[Hide Comment] This climb shares the same last 2 fantastic pitches as Sunset Slab. Apr 2, 2008

[Hide Comment] Whats the descent? Apr 3, 2008

[Hide Comment] Descend as per the standard First Creek Slabs descent. Here's a describing the way down. It involves 4 rappels with a single 60m and some downclimbing. Apr 4, 2008

[Hide Comment] Excellent fun!
Here is my breakdown of the pitches:
#1: 120' to big ledge; funky seam start then trend right up the middle of the face; 5.4
#2: 150' to trees/bushes; middle of the face; 5.3
#3: 200'+ to huge ledge below varnished corner; fun face; 5.3
we had a 60m rope and had to move the belay 20 feet into the corner
#4: 110' up varnished corner; fun & easier than it looks, maybe 5.6 at the top; very small stance for belay 5.6
#5: 180' Head left just above the overhangs, then wander up the face. I kept mostly to the left side.5.3
#6: 200' Straight up the fun varnished face, mostly in the middle, aiming toward the right side. A belay appears just as you are about to give up hope (about 50' below the start of the finishing hand crack); 5.3
#7: 90' up the face to the obvious corner; its good climbing, but will be great if the lichen ever clears up. 5.7
The 50 yard up-and-right above to find the gully was a full-on thrash through the bushes. We found a small, very exposed ledge system that we traversed to the left after going up the gully. Not obvious.
Once in the gully proper, the descent is eay to follow (head for the big pine tree and turn left..) Downclimbing was not too bad.

New rappel stations are great. Thank you!!! Apr 13, 2008

[Hide Comment] This casual route was a joy to climb. There are some great belay ledges along the way. The easy slabs were still interesting enough to be fun climbing. We thought the best climbing was the varnished corner on pitch 4. The character-building descent is somewhat long and arduous.
A great stress-free day in Red Rocks! Sep 30, 2008

[Hide Comment] An absolutely beautiful, fun and excellent moderate. Be prepared for the descent...it's long and a little grungy but well worth it. Apr 21, 2009

[Hide Comment] Very nice route that reminded me of climbing the Third Flatiron in Colorado. Not a lot of gear is required, long slings are nice due to all the wandering. Yep, p6 is exactly 200'. We did this for a "rest day" but didn't feel all that rested after the descent and walk out! Apr 24, 2009

[Hide Comment] This is a fun climb. Was in the shade all day, so it is getting cooler for doing this one. Need lot's of small nuts for most pitches. Not extremely difficult climbing but good practice for setting pro. The decent was a thrash getting to it but not bad. Good Rap stations and an overall good climb. Pitch 2 and 5 don't have lot's of options for pro, but are fairly easy climbing. pitch 4 and the short 7th were fun. The 6th is a nice clean long pitch! Cool Day ut fun day. Car to car about 8 hours. Nov 16, 2009

[Hide Comment] Fun 900'+ romps with something less than 100’ of fun moderate climbing. Agree with Karl K (Apr 13, 2008) pitch descriptions. A few more route comments:

1. For a new route the rock is very solid and we did not find much (if any) loose and feeble rock.
2. Recommend 70m rope makes the couple long pitches nicer (esp. the 6th pitch) and it helps with the descent.
3. Once you find the start, route finding is not a problem until the descent. Just remember P5 does not follow the crack but wanders left onto the face above the overhang before going up.
4. The 5.3 pitches have long runouts, which actually adds to the fun of the climb. We went 40 to 50-feet between pro. If you spend the time and energy looking for more pro placement you may be able to run it out less.
5. The crux of the climb is an 8-foot (easily protected) vertical section of 5.6 (pitch 4) and not the 5.7 pitch.
6. Belay stance at the top of P4 is a bit uncomfortable. Ethics (and the band on bolting) aside a bolt to complement the trad gear placement at the belay station would greatly improve the belay.
7. At about 165 to 180 feet up on pitch 5 there are two bushes/small trees on the right; we belayed at the upper one. Good trad placement, but not the most comfortable belay.
8. Pitch 6 is long. We ran out all but 10 feet of our 70m rope. The belay station is slightly right of the middle of the slab and about 50 feet below the easily viewed 5.7 crack of pitch 7. Setting up the belay, requires some skill – not the best belay setup for a beginner trad climber and again not a comfy belay station.
9. Pitch 7 has the best climbing. The 5.7 crack is located in the corner of a left facing dihedral. Protects well. About 2/3 the way up the crack one can escape left to the outside face and finish the climb on a blocky face.
10. The descent is a longer affair than one would like for such a fun climb. Maybe if we had previous experience with the descent gully I would say it is as easy descent. However, not knowing the gully we rapped it. There are nice rap anchors every 30 to 35 meters or so. A single rope is all that is needed. May 4, 2010

[Hide Comment] Did it 5.6.2010
A fine scrambling with a couple climbing sections.
Here is 10 min video for almost every pitch:

youtube.com/watch?v=N4RPBR1… May 29, 2010

[Hide Comment] Climbing is fun and all, but not worth it after doing the descent. Oct 10, 2010

[Hide Comment] If you don't like the descent - you weren't on the easiest line down. Particularly now: someone has replaced the first rappel (that was on the pine tree) with two nice bolts off to the side.
They also added a couple of unnecessary stations that bypass cl.3 downclimbing.
Do it the old way - lots of down scrambling and a total of 4 rappels on a single 60m. Or use the new stations - at least 8 raps - most of which require double ropes.
Either way - a fairly straighforward descent. Mar 19, 2011

[Hide Comment] I didnt say it was difficult. Its just not worth it, considering you can spend more time on the descent than on the climb. Mar 20, 2011

[Hide Comment] Good point, John. While the two stations at the trees might prevent some wear and tear that could damage these trees - the others are unneeded - and all of them set a bad precedent.
The descent should take less than an hour to the main/starting ledge. We usually do it in well under 40 min. Pretty good for climbs that are often well over 1,000'.
IMO - almost as easy & straightforward as Angel Food Wall.
If anyone is worried about the descent - feel free to PM me. Mar 20, 2011

[Hide Comment] Decent, not great. We broke holds on every pitch, but the rock quality wasn't as bad as I expected. I caught myself having fun up there a few times. Best thing about this one versus Hot Flash, which is a more interesting route overall would be the consistency (upper+lower Hot Flash are like night and day-half great, half terrible) and the fairly quick nature of the climb. Maybe a good first route up the 1CSlabs for locals-but unless your limit is 5.7 handcrack, I think visiting climbers will find that there are a lot more interesting and sustained climbs out there. Descent took less than an hour, I think Wilder's right about just doing the first rappel and scrambling down the rest of the way to the Rising Moons raps (3 single 70 raps from this point). Doing about five raps burned a bunch of time and the way down was easier than I expected, fine in approach shoes with a pack. I'd do the minimum number of raps possible for your ability level, much less fun getting off these in the dark, I bet. Nov 25, 2011

[Hide Comment] I just did this descent again and added my descent beta to the First Creek Slabs mountainproject.com/v/first… page.
The only addition here is, from the top of the climb, the scrub oak scramble is longer than you think; probably 100' to the exposed ledge (which still has a small cairn on it) Mar 17, 2012

[Hide Comment] If I'd known what the descent would be like, I'd never have gotten on this route. An unroped 8th pitch followed by scrambling, thrashing and rapping was possibly the most miserable two hours I've spent on rock. I guess I'm too old for Red Rock . . . May 12, 2013

[Hide Comment] HS and SP climbed lady luck yesterday.

Read this if you want detailed beta, but ignore it if you want the true adventure without the details!

Overall this was a fantastic day. Some of the climbing is very easy and run out. Some of the climbing is slightly more challenging. Given all of the comments and guidebook descriptions, we still had some route finding challenges. So the comments below may be helpful for the approach the ascent and the descent.

Approach: from the first Creek parking lot which is clearly marked with a sign, hike several miles in on the primary trail. Unlike many of the guidebooks that show the trail emerging on the east side of the gully and crossing the wash to the west, our approach stayed entirely on the west side of the wash. Stay out of the wash whenever possible. Take the trail that is about halfway up the west embankment, moving under rising moons which is obvious on your left, across an open section of dark red slab as part of the trail. Just at the end of the 30 yards of dark red slab there is an obvious trail straight up to the cliff. The trail is newer and follows the red dusty scramble that people have used. Move slightly up and right as the trail peters out, into a alcove with large overhead rocks and an obvious fourth class scramble to get up onto the first belay ledge. We roped up for the scramble which added an additional pitch to the climb.

The ascent: The other descriptions here accurately describe the climb except for a couple notable features. First, the slabs feel more like 5.2. But they are almost completely run out. Climbers should be comfortable with 40 to 50 feet between protection. On two of the pitches, I believe we used only one or two pieces of protection.

The second recommendation is on pitch 5. We used 190 feet of rope. The leader will feel desperate finding a belay station. Follow the advice of one of the comments here and move to the right side of the slab face to find a surprise pocket area to set up a reasonable belay station.

The third recommendation is on pitch six. The rock quality deteriorates slightly with some lichen, but the real challenge is that to get all the way to the crack climb of pitch 7 requires about 240 or 250 feet of rope! There are two or three sketchy belay stations that can be formed as intermediate points to break up pitch six. Or you can simul climb. Just be prepared to get creative. We had very windy conditions which further hampered logistics and communications on this very long pitch.

Descent: this took us an hour and 45 minutes. Bravo to those who down climb and are out in under an hour. Here are the details:

1. From the top of pitch seven, scramble and bushwhack up a gully to the right, a considerable steep ascent of 40 or 50 yards.

2. A cairn marks the sharp left turn which brings you quickly to the very exposed 30 foot traverse. The footing on the traverse is fantastic, and once you were on it you realize it is very low angle slab with good hand pockets if you need them for extra comfort.

3. Follow the well-worn trail with cairns, further west and slowly down into a gully to the major pine tree that marks the top of the rappel sections. This is fourth class scrambling, and if you are short some of the moves are a little exciting. Total distance traveled beyond the exciting traverse is probably 100 or 150 feet.

4. We used double ropes, 60 m, for the descent. The first station is very obvious 30 feet below the major pine at the low point in the gully. Rap 100 feet and look skiers right for the next station.

5. The next rap is longer and continues down the obvious gully to a station on skiers left side of the gully.

6. Some comments suggest skipping the third rap. If you're comfortable down climbing it can be skipped, or use it to rap off the slab into obvious short bushes with a short trail down 50 feet to the next station. Cairn visible as you rap.

7. This station is clearly visible on skiers left. Some people suggest scrambling over the bulge on skiers left and descending through boulders and bushes without ropes. We used the station, staying to skiers right on the slabs and going a full 190 feet to the obvious tree.

8. Find the next and final station 10 feet below the obvious tree, with well marked cairns. The station has slightly extended slings, which we think are longer to accommodate 200 foot ropes getting to the bottom! You will use all but 8 inches of your ropes to bottom out in an alcove which for us at this time of year actually had a pool of water in it.

9. Down climb directly down and to skiers right over several bulges about 40 feet total. This is slightly spicy down climbing. This gets you to the ground. The trail down is meandering and we had two more very short down climbing moves to get to real trail.

Taking our time and a few rest stops along the way, car to car total time was nine hours and 30 minutes. At this time of year we were in the shade the entire climb.

A fantastic day overall, somewhat reminiscent of solar slabs, and long days out East or at Tahoe or Yosemite. Feb 17, 2014

[Hide Comment] Did a 5.5 R variation to the 4th (dihedral) pitch. Just climbed to the right of the dihedral up the middle of the face to the same belay just above the overhangs.
Pro was iffy in some spots and impossible in others.
Not awful, but not really a better way. Mar 15, 2014

[Hide Comment] Had a lot of fun on this route.Pitch 5 was probably my favorite, wandering face with small gear. Be prepared for the long descent. Sep 18, 2014

[Hide Comment] We hiked to the start of Rising Moons then traversed over. We hung out for a while at the start of Big Sky, trying to match up the pictures and descriptions to what we saw. Eventually we figured out that we were at the wrong place and had to traverse just a little bit further.

After climbing pitch 3, we stepped down from our belay location to the ledge at the base of the pitch 4 corner.

I did not find anything that looked like a belay at the right distance as I was climbing pitch 5. (Apparently it was off to the right) I ended up climbing almost to the end of my 70-meter rope to reach the good ledge with a big oak tree just to the left of the face. This shortened pitch 6 considerably.

The pitch 6 belay that "appears just as you are about to give up hope" is not an obvious ledge or anything, it is a tiny perch with just enough crack to build an anchor. If you are 50 feet below the final crack, and you see a spot where you might be able to stand, and you might be able to get three pieces of gear in, then you are probably at the right place.

We followed the Major Tree descent line in 5 double-70-meter-rope rappels. The fifth one is the same as the Rising Moons rappel. This descent was quick and painless. May 5, 2015

[Hide Comment] Is there enough gear on this route for it to be a reasonable simul climb for two 5.10 climbers? Just thinking of efficiency, but don't want to compromise safety beyond prudence. Enough gear? Straight enough pitches? Clean of loose rock? Looks like a fun romp. Thanks. Mar 2, 2016

[Hide Comment] Thanks, John. Sounds good, fun, and fast. And I think we'll pay attention the entire way--been climbing since 1976, and paying attention has paid off so far. [wink] Mar 5, 2016

[Hide Comment] I think it's a bit of a stretch to call this a four-star classic (and probably to call it 5.7 for that matter) - considering the descent is perhaps more stimulating than the route... that said, this would be a fun route to take your adventurous grandmother up prior to dinner at Robuchon or a late night at Hakkasan. Apr 28, 2016

[Hide Comment] We did this route in late April of 2016 on the first day of a longer trip, just as an easy warmup to get some mileage and shake off the jet lag. I know a lot of people praise this route, and some of it is deserved, but it seems a long way from classic to me. The climbing is exceedingly easy (and yes, I am a big fan of easy). There are a few moves of 5.6 in the varnished corner and about 20 feet of 5.7 in the final corner, but the rest is barely 5th class. Additionally, there is a lot of runout terrain, especially on the upper pitches. Take care and make belays where you find them. We simul-climbed between decent belays. And the rock is a bit crispy in places. Now, having said all that, the positioning on the upper pitches is spectacular, and that is reason enough to scamper up this little route. Good? Sure, as long as your expectations are reasonable. Classic? Hmm maybe not so much. The descent is no problem. A bunch of raps beginning below the huge ponderosa about 300 feet down and climber's left from the top, with some scrambling between. Typical RR stuff. No big deal. May 13, 2016

[Hide Comment] A good fun route. The run out sections are on very easy terrain. Rock quality was good to very good. The last pitch wakes you up a little. We used single 60m, a couple of raps starting below the big pine, then lots of 4th and 5th class down climbing, then another rap trending skiers right followed by more down climbing to the Algae on Parade descent. More down climbing on skiers left to the tree with rap station below. From here 2 more raps. Next time will try the Rising Moons exit. May 5, 2017

[Hide Comment] Fun but very easy route. We simul-climbed the entre route except for the last pitch. The last pitch is probably 5.6. The descent is the most tricky part of the route. We found 5 rappel stations. We had one 60m rope which just barely made the rappels doable. Even with 5 rappels there is quite a bit of scrambling to descend. Nov 19, 2019

[Hide Comment] This route goes easily in 6 pitches with a 70m rope. The first belay location needn't change. From there you can reach the large ledge below the gully that you need to escape left from. Climb the short wall to the left of your belay and go up the slab, finishing the third pitch immediately below and to the right of the corner. From there, you can just reach one of the trees in the gully above and to the right of the corner. Again, escape left and continue up the face, running out almost all of the rope, and build an anchor somewhat lower than the usual location mentioned above. From there, you can just reach the tree at the top of the final corner.

A bighorn ewe joined me at the second belay and kindly offered beta, but I assured her that I'd climbed the route before and knew where we were going. Feb 3, 2020

[Hide Comment] My husband is a solid 5.10 trad leader myself a 5.8 and we were both very happy to have rap stations, as we were rapping n the dark. Not sure if it’s easier in daylight, but the descent was not something we could “walk down” comfortably. Solid route otherwise. Feb 11, 2020

[Hide Comment] Took a couple of my friends up this route on Nov 1st. Pretty fun over all. You can find decent anchors that are bomber if you know where to look. Ended up using a lot of nuts and small pieces on this route. If you're a strong leader you can solo most of it. We started climbing at 9am and were back at the car by just after sunset. Nov 2, 2020

[Hide Comment] Don't even bother trying to find the rap route for Lotta Balls. The trail is so overgrown and unused that it took us over 2 hours to find the cairns. Ended up giving up and going down the rap for Romper Room. Raps can be done with a single 60m but would go much faster with double ropes. Has a mixture of bolted anchors and tree anchors. Last rap will take you to a nice ledge with a small pool that could get your rope wet. Scramble down from there. Nov 26, 2020

[Hide Comment] Maybe it was just me, but besides the 4th pitch corner and the final pitch hand crack, I found the rest of the climbing largely forgettable. The top sections have a fair amount of lichen on them but even if that cleaned up, it would still just be endless 5.3 slab/face. For the descent, I did the gully above rising moons and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It was well cairned (you have to go up and climber's right, hugging some rock, before you can acquire the actual descent gully and go east), and the rap stations were fairly obvious and well done. I was able to do it pretty easily with a 60 m rope and some scrambling. The last two raps stations are shared with Rising Moons, and you will want to look skiers right at a slung bush/tree for the last station. May 29, 2022

[Hide Comment] I think this climb is all about expectations. It's a great option for bringing a relatively new trad climber onto their first big day--lots of movement, ability to move quickly and get high up a wall, and a technical descent. It's also great for experienced trad climbers looking for a long, relatively easy day. It's probably not a great climb if you're looking for a 5.7.

Also, I didn't see any way to avoid the final 5.7 climbing but it's very easy to French free with a range of cams from #.75 to #3. Nov 7, 2022

[Hide Comment] This is an excellent route to practice simul-climbing. Easy terrain with few obstructions. We cruised up in about an hour with three belays. It took us about twice as long to get down (with one 60m rope)! After finishing, we had to scramble up higher (trending right) than expected and we almost missed the left turn on the exposed slab traverse. Note the big pine that marks the rappel start is DEAD but still a good landmark. I guess we missed some of the rappel stations so we did a bit of head scratching and a lot of downclimbing. A great day of easy climbing. Apr 16, 2023

[Hide Comment] Not much to add about the climbing - most of it is pretty easy, some big run outs on easy terrain but on the more difficult pitches it eats gear.

The descent though. We did it with one 70m rope, would not recommend at all. More than once you’ll get off the rappel on a weird spot you have to then immediately do a sketchy down climb. I’d say of the 300 meters of descent, almost half was down climbing, including 4th and 5th class spots. It took a long time to do and was often not the most pleasant. If there were cairns for all of the rap stations at some point, as of now only a few of them are marked in any way, and the others can involve a lot of scrambling to find.

So basically, bring 2 ropes for the descent. I would not do this again with a single rope. Apr 17, 2024

[Hide Comment] This was my first trad multi pitch, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first route. Highlight of the route is probably the 5.6 pitch, which features a really cool crack dihedral thing. When it gets easy, there were several spots that were probably at least 50’ runout, but it’s hard to feel too nervous when climbing 5.3 or easier.

Also, if you spot a pool of blood right at the start of the route, that was me. I got a crazy bloody nose moments before following the first pitch. May 28, 2024

[Hide Comment] Lady Luck - Interactive 360°: go.ibex.fit/mp May 28, 2024