Drifting 

Interesting that the FA is confidential... Is there chipping, gluing, or erroneous bolts concerned?

This is route is amazing!! Congratulations to the FA party for seeing this line and establishing this gem. Excellent climbing on every pitch and what a line.. First & second pitch ratings seemed right on. After that the upper pitches, in my opinion, felt a bit softer than the grades given in the above description. Regardless of ratings the climbing was brilliant!!


For some advice on logistics. If you want to travel a little lighter you could easily do without the #3 Camalot. We simo rapped the route & they went very smooth with no issues. Bring a leaver biner for the second rappel from the top. After rapping for 50 ft or so swing over and place it on one of the bolts above the roof, clip your rope thru, before you drop over the roof. This makes it easy to hit that rap anchor without any dubious pendulums below the roof.


I was up there on 3/20/09 climbing this route. Had my camera on the last pitch but did not have it when I returned to the car. If anyone finds a Nikon digital camera in a black case I sure would appreciate its return. It has all my pictures from my trip to Red Rocks that week. If you find it please contact me via email from this site. Thanks!!

Where is the PG-13 portion of the climb?

edit: thanks Jeff

I think pitch two has a few sections that could be called PG-13. Runouts on 5.9 type terrain. All the harder climbing is well protected on all the pitches.

Great route.

I thought the approach was awesome w/ pretty scenic views, but definately not 1hr 10 minutes, try 90min to 2 hrs. And I just recently did the approach to res arete in 80 minutes.

1st pitch - 8 bolts, No gear needed.

2nd pitch- Sustained and awesome. Bring the rack. Don't forget the RP's, thought that it was pretty heads up. After clipping the last bolt on the pitch, you traverse left into a a crack/flake system, maybe I was to far above the bolt, but it was definately an awkward 5.10+/11a move w/ 20-25+ ft of fall/pendulum potential.

3rd pitch - amazing. Bolts/gear

4th pitch - crux is in the beginning, liebacking up a left slanting crack, then it's 5.8/9 climbing w/ spaced bolts on plates/petinas. Bolts/gear.

5th pitch - slab/petina climbing, bring a single 2 or 3" for protection in a horizontal after the 8th bolt.

Like others have said, you could probably go w/out the number 3", but definately bring the rp's for the 2nd pitch.

Approach: We approached via the Rose Tower descent gully recommended in Handren. We walked out past Challenger Wall and out the south fork of Pine Creek. I'd recommend approaching via the Pine Creek/Challenger Wall option. It keeps you on flat terrain longer and then rolls up some easy slabs to the base of Jet Stream.

Gear: Didn't find the 3" piece to be crucial. There's smaller protection available throughout the few sections that would take the bigger piece.

Rappel: The first down from the top pitch can drop a quickdraw into the last bolt above the roof and swing into the belay pretty casually. The second can clean it and get pulled into the station.

WOW! This route should be on top of your to do list!!

Hard to tell if the first or second pitch is harder. Pitch 1 is a pretty rough warm-up. Really tricky sequences and stunning climbing.

Gear: We brought a single purple, green, and red C3. Plus a green alien, 2x yellow alien and a single grey alien. We also brought singles of #.75 - #2 camalot. Next time I would leave the #1 since I never placed it (no need at all for a #3). The #2 was pretty key on P4 and P5. I would also bring the red and purple C3s for the last pitch.

No gear at all on P1 as noted. I missed the first small wire on the P2 Traverse. This section is 5.10 climbing on good edges with 20+ foot fall potential. This was the most runout section of the route. I was able to get gear to supplement the bolts on the other pitches. A bolt protects the final 5.11 moves on P2.

Rappeling: Not sure if the anchor got moved but it was easy to rap from P4 to P3. I did clip a draw but my partner made it to me without assistance. We also cut the tat off this anchor and added rap rings courtesy of the ASCA.

The P5 anchor is confusing and could use help. There is one bolt with a rap ring and a 3/8 hole next to it. Not sure what happend to the other bolt... There is a third bolt up high that currently has a double length sling and biner on it. Someone should fill the empty hole with a fixe double ring hanger. The hole seems deep enough, but you might want to bring a drill in case you need to deepen, or enlarge the hole to 1/2 inch.

Approach:. I took us 90 mins via Olive Oil. I think next time it could be shorter since we were slow descending from the ridge to the base of the route. We build a few cairns to help with route finding. Going up the Olive Oil descent is pretty strenuous.

Amazing and engaging route. It has to be in my Red Rocks all-time top five.

Two approach notes: if you use the Adventure Punks/Challenger approach, do not get pulled up into the Challenger alcove: stay low and left (look for cairns). Otherwise you have to gain and lose elevation for no reason.

We did Drifting at the end of April. If it's warm, there's no need to rush - the base of the route does not go into shade until 10:45 a.m.