P3. From the tight ledge, continue up to the left-leaning, left-facing corner. Make a rising traverse left. Try to stay low on the traversing moves and watch for drag. there are many bolts on this pitch (like 22 or so), as the pitch is almost a full 200'. Exposed hanging belay.
P4. work up to the corner, and make a committing step around. Slightly crumbly rock here. Steep face moves follow as well as a few anchor bolts. Although ... stretch the pitch to the top.
Protection
You will need as many as 23 draws for the long pitch 3. Two ropes for rap.
I just did this yesterday; brought 15 draws and used 10 on the 23 clip (3rd) pitch. The idea of 23 bolts suggested that it was going to be way desperate, but it wasn't. The pitch is continuous but well featured for the grade. I belayed at the first belay station (3 bolts)at the top of the crux dihedral, after the overlap. I would recommend that one if you want to watch the action. There is another one up from there (that you can't see) which is skipped on the way to the top. Anyhow, the strategy to carry a smaller rack was simple in this case. I simply clipped most of the bolts as I got to them, evaluated the placement and reached down and unclipped the last one. Yes, they are that close. So in the end, I had draws on not quite every other bolt. Still well protected by most standards but who has that many draws anyhow?
What is the story of all the extra holes between or near many of the placements? At first I thought they were for hooking, but they were way too deep and often not perpendicular to the rock.
By John McNamee Administrator From: Littleton, CO Jul 26, 2008
Like Knossos this is a fun climb and definitely worth the effort to get there.
We climbed a slightly different line which shows on an old topo. Rather than climbing the first two pitches of Knossos, we climbed an independent line which started about 100 feet to the left at the base of a small gully, next to Riders in the Sky. I think this is the original line.
I'll try to scan the topos up to the site when I have time.
Land that Time Forgot
RSS Feed
