Mississippi Half-Step 

Miss. Half Step can be done with one 60M rope...The second pitch (longest pitch) is exactly!!!!! 30M to the anchor from the starting moves. For the best protected first pitch option: start in the same place but traverse right at the horizontal to a steller finger crack instead of left. Going left (as mentioned above) is more demanding than the second pitch's crux section (pumpy gear placements).

On the second pitch, be aware that the small flake you pull on with your left hand before the pins is very loose! Also, the first pin sucks. The second pin is better and you can place a good, but hard to place, nut (non-RP) just above it. As noted in any guidebook, the crux is face climbing to the right of the pins. Climbing the seam straight up through the pins does go, at 5.12...One last note is to bring new slings/rings and a leaver med nut/hex to fix the manky anchor for the second pitch. Also bring a bolt kit and crow bar to replace the junk bolt anchor on the first pitch...

After climbing this awesome route give a go at Edge-of-Fright(5.11) to the right...The gear is actually good but expect some fiddling to set some of it! The moves are amazing and unrelenting! The scariest part is at the start. Then, continue toward the middle of three flared cracks. Very similar to the second pitch of Never a Dull Moment in Boulder Canyon, but 3 or so letter grades easier. Basically the same rack as for Mississippi with emphasis on sm-med wires and TCU's. Cheers...Alex

The third route in this trilogy is also very good. UpTown Toodleloo follows the line on the left arete. I did it a long time ago but I think we climbed the finger crack for the 1/2 step to the ledge, then traversed left on the ledge to get to Toodleloo.

Hey, lets not forget "Mr Mantle" 5.12a/b, the beautiful slab route on the rock right of the foremention routes. Classic "Platte" slab climbing with good protection at the crux and somewhat long runouts in between bolts. This section of the rock and the "Sunshine Wall" have some of the best routes in the South Platte area. It also enjoys the most sun in the winter than other areas in the Platte.

Did this last weekend and thought it was superb, and pretty safe for a South Platte route. The start is a thin crack with excellent 5.10 moves. We went left on the first pitch at the 2nd horizontal (the 1st horizontal looked devoid of pro and scary) which seemed like the way to go, and the pro was decent although a little pumpy to place. The crux there was turning the bulge at the end of the traverse (11c or d), but there's decent gear and a fixed pin right there.

The second pitch was even better, sustained finger jamming (11-) with occasional hands up to a pod, then a pretty hard facey crux section above that. Above the crux, there's a decent rest before heading into the final, overhung headwall, which is really more thin hands and fingers than hands. Fortunately, there are decent edges for the feet thoughout most of this final section, and the occasional thank god hand jam, I thought it was pretty sustained 10+ climbing up there.

Outstanding route overall! We had a 60m rope and wound up 10 feet short of the ledge when rapping the second pitch, which sucked since the downclimb wasn't trivial. Maybe a very stretchy rope or a heavier person might have made it all the way? Also, unfortunately, there's still a mank-fest of nasty slings at both anchors, especially the upper one. I regret not having brought new webbing. Fortunately, the nuts are quite good and it appears safe, it just takes quite a while to figure out what is tied to what in the big cluster of tat. And the last rap anchor is more deciferable, two bolts on a clean face although they appear to be very old 1/4-inch (?) bolts. Bring lots of nuts and finger and thin-hand sized cams.

The lower traverse on the first pitch actually protects quite well with a 0.5" horizontal cam and then bomber gear once you reach the left seam. After that, difficult to place RPs from funky stances leads to a semi-rest below the two pins at the bulge mentioned by Steve. The Trout guidebook calls the RP seam 11d, but we found the bulge with the pins to be the crux of the pitch. An awesome and somewhat heady pitch.The second pitch is even more classic!

Thanks for all the positive feed back on "The Mississippi Halfstep"!

Back in the early 80's Maurice Reed and I toped out on "Cynical Pinnacle" after an ascent of "Wunsch's Dihedral" and there it was "Poe Buttress"! It's awesome from that vantage point! After calling around, we weren't able to find out much about what was called "Poe Buttress", except that Peter Hubble had been looking at the line also.

We returned the next week with a pile of gear and gardening tools. Any thing new in the Platte had mega loose rock and was infested with nasty A.P.B.'s.

We scoped the line (with binos) and we discovered an old sling hanging from an old manky bolt/pin? (it was hardly worth clipping). The piece was a retreat sling from a prehistoric aid attempt. We found no other sign of climbing further up the face. I remember a completely loose pinnacle/spike that I had to climb through and not pull off or it would have killed my belayer! Maurice kicked it off as he was seconding the pitch.

Maurice lead the first pitch and I put up the second. The climb went up in a single day, entirely free except for placing fixed pins. In those days, we were all about style, and something that good, could not be tainted!

Maurice and I viewed that face as ours. We visualized it as a "Trilogy" and what a trilogy it is! Halfstep,Edge Of Fright,and Toodeloo, in the same day. Get there early! I would choose the easiest way to gain the 1st pitch belay ledge. Set up a comfy stance with belay chair/pad, a warm jacket,and plenty of food and water. You are going to be there a while. It's only four pitches but it makes for a full day. I did this with Peter Prandoni the day we put up "The Uptown Toodeloo". We did the second assent of "Edge of Fright" that day too.

Maurice moved away after we did the Halfstep. I grew complacent about the project figuring that I would wait for him to return.

My attention turned to other projects. One was "Bad Ju-Ju".
"Bad Ju-Ju" is a severely overhanging crack that Noel and Mike Bearzi(sp) had found and they weren't doing anything with. I guess that I was being an asshole when I told him that he had two weeks to climb it, or else I was going to. Long story short, Noel and I did "Bad Ju-Ju" two weeks later.

It wasn't long before I was informed that Noel and Rufus had climbed the crack on the right of Halfstep and called it "Edge of Fright". I didn't want to loose the crack on the left as well so I recruited Peter Prandoni and we did what we called "Uptown Toodeloo".
This completed the Poe Buttress "Trilogy".

I would like to acknowledge Rufus's lead on first assent of "Edge of Fright"! Prandoni and I did the second assent of Edge of Fright the same day we climbed the Toodeloo and Halfstep. We were armed with two complete sets of wired nuts and extra draws and biners. If my memory serves me well, we used most of that gear.

After speaking with Noel after their assent he told me that they barely had a full set of wires and some sizes were missing.
This means that Rufus had to climb some "sick" sections without the protection that a mortal man would need. "But, I have never heard of Rufus "Bam-Bam" Miller ever referred to as mortal!"

Onsight 1997. I remember a very difficult off hands jam at the crux.