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East Face/Arrowhead
5.4,
Trad, Alpine, Grade III,
Avg: 2 from 4
votes
FA: unknown
Colorado
> Alpine Rock
> RMNP - Rock
> Glacier Gorge
> Arrowhead
Access Issue: Closures
Details
Seasonal closures Feb. 15-July 31.
Per the Denver Post:, the Cathedral Wall and all areas above the Loch Vale-Sky Pond Trail are closed to off-trail travel! Per this RMNP
website, "Initial closures now occur in Feb. 15 and April, when raptors return to the region and scout for nesting sites. Areas containing general habitat preferred by raptors are closed during this time. Once raptors have selected nesting spots, the initial closures are lifted or adjusted. The specific areas which raptors choose for nesting sites are closed."
For additional information about raptor closures, please visit the Rocky Mountain National Parks area closures
website.
General NPS climbing regulations for RMNP posted
here.
Description
This is an interesting route but involves more scrambling than actual climbing. We also got off route somewhat and ended up climbing up to 5.7. I am not sure where this route lies relative to the other 3 routes on the site (Rain Dance, Refugium and Watership Down) as I do not have the latest version of Gillett's guide, and these routes are not in the latest Rossiter guide.
This is the farthest right route on Arrowhead's South Face, and your goal is actually to hit the East Ridge at the level of a huge ledge about 400' below the summit. There is a reasonably good photo showing the route line on p. 170 of Rossiter's latest guide.
From Black Lake, follow slabs up and right to the route, which starts as a series of slabs alternating with tree covered benches. We climbed near the crest of a buttress, slightly left of the line shown in the photo, to the huge ledge mentioned above. This avoids traversing some ledges covered with trees which do not look pleasant (shown in the photo).
Follow the huge ledge right to the East Ridge, and then follow this ridge (or the face to the right) to the top. This upper section is only about 5.2 and somewhat loose.
A fun continuation of this route is to continue West over the summit of Arrowhead, then drop down to the Arrowhead-McHenry's Col and climb the East ridge of McHenry's (called "Arrowhead Arete" by Rossiter). This continuation is only class 4 and we did it unroped.
Protection
Light alpine rack.
![S Face (right) on 9/3/01]()
[Hide Photo] S Face (right) on 9/3/01
![Looking east to the summit of Arrowhead from the Arrowhead-McHenry's Col. This ridge is like a giant granite wave about to break. The route "Airhead" climbs the steep face on the right.]()
[Hide Photo] Looking east to the summit of Arrowhead from the Arrowhead-McHenry's Col. This ridge is like a giant granite wave about to break. The route "Airhead" climbs the steep face on the right.
![George Bell approaches the rope-up point on Arrowhead's East Face (off to the right).]()
[Hide Photo] George Bell approaches the rope-up point on Arrowhead's East Face (off to the right).
![George Bell leading the first (and probably best) pitch of the East Face route. Photo by Mark Oveson.]()
[Hide Photo] George Bell leading the first (and probably best) pitch of the East Face route. Photo by Mark Oveson.
![Mark Oveson scrambling up slabs above Black Lake.]()
[Hide Photo] Mark Oveson scrambling up slabs above Black Lake.
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Boise, ID
From the bottom of the buttress, we took what looked to be the most logical line. First pitch was 5.6 slab in a corner below an overlap/roof with less than stellar gear in a shallow flaring and mossy crack. Second pitch ended up to be a 5.8 flake system, which was actually really fun. Good climbing and what would be awesome pro if you had doubles in the blue/purple Mastercam range - which I didn't.
Second pitch ended at the heavily treed ledge, and options for continuing upward looked run out, harder than 5.8 or a vegetated mess or scrambling. We bailed from that ledge with four raps from trees (70 m rope).
Ultimately, there may be a 5.4 line somewhere up to Ledge One, especially if you're willing to get exceedingly intimate with trees, but it's likely a pretty contrived line. I also think that you follow the last pitch of Ripsaw Ridge from Ledge One which is 5.6, so the 5.4 rating should be taken with a grain of salt, and this probably shouldn't be considered the beginner alpine route the 5.4 rating might otherwise suggest.
I took 6 cams (yellow/orange Mastercam, C4 0.5-2) and a set of nuts; never placed anything larger than 0.75. Sep 21, 2015