Andrew Gram leading Pitch 1 of the Colorado Northe...
Description
This is a great introduction to the bigger towers of the Fishers. The climbing is relatively clean, quick and easy. The exposure is fantastic. This route climbs the left hand arete of King Fisher as viewed from the parkinglot. To reach the route, hike out to the Cobra (just past Ancient Art). From there, hike up the hill past Death of American Democracy, and just below the northeast arete, you'll see the first pitch bolt ladder.
P1- Climb a bolt ladder which used to be very scary, but now has a couple good bolts on it to a hanging belay. P2- Climb a fun 5.8 chimney with lots of holds and good gear. Pitch 1 and 2 can easily be combined. P3- This is the crux pitch and has fun aid moves with a few mantle moves onto dirty, sloping ledges. The last 20 feet before the belay is the crux and climbs some scary, old fixed gear. P4- Climb the bolt ladder, with one hook move up to the roof where the rock changes from Cutler to Moenkopi Sandstone. Climb up and left over the roof and onto the caprock. Above the roof there is a short bolt ladder to a huge belay ledge. P5- The last pitch free climbs a short hand crack to a short 5.8 chimney to the summit.
To descend, rappel the route
Protection
Two sets of cams from tiny to #4 camalot, Micro Nuts and stoppers. Bring a big hook also.
To back up my original description, there were good stopper placements on pitch two about every ten feet. At each move there were ledges for your feet, and if not, the chimney is a good width to just hang out in. I've done that route 3 times, one time soloing. I think pitch two is the best on the route. You can combine some pitches to make it faster also. pitch 1 and 2 are easily combined, and that saves you from sitting at a hanging belay.
I just climbed this route a couple of weeks ago. That P2 chimney really isn't that bad. Although deep within, the back of the chimney has some fairly good pro. Some larger cams work nicely (#2 and #3 camalots) as well as some stoppers. There are, however, some kinda spooky parts where the sandy mud crumbles and cracks with the slightest touch. Overall, P2 is fun (assuming your bag is sandstone chimneys). The last pitch chimney is also fun. The protection there is very reasonable, too.
I also wanted to mention that the P1 bolt ladder is really solid. There is one missing rivet that makes the pitch a little more exciting. I had to top-step my aiders to reach far out right passed it to the next piece. For the shorter folks, bring a little hook or hunk of metal for the hole. A far more serious peril seems to be the scary star-drivens that can be pulled out with your fingures on P3 and P4. Other miscelanious chunks of manky metal slung by almost totally severed cords make the upper pitches slightly more devious than the first two. Overall, this a great line. Enjoy!
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Oct 21, 2002 rating: 5.8 C2- R
The second pitch isn't that bad. 5.8 is my limit and I was pretty comfortable leading it - I thought the last pitch was harder though both protected very well.
The second to last "bolt" on pitch 3 moved about a 1/4" on me as I was clipping the last bolt. Scary - may want to either replace it or use a cheater stick to get past it. I also took a pretty good fall onto that bent up knifeblade just over the roof when a fixed tricam blew. Test the fixed gear before getting on it, and I can't believe that KB held a good sized fall.
Good climb - I especially enjoyed the short hand crack on the last pitch and pretty much the entire third pitch.
Just climbed the route this weekend (04/12/03). Pretty cool.It is mostly a bolt ladder of varying ages of bolts/pins. Some of the fatter bolts are sticking 2-4" out of the rock it looks like they were placed this way kind of weird. They worked though.Bring 12-15 rivet hangers mostly big cinch hangers will work best.RP keyhole hangers worked well on some of the 3/8 studs.Also bring a few 1/4 & 3/8 coarse thread nuts for the occasional bolt missing its nut. Some of the old homemade hangers would only take a smaller diameter biner, newtrinos worked. Not much gear is needed we had way too much.I used a few nuts, green-orange alien, .75-4 Camalot, 1 EA. On the cams, many hero loops, No Cheater stick, I Placed one angel in a hole missing its bolt. A hammer was good to test and tighten a few old pins one drilled angel was supper loose and went in 2" and was then bomber.No hooks, no bolts placed.
Thanks for pounding in some of that crap. I did the route not long before you and there were several times I wished for a hammer. (to reset existing pieces)
I assume you put the angle in the second to last piece before the third belay? When I tried to peel a butterfly rivet hanger off of that down sloping bolt, it fell out in my hand! I tell ya, that delivers a pretty good dose of whatever it is that makes aid climbing fun. :)
Not sure I would recommend this route as an aid climb though. More of an exercise in trusting manky fixed gear. In four aid pitches, I don't think we placed more than 20 pieces of our own gear. Turning the roof was certainly entertaining though. And it is a great summit and a proud looking tower.
How is the sun exposure on this route? Is it totally shaded? We are looking into a possible Sept/Oct climb and are curious about late summer conditions. Any advice would be great! Colin 9/15/03
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Sep 15, 2003
Colin - we climbed it on October 1, 2001 and the weather was great. From what I can remember, once you get past the first couple of pitches and gain the "saddle", the route mostly goes up the north side of the ridge. However, you end up kind of poking around onto the east side once in a while, so you do get some sun. I remember being a little chilly in the shade and a little warm in the sun, but not excessively so. Bring a warm layer and you should do okay. Enjoy and good luck - it's a fun one!
How long are these pitches, how many ropes are neede to fix the route. Is it doable in a day? how long of a day? How high is the whole climb? Eh? C
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Sep 17, 2003 rating: 5.8 C2- R
The route is totally doable in a day unless you are really slow or you get stuck behind a party. You wouldn't want to fix lines on the whole tower, but it bould be done with 4 ropes.
P1: 90'P2: 70' - these two often combined.P3: 120'P4: 165'P5: 80'
those are all approximate - i would use a 60m ropes if linking the orginal pitch 4 and 5 which i list here as only pitch 4. i do a single rope rap with a 60 off the summit, and then three double rope raps to the ground.
it is very easy for being such a big route in the fishers, and you can easily bail from any station if you need to. have fun.
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Sep 17, 2003
Bjornstad calls the route 500' (1999 Desert Rock III Falcon guide) and adding up Andrew's pitches gives a very close 525', so that gives a good relative scale (Ancient Art is also about 500' and the Titan about 900' for comparison). Very reasonable to do in a day, unless you are just learning aid and don't have your systems dialed in yet. I suppose you could fix up to the saddle (top of P2 chimney) if you are concerned about time. From my memory, once you're through P3 (crux pitch), the rest of the route is pretty cruiser. P4, while long, is mostly a bolt ladder, and P5 is a short free pitch. One more bit of advice, there are/were two belay stations for the top of pitch 3 - you'll want the higher of the two.
I remember there being some exciting 5.7 face climbing in the Moenkopi above the caprock roof with knifeblade. I was expecting a cruiser bolt ladder and got a little nervous when the bolts ran out. Awesome route with one of the best summits anywhere.
I wouldn't necessarily compare this route to Ancient Art's Corkscrew Summit via the Stolen Chimney with respect to length. Ancient Art couldn't be more than 250 feet, given that you can rappel to the ground from the large ledge aboe the chimney pitch with two 60m ropes.
Just climbed this route a few days ago. All of the beta above was helpfull, thanks for posting. Look below for a topo that I have submitted. I drew it when I returned yesterday. I measured the pitches as we rapped. Just a few comments.Currently The rap anchors are adequate. All of the bolt ladders are complete, yet manky. Never was I in my topsteps on any of the ladders. Please dont hammer on the fixed pins on this or any sandstone route, while there is a slight possibility the hole is deep enough to allow the pin to set further; it is more probable you will weaken the placement by enlarging the hole.Cheers.
This route is totally awesome. We climbed it on Saturday and had a killer day. A couple of tips on our experience:
The route starts on a bolt ladder on the east face. We hiked up through the saddle through a nasty slippery slope. Don't do that.
If I were to do the route again I'd take:double set of camalots .5-3.5 with an extra #1no nuts, no hexes, no hooks, 4 rivet hangers, a few tie-offs, set of tricams .5-3,set of aliens,set of TCU's
We brought a double set of nuts and didn't place one piece. We also were a little bit rusty with our aid climbing and finished the route in a day, starting at 8:30 and summiting at around 4pm. Last ascent was 3 months ago! Totally awesome route and I highly recommend it. Lots of fixed gear to keep up the speed and morale. No fixed gear seemed too bad, so that was nice.
last note: The second pitch chimney is really dusty. I jugged the line and got to the belay with totally brown teeth. funny, but not so funny.
I climbed this route solo over Oct 10th and 11th. I was actually right behind Ryan from the above post. I passed the time swilling beer and complaining about the shower of dirt untill I thought it safe to proceed behind them.
As far as gear goes:
- double set of camalots (don't bother with #4, I did have 3 #2, 3 #3) - (15) or so nuts/rivet hangers for studs/rivets - (5-10) tie-offs - (1) set Aliens - (1) set TCU - bunch of biners - slings etc..........
Don't bother with a drill (just in case), hammer (just in case), pins (just in case), cheater stick (just in case), tricams, hooks or offset nuts. Instead of carying all this crap up the hill you could take a cooler. I should know because I DID carry it up the hill and it sat in my freaking pack and I ran out of beer much too early.
The bolts/rivets on this route are BOMBER, it's like a sport climb. No kidding. The only suspect fixed gear was on the pitch that pulls the roof, (2) funky old pins at the roof and (2) Star Drives after pulling it. The pins seemed OK, but those Star Drives...who knows? All the anchors were good.
Link pitches 1 and 2 with a bunch of biners, (15) wires/rivet hangers and (1) set of cams to save time. Make the second jug with everything else just for fun.
Great route to solo because of the bolted anchors and easy free climbing.
Hmmm, did either of you guys see any shiny bolts on that ridge? I am still curious if there was an effort to replace the old rusted crap... maybe just the anchors? Well, as far as the fixed gear- I know that the bent pin at the roof looks sketchy, in fact I didn't clip it when i climbed it cause I thought it would pull, bit I have heard a story about it catching someone's fall. Use it... its "bomber" (fisher towers bomber - its different). Maybe its time for another tour up this heap anyway...
I just climbed this route last weekend. The newest gear I noticed was a bunch of new bolts with red Fixe hangers. Not exactly shiny but confidence inspiring nonetheless. Thanks to whoever placed them!
A good friend of mine (Marcus) and i spent several days this last year upgrading the bolts on the Colorado Ridge. We pulled old manky bolts, manky fixed junk, and redundant bolts. We were able to do the route clean after pulling the junk. We payed special attention to not reducing the quaility or rating of the climb. We wanted the crux pitch to stay the crux, but there was tons of useless gear that didnt need to be there. On Numerous ascents people had placed new bolts and pins without care. Instead of taking the time to replace an old one, they just slapped in a new one in between. The overall bolt count of the route was reduced. We left a few of the old star drives up top for good reason. For one, they were fairly bomber..Those bolts were suprisingly harder to remove than one might think. And two, to leave some of the historic nostalgia to the route.
Hope you guys enjoy the route. I sure enjoyed climbing it and putting in the time to make it safer.
below is a photo of some of the fixed mank we pulled or replaced.
I might very well be alone in this, but it seems to me that the old fixed junk was one of the highlights of this climb.I fully understand the need to replace bum fixed gear for the sake of safety - especially on heavily traveled intro routes like CNeR. However, I've always felt that part of the fun of the Fishers is in finding the occasional fixed gear freakshow that was likely placed by the first ascentionist. The star drivins, drilled angles, and the occasional hardware store funk is fun to see - even if it is right next to a bomber shiny bolt. For example, on the final bolt ladder of the Titan's Finger o' Fate (when I climbed it a few years ago) there were occasionally nice new bolts right next to the protruding fixed pins. Perfect. That preserved character - I still had to do a little lassoing - yet it protected me from falling on dubious gear. Some of those recently cleaned pieces look like they were historic first ascent placements. Those funky bolt hangers might have been tough to clip with today's wider 'biners, but that just added to the fun - aiding is all about problem solving! From my memory even that pounded in stopper has been part of multiple conversations about that tower. How often does a shiny string of perfect new bolts create superb bar story fodder? I can answer that one. Except for the awkward beginner or the terminally imaginative - never. Sure, clean the ''new redundant bolts that were placed without care or consideration,'' but leave me the hair-raising old school funk. Though there is an apparent need to turn some of these classics into modern sport aid routes, there is no need to deflower them by stripping them of their visible history. Is there? By the way, what is the plan for all that old fixed gear?
I can definately see your point. We knew when we did the rebolting that we would face critisism from some and welcome from others. I happen to enjoy seing the mank and junk on the routes too. But the fact of the matter is that the route was deteriorating in its current condition. Old bolts had blown, and people had pounded and pulled pins in the old bolt holes, to the point that they were just an ugly scars that could no longer be used. Therefore new bolts were placed right next to the old holes and even next to old bolts. By pulling the old bolts we were able to place new ones right back into the same holes. If we would have waited until all the old bolts were loose and falling out, then those holes would be destroyed and new holes would have to be drilled. Is that conservation and environmentally friendly? I dont think so!
With the increasing popularity of the sport, and the larger numbers of climbers who are out climbing these routes, its only a matter of time before they degrade so much that its a terrible eyesore. Look at serinity crack in yosemite (and thats granite). These towers cant take that much abuse. We as climbers should be more conservation and preservation minded so that these routes will remain classics when we are long gone. Yeah, its fun to see that old stuff, and yeah its def fun and part of the character of the fishers to see the old gear. But how old is too old? When do we draw the line? When the route is a line of blown out holes and redundant bolts? Or do we act now and fix things before they get worse?
When that route was originally put up..All those bolts were bomber and good. If someone dosnt take the time to do things right and upgrade the fixed gear, that route is going to wind up with twice as many bolts and 3 times as many scars and holes as it currently has. At the point in time when we did this work, we patched dozens of holes in order to preserve the original character and state of the climb. The climb is still just as hard as it was before? The crux pitch is still scarry. It just makes it that much longer before someone else starts drilling more holes and adding more bolts to the route.
Just my opinion though. Glad to hear your comments though.
I climbed the Colorado NE Ridge on 1/8/06 as my very first aid route, along with my equally inexperienced partner, Patricio from Chile. We had a great day, and made steady progress on the route, swinging leads until we finally attained the summit about 30 minutes before dark. The views were incomparable. Well, I actually took a couple hours to lead the crux pitch, as I was committing to very shaky cams in flaring slots, equalizing pieces here and there, and using trickery I had seldom used before free climbing. Overall, I thought that the route was in outstanding shape, and I commend Ryan and his partner's efforts to clean up the route. We used most of the fixed gear, although we found ways around using the worst pieces. We were pretty cold for the most part, but we had beautiful weather and the chill provided excellent motivation to keep moving. The rappels down in the fading light were gripping!! Never had terra firma tasted sweeter (yes, I kissed the ground).
As Patricio was leading the long bolt-ladder on the 4th pitch, a helicopter came roaring through the Fishers. Upon seeing us on the tower, it circled around three times or so, with men in black leaning out of the chopper doing who knows what. We tried not to make gestures so that they wouldn't think we needed help. Each time, it seemed to fly absurdly close to the Oracle, and I thought I was going to see a collision each time as it pulled away.
Would like to do this route within the next couple of weeks. I know it's hot out there even as I type this but I'm wondering how much sun the route gets. I may have to wait until Fall but I thought I'd put some feelers out there. Thanks.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO May 25, 2006 rating: 5.8 C2- R
The route is very sunny.
Phantom Sprint over on Echo Tower is a cold and shady route, and it only has one pitch that is significantly harder than the climbing on this route. If I was to do a big Fisher tower route in the heat, that is the one to do.
Just so all of you and Ryan R. are aware, I am one of the offending people who placed stuff up there and didn't replace (remove the bad). This was an accident. On the way up I put in new bolts with the intention of removing the extra stuff on the way down. On the way down I was running from a thunderstorm and told myself "you'll get back up here to get this in a few weeks." Well, weeks rolled into a season, another season passed, and before long it was a couple years and here I am reading about the mess on the web. So, sorry gang, for leaving extra stuff up there. It was not my intention, but still my fault. I'm glad and thankful some others came along and cleaned it up. Sam
I forgot to say that I couldn't agree more with you about the museum like feel that old gear gives the Fishers... its really cool. However, a lot of people complain that the route starts to look like a junk show and would just as soon have the old crap yanked. I find myself torn, when replacing things, between leaving a cool relic that has coats of rust and will probably catch a fall AND a good bolt that has no appeal other than it will save your life. After all, they were consdered good when they weren't rusty.. I'm guessing Harvey Carter and friends laughed at some of the stuff they used. From now on, in the FIshers, I will leave the really cool old stuff in place.
By toddgordon From: Joshua Tree, California May 2, 2007
I did this climb with Big Al Bartlett and Brian Moore in April 1999. While jumaring a trail rope up the steep headwall (out of the notch after the easy chimney pitch), I sawed the rope through the sheath and into the nylon core;....my wife got me a 200' static rope after that! Sandstone climbing is exciting! Climbing in the Fishers RULES! I was surprised at how fast and relatively easy this climb went;...it's a good one! I wasn't too scared on this one.....(Yeah , I guess I was;....I'm scared of my own shadow!)
This route is amazing, but I did find it kind of scary. It was my second aid lead ever, I had the great fortune (or misfortune) of leading the crux third pitch and fourth pitch! I didn't need the hook for the fourth pitch, so it could be something left behind. Before the King Fisher I had only led Kor's Corner at the Garden of the Gods. With that said, I still found it quite challenging but definitely a great intro to the Fishers!
Attempted the route on 9/28/07. It was my first aid route and the 3rd crux pitch stumped me so we bailed. I got a small TCU in above an old intermediate anchor (that we conveniently rapped off) and then couldnt figure out how to proceed. the next bolt was about 10ft up (right before the belay, so close!). there was a 2inch hole a bit off to the side that I might have been able to get a narrow cam or tricam in but had none. Is there some fixed gear missing? Any suggestions?
Chris - Orange Metolius TCU in seam down and right of the hole, then bolt w/out hanger.
Soloed this route on 10/7/07.
Solo rack: 6x rivet hangers 2x Camalots 0.5 to 3 1x 3.5 Camalot (optional, could do without) 1x Orange Metolius TCU 50x biners 15 QD's A few slings That's it!
Kingfisher
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