lithophiliac's Logbook (128 ascents)

Plenty of thrashing available on this one! Take the best rest you can at the bolt and smear and stem your way to some key small edges on the right. I moved a good deal right here to place a bomber small cam (long sling) which made the move left around the corner way more secure. It's not over until the very end, with a thin slab traverse left to the belay. A memorable route!

A spectacular route which should get even more popular with the recent publication of Blake's book. Every pitch on this route was enjoyable and diverse. There is an equal mix of hard slab and thin crack cruxes with some interesting stemming mixed in. Pitches 5, 7 and 8 all had some difficult sections, but I felt pitch 7 was the hardest. Bomber gear at all the cruxes which would be easy to aid on if necessary. A must do for any 5.10/5.11 trad leader!

This route would make a great warm up to the area for those looking to do some harder routes. The approach is straightforward and each pitch was well worth doing. We took our time on this route due to a party above us, but everyone's suggestion to run it in 3 pitches with a 70m rope was correct. The crux pitch was fierce, but thankfully short and I would totally give it .11a. The last pitch was really fun and we ran it from the end of the .11a to the top with no issues. Descend into the gully on the South side via 3 raps and some snowy down climbing.

This is one of the finest routes I have done in 29 years of climbing! Every pitch (except maybe the last one), was beautiful and challenging and they all had their moments! I found the "mild runout" after the traverse on the crux pitch to be terrifying and the crux move to be way harder than .11c. The "A-Frame" roof section after that was rad!! A total cut loose on a single hand jam way out in space!! We did the direct finish for the final pitch which I would currently rate "Dirty .10c." According to my partner who has gone both ways, it was "Not as classic," as the regular finish to the left. Do this route! You will not be sorry!!

This is a really fun route which offers a much different flavor of climbing than is typically found in Washington. The Limestone holds can be tricky to find for granite based climbers, but it forced me to use better technique. We took a single 70m rope and a mix of 20 sport and extendable draws which allowed us to combine several pitches. The final .11c crux is short, totally well protected yet quite powerful. I fell here when a poorly chosen foothold broke. Bring a helmet for this route and watch for the huge patch of poison oak at the start!

We started this route from the ground via heavy bushwhacking in the lower gully to reach the base of the .11b pitch. We felt this pitch was best avoided as it was way harder than anything else on the route and also had some key flakes that were loose and ready to break off. Instead, take the third class ramps in from the left and start on P2 (5.8), or go up to the small tree at the base of P3 (5.10a - best option). Additional heads up! Traversing into the start of the second (5.8) pitch will leave you with no belay and a very difficult to reach 1st bolt! A leader fall here could be real trouble. After clipping the first bolt, it is best to move right, then back left (not obvious). Most available topo's suggest going left from the first bolt into a totally overgrown left facing corner. Not recommended!! The rock quality improves greatly after pitch two and all the other pitches were of good quality and easily protected. We had no trouble rappelling the route with a single 70m rope. Pitch three was a real gem and worth fighting your partner for the lead:).

Out of the many multi pitch routes I have done in Red Rocks, this was among the best. Just enough spice to keep the riff raff off, yet fairly mellow climbing overall. The approach was a real bitch, but we made it first try in about 1 hour and 45 min. The comments about keeping going if you are unsure which gully to take were helpful. Look for cairns. Also, you can DEFINITELY avoid the white rot gully decent on the way out! Just descend the main gully until you are forced to do a cool free hanging double rope rappel. At the bottom of this rap, trend climbers right and pick up the decent trail again near the red cliff band of the approach. This route is ten times better than Crimson Chrysalis with none of the crowds!

One of the best 5.11's I have ever done! Great rock, varied cruxes and with the hardest one right at the end. Its also super long with great views. What's not to love?

This was the best route I did on my recent trip to Skaha. Incredibly fun and sustained and with a heartbreaker, thin crimper finish. I didn't bring extra gear, but it really wasn't bad without it.

This was another classic Skaha face climb. Starts with some reachy moves on big holds, but quickly turns to a nice technical face. Long and well protected!