Avg: 3.1 from 15
votes
Access Issue: Seasonal Raptor Closures
Details
Behind The Sun begins in the furthest right sector of the wall, right of and below the prominent arete that forms the crux of Steve Landin's route "Floorshow".
BTS uses the first one or two pitches of Floorshow to gain the grassy ledge at 140 ft. This sector can be split into two pitches if desired, and both have double bolt anchor systems. At the grassy ledge, the belay anchor and rap station for BTS be found 30 ft to the right of Floorshow. Note carefully: the rap to the ground from the right hand station is a single 140 ft rap. If you cannot make this rap, use the Floorshow station because a second rap station is in place at 70 ft.
The climbing above the ledge on BTS starts by angling right from the belay a short way to surmount a small roof. Technical climbing and some powerful sequences follow in this crux pitch. I found this pitch to be a bit intimidating, being not overly bolted and run out in the 5.12b crux, frankly a bit scary. This third pitch ends at a sloping ledge, 90 ft above. What follows is a moderate, 5.10d/5.11a swim over a short head wall that leads into the dramatic dihedral above. Continue with easy climbing on big holds to the flat-out-airest belay in Clear Creek. A stem at the top of the dihedral clips the anchors with close to 300 ft of air below your butt.
Initially red pointed as separate pitches, the whole route was red pointed first by Greg and Rich Purnell in the Spring of 2000. At least two stars for the climbing, the continuity, the brilliant crux pitch, and the amazing air on the last pitch.
QD only. This is a long route by Clear Creek standards. It can be done either as four pitches or as three. In either case, two 60m ropes are the best way to go, although the raps can be broken down into 100 ft sections.
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There are some other routes on the wall. From left to right: 5.10d 120ft to a 5.12a roof second pitch to a 5.8 slab 5.11c 120ft " same as above" great climbing and views! 5.11b/c 40ft and shitty up the pink quartize dike 5.940ft to the same anchors as the dike Dec 5, 2001
Lakewood, CO
Jun 13, 2002
The fall at the crux is not that big, and very safe. (your feet are only about 3 feet above the bolt when you are clipping the next one, all you hit is air!...) The 2nd pitch of Floorshow leading up to the ledge is still very dirty.
Spectacular position, brilliantly devious crux sequence, and great exposure.
Jun 23, 2004
Denver, CO
Golden, CO
Denver, CO
First piece of beta: the climb is the farthest right start on Mission Wall, and the trail to it goes through some brush for the last 10 or 15 feet. There are stinging nettles or something on this trail. It hurts like a motherfucker and will blister your skin for hours. Don't go through this. Instead, scramble up the boulder that's against the wall, and traverse as close to the wall as possible to the start ledge. It looks stupid, it feels stupid - trust me, it's way better than the nettles. Reverse that process on the last rappel as well. I'm sitting here typing this 5 hours later with blisters still up and down the tops of my feet and back of my heels.
Second piece of beta - the description above says the rap from the BTS anchor at the start of the 3rd pitch is a 140ft rap to the ground. This anchor actually has nothing to lower off of - it's normal hangers, not coldshuts, and there's no fixed hardware on them. So if you don't want to retire your rope, plan on traversing back to the Floorshow anchors to rap.
Last piece of beta: the 2nd and most of the 3rd pitch are in the sun from about 9am to noon. The crux itself is pretty much all day shade, but the 8 bolts below it will be nice an hot on a summer day - probably best climbed on a cooler summer/warmer fall day with a lazy morning start.
That's all I'll spoil - definitely get on this thing. One of the nuttiest routes in CCC -super fun and still quite an adventure. Aug 20, 2023