Dalke Route
5.9 R,
Trad, Alpine, 6 pitches,
Avg: 3.1 from 16
votes
FA: Larry Dalke perhaps?
Colorado
> Alpine Rock
> RMNP - Rock
> Cathedral Wall
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.
Access Issue: 2022 Seasonal Falcon Closure
Details
From the Denver Post, the
Cathedral Wall is CLOSED beginning February 15, 2022. Reopening is expected July 31st if needed. Click the following link for more details:
nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/… When closed, the closures include the named rock formations and the areas surrounding the base of the formation. This includes all climbing routes, outcroppings, cliffs, faces, ascent and descent routes, and climber's access trails to the formation.
Areas not listed are presumed to be open. These closures will be lifted or extended as conditions dictate.
Description
Route-finding is vague, protection dicey in places (in fact nearly everywhere) but this is a great line up a proud buttress; actually one of the tallest and best-looking buttresses in the whole RMNP. In addition, this route has a fairly short approach, (you can watch all the bumblies heading up for the Petit Grepon) and best of all a solid southern exposure; you may end up lost and frightened and unable to retreat, but at least you'll be nice and warm.
P1. The first pitch is obvious and easy, up a chimney/crack/slab to a large ledge.
P2-3. The next two pitches are pretty indeterminate but basically take you into the obvious, huge, shallow dihedral/groove way up and right. Check out Rossiter's High Peaks book for more details. The climbing on pitch two, as I recall is pretty runout, vertical 5.8 mostly on great jugs (but worryingly above the large belay ledge), requiring some care with navigation (lest you end up on much harder ground). This is like the best of the Petit Grepon climbing, but steeper (and definitely no crowds). Once in the long dihedral, you may expect that there'd be lots of yummy gear in the crack in the back, but alas this is not the case. . . . Luckily the stone is immmaculate. Anyway, follow the dihedral to the top of the huge pillar. Even here the gear is not so easy to find.
P4. From here, various ways tackle the imposing headwall. Apparently one can go straight up. Good luck. I led out to the right, until I gained a ledge about thirty feet away. Very exposed here! A coffin-sized/shaped block sits on this small ledge.
P5. From here, a nice but short crack leads to some loose-looking blocks. Angle rightwards to avoid the blocks (I recall a very welcome #1.5 Friend somewhere here in a slot), and wander upwards (butt-clenching exposure!) upwards to finally pull onto the shoulder.
P6. One more pitch, easy, from here to the real summit.
Six looooong pitches, continuously absorbing, with a serious feel; one of the coolest routes I've done in the Park.
Protection
Bring Aliens (or similar), lots of wires including RPs, one or two sets of cams up to 3". Many runners for extending pieces to avoid rope drag, double ropes.
![Clint finishing direct above crack on 5th pitch. It goes at 9+ and is still runout, but you get a piece or two on the face.]()
[Hide Photo] Clint finishing direct above crack on 5th pitch. It goes at 9+ and is still runout, but you get a piece or two on the face.
![Summit glory.]()
[Hide Photo] Summit glory.
![I thought it was scary. He thought it was fun. If you go this way, I advise treading lightly on the fully detached, mattress-sized flake.]()
[Hide Photo] I thought it was scary. He thought it was fun. If you go this way, I advise treading lightly on the fully detached, mattress-sized flake.
![Goods starting P4ish after I went too far on P3. Kudos to him for belaying himself through the roof and across a traverse after the rope got stuck in a constriction (with a broken hold, no less!) .]()
[Hide Photo] Goods starting P4ish after I went too far on P3. Kudos to him for belaying himself through the roof and across a traverse after the rope got stuck in a constriction (with a broken hold, no less!) .
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"you may end up lost and frightened and unable to retreat, but at least you'll be nice and warm."
Chris Lesher Feb 5, 2002
I believe Rossitor calls the cruxy stuff "5.9 or harder" and it sure is. After climbing this you will appreciate and take notice some of the routes put up by Dalke in the Boulder area.
I too remember the 2nd pitch being a 5.8 edge fest with little pro. You probably should be comfortable being 30 feet above a big ledge with no gear to climb this pitch. You get a good larger (#1?) camalot right as the angle eases off and you don't need it anymore.
The rock is quality on the first four pitches was really good, but we got lost somewhere up top and ended up going to the left. Somewhere above pitch 4 the dihedral faded away out and then the gear ran out. We traversed to the right first, and after some hard runout climbing we ended up bailing back to the top of pitch 4 (or maybe 5?). From that point we were able escaping to the left, which left some steep, loose and interesting 5.9 simulclimbing to beat the sunset.
The decent off the back involved picking through wet, loose cliff bands to a snowfield (probably late season talus). It was pretty trivial in the daylight, but I wouldn't want to do this in the dark.
The rock and climbing were good enough that I plan to take a crack at it again though.
Feb 20, 2002
Should be more popular than it is, as it is bigger, steeper and more spectacular IMHO, than the Petit. The last steep pitch that traverses up and right from the huge ledge is outrageous. We descended a ramp that led to near the base of the Saber, hoping to link em, but got denied by rain.
Another plus of this route: the base is reached after a very short hike, compared to most other things.It's like a steeper version of Hallett's.
Go get some! Oct 10, 2005
Boulder, CO
boulder
Palo Alto
Boulder, CO
This is an amazing route. Run out, yes, but the route sprouts holds very generously. The route finding was also not quite as bad as I expected. We had a copy of the MP route description and the guidebook description. Between the two of them, it was fairly obvious where to go.
The descent gully sucks. That was far sketchier than any of the runout climbing on the route in my opinion. More loose rock than other gullies I've been in and a fair amount of down climbing with the potential for serious falls.
All-in-all, a great route that should see more traffic than it does. Jul 19, 2014
Colorado
We did the walk-off and it wasn't that bad. It may have been Descent 2 (or 3) from the Rossiter guide. What we did:
As you top out the route there is a ledge running along the top of the cliff to the north. We walked along this until it ended, then scrambled west up to the top of the buttress. We walked over the buttress then turned north again and went up what would be a continuation of the gully on the climber's left side of the Dalke/Sublime buttress. This led to a notch. At the notch we went down and left and found a gully. Picking our way down the gully was easy, with only about 8-10 feet of down climbing. Lots of loose talus. We then glissaded for glory and contoured around to our packs. We went from topping out the route to being back at our packs in an hour twenty minutes (including photos, putting on shoes, and messing with gear before starting the hike). I would do this descent again. Jun 19, 2017