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Unknown Arete

5.10- R, Sport, 2 pitches,  Avg: 4 from 1 vote
FA: unknown
Colorado > S Platte > Goose Creek/Mol… > Sheeprock > Acid Rock

Description

This has two long and distinctive pitches that ascend a much steeper feature on Acid Rock than a lot of its neighbors. It is a fun option for Le Tour.

Pitch one: chase bolts up through a very fun featured arete with a few fun mantles to good stances. End on a nice belay ledge with an anchor and huge(!) quicklinks.

Pitch two: step left onto the crux slab on perfect rock past 3 bolts, and ascend a blank panel just right of a large, open book crack. Then run it out (5.5 R) on much easier terrain past a few more bolts up to shared anchors with Odysseus and Cookie Monster.

From the top anchors, either walk off to the saddle or rap Cookie Monster. 

The FAs did a great bolting job on this one making for exciting climbing with well-protected crux sections.

Please add additional info if you have it!

Location

Start off nice, flat belay area directly below the arete. This is currently the farthest left bolted line on Acid Rock that’s easily accessible from the Baby Helen/Acid Rock saddle. It’s just left of Odysseus and right of a large crack system.

Protection

Bolts.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Graham Fillo
Castle Rock, CO
[Hide Comment] A lot of people have been curious about the unknown bolted routes on this part of Acid Rock. I've also been trying to understand what the deal is here. I'll try to summarize what I've learned from scouring for information across the Sheeprock page and put it all in one place. Hopefully this information will help this area see a little more exploration, and people can post their findings.

I believe there are three bolted lines on the upper Northwest side (left of Odysseus). The left two can be seen here in Darren Mabe's photo:

An approximation & upper detail of unknown routes right of Oklahoma Princess, starting location about 200 feet (?) downhill from OKP. The right skyline above is actually left side of Acid Rock to be accurate. The photo was taken from top of Anasazi Arete.


I'm pretty sure the leftmost line is P3 and P4 of North Buttress of Acid Rock. The middle route (shown as the right line in this photo) is unknown. C Fitch climbed it by approaching from the Baby Helen's, Acid Rock saddle. He said it felt 5.9, and he did not see any bolts past the first anchor. The rightmost of the three bolted routes on the upper Northwest side of Acid Rock is the route that this comment is posted under (Unknown Arete 5.10- R). Thanks Isaac Rubey for posting. It can be seen here in Ken Trout's photos (shown in blue as Unknown Arete 5.9?):

Cookie Monster, Acid Rock. Photo used with permission from Richard Aschert.


A Cookie Monster bolt map. Photo used with permission from Richard Aschert.


No one seems to be sure about the origins of these routes, but Darren suspects they might have been put up around 2003 or 2004 by a guy possibly named Jeremy or Jeremiah. Apr 8, 2026