Classic Dihedral 

This is a nice and safe route - a true 5.fun. This is also not a bad route to rope solo. To do this, scramble the slabby start to the base of the dihedral and set your anchor there. I think I used a 1 Friend and a 1.5 Friend. This route eats passive gear, but bring some cams in the 3 to 4 Friend range for sure. Any less-than-vertical crack that is friendly to passive gear should sound some alarm bells in your head before you pull your ropes after the rappel.

Totally classic! Can (will) be crowded on weekends, but, definately worth doing. This climb makes a good first lead climb for a lot of people...good practice climbing with and above gear. IMO, this would be a challenging first trad lead, but, definately good for that. Also, there is a whoping 20 foot approach!

Another name for this route is the "Classic Dihedral" (for obvious reasons). Great route that normally has a waiting line on any given summer weekend.

It might be a good idea to bring a large cam for the top of the first pitch, such as a #4 Camalot.

Mr. Shane Zentner introduced this area to me. The Bucksnort Slab is full of fun stuff! This route, in particular, is f*@&%$n' awesome!!! Definitely, save those bigger cams for the top--#3. or #4 Camalot. Top of first pitch is great belay on a huge shelf!

As Ben mentioned. You will see shredded rope on the way up the crack and you coudl have yourself a mini epic with rope problems on this route. The anchors are placed in a perfect spot to ensure your rope enters the crack at least once after being pulled. Be careful !! This is although a great route for leader breaking into 5.8 leading. The wide stuff at the top could warrant some larger cams (#3 Camalot) for security of the mind. Also, for the top part you DON'T need a big cam, as there is a very solid block slung with several pieces of webbing. Clip these and cruise to the anchors. Watch in the summer for bees in the wide section just before the anchors. Awesome route.

Killer!! I enjoyed this route. I would not recommend doing the second pitch. The quality is poor and you have to walk off. Instead, bring an extra rope and rappel from the anchors.

Classic climb. 160 ft of hand jams, finger jams, and laybacks. Bomber anchors and rappel rings. Bring plenty of gear as the route has many spots where you'll want to place it. Leave the #4 cams at home, clip the chockstone at the top, and run out the rest to the anchors. Celebrate with a beer at the Bucksnort.

Hey, I heard though the grapevine that the bolts were chopped at the top is that true??? I guess it happened in the last week or so 8-30-03.

The bolts are intact at the end of the first pitch and are bomber. After the chockstone and lieback section, the bolts are to the left and tucked up on a nice ledge that becomes more expansive as you move climbers left. There is a bomber hand hold at the end making the traverse left from the crack to the bolts easier.

Great climb!

Cool climb with nice finger to hand jams, to bad it's so slick though...medium to large stoppers and .5 to 3" cams worked nicely. I managed to jam my carcass into the layback section up top...mmm love crack.

Definitely a classic 5.7! Leave anything micro in the pack and carry double 3" cams (save a 3" for the wider section near the top and don't miss the slung chockstone).

Great route...only caution you that there has been some rockfall on occasion.I recall one Fred Keith pulling off a bowlingball sized rock from the crack back in the 80s...lucky my GF and I moved from the trajectory and it landed on a jeep in the parking area below on the road. Moral of this story....keep clear of the base of the rock, and NEVER let your infants or anything you dont want squashed to hang around at the base of the climb. Have seen kids in baskets at the base of what is "clean" granite...clean for 99.99% of the time...but shit happens.

Now you are more likely to be hit by another climbers gear, or body, but keep your loved ones or other dumb animals away from the base of this, and other, climbs.

On on

Just to re-iterate.. Great climb. The bolts are there, the route seemed quite clean, and you can leave "micro" stuff behind. As for the first pitch, you really don't need a #3. I took two, saving them for the end and never used them. However, you may want them for the second pitch..

This was my first trad lead and it was sweet! Nice long route so lots of practice placing all sorts of gear. I mean everything, nuts, tri cams, hexes, and cams. The crack gets bigger as you go up and [definitely] bring the 3 Camalot, clutch before the chockstone. enjoy

This crack is indeed a classic. I did it for the 3rd time last weekend, and it never fails to impress. After scrambling up 25 feet to the start of the dihedral, it is fingers and hands with foot jams and some thin feet on the face for two-thirds of the climb. The crack then starts to widen out and you need to rely on some thin face smearing and possibly some off-width technique with the upper body.

No need for a very large cam in the lieback section near the top as the slings on the chock are still sound. Bolts at the top of pitch 1 are solid at a nice belay ledge.

I wouldn't recommend this route as a first trad climb unless you are already comfortable on cracks. The 5.7 rating is fair, but the route is sustained at that grade for 120+ feet.

This was a pretty great route. There are some climbs that are too short and this one makes up for it. A little on the slippery side and still pretty busy in mid October. The lieback at the end was great, nice little variety ending there.

Great natural line!

If you want to find out if you enjoy trad climbing, this is your first real lead. The route is getting a little slick due to all the traffic, but totally protectable. This lead is amazing endorphin rush as compared to seconding or TR-ing it.

The final off-width section, just clip all the slings around the chockstone and go for it as a lie-back, there is a hold that saves you in the end of the section. Don't try to chimney or suck yourself into the final off-width (you will spend another half an hour trying to get yourself out). (the webbing/cords were removed/gone as of 4/23/06 - you may want to bring some webbing &/or slings for the chockstone if you want to protect yourself on the final section - this is a very committing section -- I understand all of that was probably considered "tat", I'm not saying removing all of it was right/wrong, just letting potential leaders know they need to bring some removable webbing to sling a natural, if they feel that they need the chockstone when leading).

Three bolt station at the finish of the route with some chaining for redundancy, 2-rope rap back down (a single 70m - not to the ground, it's just about exactly 50m to the anchor). After a rappel descent, you will learn to whip your rope when you pull it from the anchor so it doesn't fall into the crack.

The photo submitted by Ross shows to really extend your rope away from constricting in the rock at the lieback section so as to prevent the rope drag.

Also, please don't go up the slab near the house (continuing on from the end of the P1 bolt anchors), they haven't minded us climbing here, this rock is their property, but they don't want climbers in their face either.

I led this for the first time on Sunday. I thought it would be less exposed and easier to reach the start of the crack by climbing up the groove on the left. That was probably about 5.6 and had some reachy moves. I'm not sure I recommend it, although I got a nice sling around a horn before making the more exposed moves up to the first ledge. I was trying to not place any pro that was much out of line with the main crack, in order to reduce rope drag at the top. Some people climb the first 50 feet, place some pro in the splitter crack to the right and then move the belay up to the ledge. I wanted to do it in one long pitch.

Ditto what others said about midsize gear and not needing small stuff. I used most of my big stoppers in the first 50 feet or so. Wish I had more 1" to 2.5" cams for the wider section below the layback section. I ran that out instead of stopping to fiddle with passive gear. As Mark said, the slings around the chockstone under the layback flake have been cut. You could sling your own, or I got a decent green Alien in the crack to the left then ran out to the anchors. Great route! Sustained climbing will give you a workout.

It's sooo freakin' long! I loved it. Don't really need anything larger than a #3. The second pitch is short, harder, and not nearly as fun.

Did this route today, it was my first climb in the South Platte and I must say it was a nice intro. A little harder then I first thought, but every bit enjoyable as it looks. I brought my #4 for the wide section but just ran it out to the anchor instead; a fall would have been fun though. I thought it was easier to keep moving then to stop in a weird lieback with (not the most positive holds) trying to place gear. Is the second pitch above the anchor?

Waited for 2 parties to climb it this Sunday, could have been worse though.

Every time I come in to lead this climb, it shows me something awesome about climbing.

I really enjoyed pushing the final section without the chockstone slings and just went for it for the final 25 feet, absolutely a classic!!