This (together with

Que Rasca

) is one of my favorite routes in the Flatirons.

It follows two shallow, thin cracks up the center of the East face until they disappear. From there it continues up until it joins

Que Rasca

before reaching the arete.

The route is very runout, and even in the sections where gear is available, it can be tricky to place due to the shallow nature of the crack. This is not a climb for a budding 5.7 leader....

Start on the East face some 10-20 yards North of a large boulder that almost leans against the face (the route can be seen and approached easily from the saddle West of the Third Flatiron, at the rappel landing).

P1. climb up the blank slab until you reach the first incipient crack, follow it to its end and switch right to the next thin, incipient crack. Easiest climbing follows the right side of the crack. Protection is not available in the first 50 feet. After that, the crack allows gear in every 30 feet or so. Use these opportunities wisely. After the second crack dies, climb up some 15-20 feet to a camouflaged new bolt. From there, a short traverse right and up and back left for some 25 feet puts you at the two camouflaged belay bolts. This pitch is about 60 meters.

P2. Climb around, left or right, the large bulge just above the belay and head to the top of the bulge. Continue to climb directly above the belay for some 30 feet until you reach another brown bolt. This is the juncture with

Que Rasca

. Clip the bolt and climb up and left (crux) on delicate flakes, friction, and nubbins until you reach the arete. Belay at two bolts (

Velvet Elvis

belay).

P3. From here, an easy but exposed class 4 50m scramble takes you to a weakness on the ridge. Across the notch you will find two rap bolts.

Rap West down some 20 meters.

Smooth

Que Rasca

Hammer of Thor

Sinatra's World

East Ironing Board Traverse

[Redacted]

Honemaster Lambada

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

Seam

Green Room

Tommy Gun

Hyperpolysyllabic

Hey Slick

Hand Crack

South Face

Sunbreeze

Velvet Elvis

The Raven

Crackin' Up

This exciting route follows the SE ridge of the Eastern Ironing Board.  You can begin the climb at the very base of this ridge, just above the bottom of Bluebell Canyon, this adds 2 or 3 poorly protected pitches to what I describe.  The standard start is to hike up along the base of the East Face for several hundred feet, until reaching the second of two wide cracks/gullys.  Left of the point where this crack intersects the main ridge there is a subsidiary summit, the most significant one along the lower half of the ridge.

Begin up a slab left of the wide crack/gully.  Climb up the slab (some scary unprotected 5.7).  On the second pitch, you can head left to the ridge crest and go over the subsidiary summit, or (easier) traverse right, crossing the crack/gully and then on up to the ridge crest reaching it after the subsidiary summit.

Either way, the climb now follows the ridge crest.  You will find a bolt and fixed stopper at the top of the route "

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

", and then you can belay at a good bolt before where the crest steepens.  The next 40' is the crux and is totally unprotected.  Consider that this route translates (roughly) "How Scratchy" in Spanish.

An alternate way to do the crux section (not necessarily any better protected) is to traverse 20' north to another bolt (this bolt may be on the route "Smooth"), and then head straight up to the crest (5.7 s).  In either case, after the crux, you will come to the bolted anchor at the top of

Velvet Elvis

, you can belay here or continue another 140' to a notch, where you will find a 2 bolt anchor on the other side for a 60' rap W to the ground.  A 60m rope barely makes it from the bolt below the crux to the top belay.  In fact, with a 60m rope we were able to do this entire route in 3 pitches, but they were all full pitches.

Hammer of Thor heads up from the second bolt (not including the pin at the start) of

Velvet Elvis

.  The climbing is nothing to write home about;

Velvet Elvis

and the nearby

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

are both better routes.  My partner and I both felt that this climb was more difficult than the crux of

Velvet Elvis

(which is 11a), but it may have been that we were tired and hot.

Rap off the last bolt or scramble easily up to the anchor above

Velvet Elvis

(from which, incidentally, you can rap to the ground with a 70m rope - a 60m is likely to get you down in one rap as well).

This is a two star climb with a four star setting.

Climb four clips of 5.11+ to the big rest and then fire a techy V8 boulder problem to the top.  The crux consists of big moves with tenuous heal hooks and finishes on a nice runout to the slab jugs.  It is worth the hike!

This route makes a rising traverse from the bottom left to the top right of the East Ironing Board. It is an exciting adventure and a great way up the rock.

Pitch 1: From the toe of the buttress make a rising traverse rightwards up the east face to a tree belay at the bottom of a wide gully. This is only 25 feet directly above the ground (5.1R, 190feet).

Pitch 2: Continue up and right to belay in an offwidth crack. Belay takes 3-5 inch gear. This pitch is runout for both leader and follower (5.5X, 190 feet).

Pitch 3: Continue up trending right to the next crack. Follow this up to belay at the top of the first pitch of Hand Crack (5.4R, 150 feet).

Pitch 4: Continue trending up and right to the bolted belay of

Smooth

. The last 70 feet are runout for both leader and follower (5.4R/X, 160 feet).

Pitch 5: Climb directly over the bulge to a thin seam leading up and right. The crux here is poorly protected. Follow the obvious crack system with good protection to a tree belay (5.6R, 160 feet).

Pitch 6: Follow the crack above for 30 feet, traverse right to the next crack, pass a tree to reach a notch on the ridgeline. Belay from bolted anchors on

The Raven

(5.4, 100 feet).

Scuttle 50 feet up the ridge to tag the summit if you feel the need (unprotected 5.1).

Rappel 55 feet west from

The Raven

anchors.

Unusually steep for the Flatirons, and peppered with pebbles and cobble stones, Slave to the Rhythm (STTR) is Boulder's little slice of Maple Canyon.

Climb an easy groove and traverse in from the left making some hard moves to gain an obvious set of huecos about 15 feet off the ground.  From the huecos, make a long reach to a pebble (crux#1), and continue moving right using small pockets and cobbles until you reach the first good rest.  After recovering, make a couple of more right trending moves and then crank through a very pumpy section of pebbles and cobbles (crux#2) that ends at a horizontal break.  When you feel rested, kneebar past a very steep, right facing lieback feature (crux #3) to the chains. If you are pumped, clipping the anchors could be challenging.

Besides the huge hike and a little traversing, there is nothing bad to say about this route.  The moves are fun, the rock is great, the holds are easy on the skin, and there is no glue or manufacturing.  Too bad there aren't 50 more route just like it!  Wait, there probably are, they just can't be bolted.

Start just right of

Slave to the Rhythm

. Undercling and kneebar out the huge, right-facing flake until you can gain some face holds back left moving up to the third bolt. After the fourth bolt, traverse hard right on perfect pebbles similar to the holds on

Slave

, and catch a good rest in a right-facing corner. Now comes the hard part... thin face holds and pebbles lead up past the fifth, sixth, and seventh bolts. Now set up up for the final boulder problem dyno over the last bulge.

Be sure to do the big king swing after cleaning your draws.

This is a nice, little, sport climb just right of

Velvet Elvis

,

Hammer of Thor

, &

Sunbreeze

on East Ironing Board.  Often its limited season is due to raptor nesting.

Find a right-angling line of 8 bolts up a cobbled face.  There is a thin and balancy crux for 10b at the 3rd bolt.  It is fairly sustained and harder than 1st pitch of

Velvet Elvis

, 10b.

Rap 70 feet.

This route is far nicer than it's name would suggest. It's located just uphill from Tommy Gun and the Raven dihedral, and downhill from the Green Thumb. It is easily identified by sighting the thin crack heading up the steep, clean sandstone face.

Start by angling right to a small tree, then fire straight up the thin crack/seam. Thin pro can protect the section above the tree and below the first bolt. It starts getting hard there and seems to just get harder as you progress upward... pretty sustained, excellent climbing throughout the bolted top, lots of very thin footwork too!

I recall my partner stopped to pro above the 3rd bolt, and that's how I'd probably do it too on lead, but it's pumpy to place the gear. And I could see some people rather running it out to the ledge, it's maybe 10 or 15 feet past the bolt or so. At any rate, I was glad to be following this sustained pitch!

Belay on the horizontal ledge above the crack, which ends up more or less below the second pitch roof of Tommy Gun.  There are no rap bolts there so you can either finish with the Tommy Gun roof (5.11a) which is fun and exposed, or I believe it would be possible to 4th class traverse directly over and down to your right to the Raven rappel.

This route is not listed in Richard Rossiter's "Rock Climbing the Flatirons," [but someone provided a name & FA].  However, both my partner and I felt that it was hard, but short, 5.11.

The climb is located on the right wall of an obvious cleft/chimney that is a ways downhill (south) from the

Velvet Elvis

area.  Richard Rossiter marks this as a "tunnel" on one of his topos for the Ironing Boards area.

It is easy to stem up this route using the opposite wall for three of the four clips, but no doubt the route is meant to be done without the aid of the other wall.  Either way, however, the crux comes immediately after the third bolt, so you can't "cheat" through that.  The climbing is mostly hard moves on small but positive holds up a gradually overhanging face.

This is a steep, wild, and pretty good 2-pitch route located uphill of

Velvet Elvis

, just left of the clean left-facing corner (

The Raven

). The first pitch starts up and right along a flake, which involves somewhat spicy climbing but on easier terrain. The flake progresses into a shallow, right-facing corner, where you stem and face climb up interesting 5.10 or easy 5.11 climbing, with smaller nuts and/or creative gear in the corner. The corner fades and the line face climbs up and right, past a bulge, to the large horizontal ledge. Traverse left to the overhanging crack and belay.

The second pitch is relatively brief, but it goes out a splitter hand crack set in an exposed, overhanging, left-facing dihedral! Fire up the sustained and exposed crack, and belay on top. This is a nice finish to a good climb.  Third class down to the rappel anchors above

The Raven

and rap 60' to the ground.

This is a good route that tends toward the brutish style - big holds and good jams but sometimes with distance, obstacles, or awkward positions between. Start up the crack and pant your way to the top, passing an awkward crux just above the 1/2 way point. Belay from an anchor over left of the crack after the hard climbing is over.

To descend, go up and over the summit point and to the left to the anchors of '

The Raven

.'

Begin at the hand crack just to the left of the large boulder leaning against the east face just to the left of

Smooth

.

Climb the hand crack until it ends, then move left to another crack.  Climb a short face to a crack which ends just below the ridge.

Rappel from

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

.

This climb can be done on of a few ways, and whilst the technical crux will probably be going over the roof, the insecurity and lack of gear on the 5.6 slab is probably going to be the most memorable climbing on the route.  Take a pair of real climbing shoes on this, not scrappy dirty approach shoes.

Sunbreeze is a fun crack climb sandwiched between bolt routes on the south side of the Eastern Ironing Board.  The crux is pulling the roof at the start which is shared with

Velvet Elvis

and

Hammer of Thor

. The hardest move in the crack above is only 5.8, but the crack and the slab to its left are more challenging than they appear from below.  Lots of pebble pinching makes the climbing exciting before the difficulty eases near the ridgeline.

Per

Mark Roth

: there is a single bolt anchor.  You can go to the anchor for

Velvet Elvis

via

Que Rasca

and rappel, but the second rappel bolts are showing some rust.

This is a wild and exciting route that traverses the lip of a huge overhang.  If you fall off the traverse pitch you have the feeling you'd be dangling in space.

Hike up to the SW of the East Ironing Board.  This route is obvious as it is the last place to get on the face before a huge roof.  You should be able to spot the bolts above this roof.

At the base is a small overhang which leads to a left-facing dihedral (the route Sunbreeze).  Clip a pin in this first overhang and crank over, then move right into the base of the dihedral (optional belay or pro, large cams needed).  If you don't bring a big cam, you could take a pretty big fall just before you clip the first bolt (although it is fairly easy here) [a pink tri-cam is reported to fit in a pocket around here].

Move left out of the dihedral, clipping 7 bolts as you climb diagonally up and left above the big roof on cemented pebbles (9+).  Try not to think about one of the pebbles popping off.  Belay at two bolts.

The final short pitch fires up past 3 bolts (11a).  This is one of the easier 11a's I have done.  From a 2 bolt anchor on the top, rap 130' back down over the roof.

This is a short route with a short amount of good climbing, but that part of the climbing is very good. The route gets 11c in Rossiter's book but may be easier if cleaned well. The intrinsic difficulty lies withing the technical stemming. With a little less lichen and dust, it might be no harder than 11b. Not much harder than Eldo's '

Climb Of the Century

' or '

Rincon

.'

Start up into the corner on stems, moving from one small but good nubbin to another on the wall. Small stances allow you to place a piece of protection every several feet, but mind your stances and do not slip. As you progress, the climbing reaches the mid-to-hard 5.10 level, then the crux pro can be placed or clipped if already in place as it presently is, a small BD stopper welded-in by a long fall. Back this up with a tiny cam above it, and go for the crux, progressing upward until you get a shallow, sloping pocket on the left near the top of the corner and the flake on the right.  Power up and over the lip, with due consideration to the possibilities of:

1) a long fall to the starting ledge if you get rope stretch or a poor belay.

2) the possibility of placing gear here, out of the pumpy and insecure stance.

3) the chance that the gear would pull anyway.

In consideration of these, I simply continued to climb, as it had eased up to 5.10 by this point.  Pulling onto the slab might be 5.9 or so, and maybe could have protected with a blue (#3) Camalot. Make easy moves up the slab to the anchors.

This sweet crack climb follows the furthest right crack on the east face. Hike uphill along the base of the east face past all the other routes. Begin 30 feet left of the enormous corner.

P1: Delicately ascend the runout slab to join the main crack system. Follow the exciting flared hands/offwidth crack until you have no more rope. Save some big pieces (3-5 inch) for the belay.

P2: Continue up the crack passing two trees (optional belays) to reach the summit. Rappel 55 feet west from bolted anchors on '

The Raven

'.

Description

Protection

Routes in East Ironing Board