The Fracture  5.11b/c

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 65 feet Consensus:  5.11b/c [details] FA:  Submitted By:  Jason Haas on Jun 23, 2011 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Raptor Closures MORE INFO >>> FYI: Parts of Devil's Head climbing area are closed March 1- July 31 every year for Peregrine falcon protection. The official closure order and associated map can be found here: www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5280647.pdf. For questions or more information, please contact the South Platte Ranger District office at 303.275.5610. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

This is an exceptional crack route on the northeast corner of Chicken Head Ranch. Cruise a crack in the corner to the left and then transition right to the main, thin line. This can feel slightly sketch here, but a #3 Camalot on a sling in the corner should work fine. Bomber (but slightly painful) finger locks lead to an even thinner crack where crimpers just so happen to be perfectly placed outside the crack. Make a long reach to a fist/hand jam and then you have cruiser climbing to the bolted anchor. The climbing was pretty continuous, but no move felt harder than 5.11b. I'm not sure why it's rated 5.12 in the Anderson guide. It is good though and is definitely worth doing, so don't let the guidebook grade scare you off.

Location 

This ascends the Northeast corner of Chicken Head Ranch, just right of a low-angled, bush-choked, right-facing corner (Tim's Route). The striking thin crack 25 feet up is hard to miss.

Protection 

Mostly thin gear with the ocassional hand-sized piece, and it'll eat up nuts. I took doubles to a 0.5 and one from #0.75-3 Camalot and had plenty of cams on my harness left over.