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All Locations > Colorado > Alpine Rock > RMNP - Rock > The Foil > South Face (5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a R)
From left to right (west to east) The Petit Grepon, The Saber, The Foil. The South Face of the Foil starts at a grassy ledge below a steep loose corner about 100 feet above you.
ID 107729033 ·
Lee contemplating those last 5 shots of tequila we did last night at the Pioneer Inn at the second belay.
This is your 5.5 exit should you decide to do the "walk off" which is really scrambling on very loose scree and many obligatory rappels or hopping into alternate gullies. There must be three of them damned gullies over there!
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Tommy Ormond
Jul 31, 2012
“From left to right (west to east) The Petit Grepon, The Saber, The Foil. The South Face of the Foil starts at a grassy ledge below a steep loose corner about 100 feet above you.”  

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This is your 5.5 exit should you decide to do the "walk off" which is really scrambling on very loose scree and many obligatory rappels or hopping into alternate gullies. There must be three of them damned gullies over there!
This is your view once you get up the 5.5 exit. As you can see, a leisurely descent into Andrew Glacier is now possible. If you really want to walk off and not do a bunch of bogus gullyaneering, bring all of your crap with you and exit this way. Packs at the base of the route or near the lake? Well, bring two ropes to do the full raps.
The rappel off the summit is where Sonya is sitting, which if you do Poe Club is where you end up. The wide 4 inch crack leads to the summit proper where I am.
The backside of the Foil where you rappel. The saddle has a rap anchor where you can then descend to the right if you have two ropes. If not, look straight back from the Foil and see a thin ridge. To the right of this ridge is a 5.5 crack you descend down a bit to the start and then lead out.
This is pitch 5, a short crack to your left takes small cams or nuts, protecting a short runout to more small gear. You have to balance somewhat to get to the 5.9+ crack in the middle, which is somewhat of a flake. Move way right to find the tiny belay seat at the northeast edge.
This is just below the summit, having followed the Poe Club 10a hand crack finish instead of the runout east face of South Face route. I highly recommend this finish.
The ledge at the top of pitch 4. It's hard to make out in Ivan's photo, unfortunately, but it's quite large and walking about unroped is fine. A big block is the belay with a sling around its top. Pitch 5 goes up the south face of this large east buttress.
Sonya finding a nice crack up the south face for pitch 4.
The three pin belay at the top of pitch 2. Quite spacious, well protected from the sun, and you could even weather some rain in here.
Three pin belay with background. The crack is where the pins are.
Looking down from pitch 2. Note the person standing below at the start.
The start of the route is the wide crack system left of the overhangs. It's pretty obviously the easiest line up.