Type: Trad, 270 ft (82 m), 2 pitches
FA: Harvey Carter, 1959
Page Views: 34,175 total · 121/month
Shared By: William Prehm on Dec 31, 2000 · Updates
Admins: Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac, Tyler KC

You & This Route


279 Opinions
Your To-Do List: Add To-Do ·
Your Star Rating:
Rating Rating Rating Rating Rating      Clear Rating
Your Difficulty Rating:
-none- Change
Your Ticks:Add New Tick
-none-
Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.
Warning Access Issue: 2023 Seasonal Closure - lifted DetailsDrop down
Warning Access Issue: 2023 Seasonal Closures - all lifted as of 10/20/23 DetailsDrop down

Description Suggest change

UNSTABLE FLAKE **RESOLVED** - December 20, 2023

After a wet spring and summer that made it difficult to coordinate inspection efforts, and a busy fall for city officials and PPCA board members, the PPCA board recently confirmed with GOTG park management that the flake in question has been removed.  

This route is located on the east face of Kindergarten Rock. Park at the Kindergarten Rock parking area and walk up the road. You'll see a faint trail on the left side of the road cutting through a field of POISON IVY. Scramble up the steep hill to the base of the prominent crack in the middle of the formation.

You can climb this in two or three pitches. I prefer two.

P1 climb jugs and pigeon shit to a thin layback crack just before the cave belay. Slings are setup here for anchors and rappels. If you decide to rappel from this location, either bring two ropes or rap down to a couple bolts/slings that can be used for the end of P1 if doing this climb in three pitches. 160'.

P2 is runout on moderate terrain to the top, minimal protection options. 110' to the top of the formation. There are 3 fixed pins.

DESCEND by scrambling down 4th Class to the south. There will be bolts to rappel from at the last part of the descent.

This climb is one of the classic climbs of Garden of the Gods.

Protection Suggest change

A standard rack.

One or two rope descent Suggest change

If you have 2 ropes, you can no longer rappel from just below the top, huge ledge. There is a
This is the top rap anchor due east of the mushroom boulder at the top of New Era. Note, the left bolt was a bit loose. It's about 80' down to 2 possible rap anchors. with links due east of the mushroom-like boulder. An 80' rap straight down gets you to 2 two bolt anchors of Diesel and Dust with beefy rap rings. A 160' rappel gets you to the ground. If you have only 1 rope, you could rap from the P1 anchors on Alligator Soup.

Per Stewart M. Green: in 2017, the Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Department asked the Pikes Peak Climber's Alliance (PPCA) to remove the convenience rappel anchors on top of Gray Rock above New Era. After discussion at last a June 2017 evening's PPCA board meeting, the board voted unanimously to remove the anchors.

If you climb New Era, be aware that you can no longer rappel off the top of the formation. Instead, climbers need to downclimb the South Ridge route to the base of South Slabs. This was done for safety reasons as sport rappellers have dislodged large blocks nearly hitting/killing/maiming climbers below.

Photos

loading