BETA PHOTO: The yellow line is the approximate location of the...
Description
This is as close to doing Half Dome, without the cables, as we can get in the Denver area. Climbers where bagging hard summits at Chair Rocks in the 1950s, so I think Sheep Rock was probably summited in that decade.
From the "upper saddle" a finger crack diagonals up the easy slab. A rappel is normally done to descend.
This is a terrific crack at the grade (5.1, yikes, I think I called it 5.5 or so in my notes). Linking up Fractured Fairytales to Acid Crack to the summit of the Helen's Dome massif is the ultimate date climb with somebody who is just beginning to climb.
Probably most insecure move is the first 8 feet starting off the ground. After that, solid jams in diagonalling splitter crack. Takes larger stoppers. A few hand sized cams work higher too. At some point, you step right and switch cracks, and follow this until you pass a quarter-inch bolt, signaling your rope is about out, the crack dies out and you belay with finger size pieces OR sneak right to a two bolt anchor of the bolted route. From this point, you can walk up the summit slab.
I think of this route as kind of a low-angled Charley Don't Surf.
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