?d like to know about it because I?d like to climb The Silver Surfer again, and again, and again......
Lower Tier
RSS Feed
