Type: Sport
FA: Direct start Peter Beal, Upper arete Mark Rolofson
Page Views: 4,514 total · 17/month
Shared By: Peter Beal on May 13, 2002
Admins: Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac, Tyler KC

You & This Route


3 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: Security Risk closure 2/1/24 DetailsDrop down
Warning Access Issue: Seasonal Closures 2024 - Bitty Buttress, Blob (Eagle Rock & Security Risk now open!) DetailsDrop down

Description Suggest change

Ecstasy of the People is the striking bolted arete just left of Enemy of the People and was originally climbed with a traversing start by Mark Rolofson. Now the direct start goes free as a V10 boulder problem, making the upper, balancy, 12d arete that much more insecure. The whole line is now one of the classic hard free routes in Boulder Canyon, so train small crimps and have at it.

Full disclosure: I climbed the start with the first three bolts (which are 2 feet apart) clipped. The first one is a mandatory stick clip, as is the second one. If you fall from the last hard move with just the first two clipped, you stand a good chance of hitting the rope (and maybe the starting ledge?) since the low bolt doesn't keep you out of the way. Since I'm a wuss, and the start is truly a boulder problem, I decided to play it safe.

(Now that this route, despite being one of the most striking lines in the Boulder area, has gone five (make that nine as of 2011) years without a repeat, I am upgrading it to 5.14a in the hope that it will gain more traffic and there will emerge a consensus on the difficulty.)

Protection Suggest change

9 bolts/anchors maybe a midsized stopper at the top (it's about twenty feet to the anchor from the last bolt).

Photos

loading