Illusional - aka Talus Hill Climb

The top 1/3 of this route is occasionally visible from CR3 as you drive south toward Sherman. It's a pure ice route. The approach is straightforward.

There is now an 8mm rope/sling around a 12" spruce about 20' beyond the crest of the ice, to rap the route.

There is a nice WI2 ice ramp along the falls left side.

As you view the cliff band, this route is seen in 'the' notch. I doubt you'd want to try to walk off - it would suck, and take forever.

= Cross the Gunnison River at a point just south of the small canyon, and stay in the dark timber as much as possible on the ascent. The talus is large and heinous. (Perhaps on a huge snow year, skinning up and skiing down will be fun and fast).

Once within 100' of base of the wall, take a hard right and traverse to the route.

From the road - plan just under one hour for the approach. On a good snow year, the approach would be more like 30 minutes.

Early ascents: Howard Pike in 1996 also by Matt Touchette and Ty Bones in 2003.

It is further suspected that Jeff Lowe & Mike Weis may have have hit these natural lines in the '70s?

South of Lake San Cristobal.
1/2 mile south of the intersection of CR3 & CR33, 500' above the road on the east (left).
You can see the top half from a point just south of the narrows, and also again from the sunny valley bottom another one mile south.

Screws.