The name is perfect.  Imagine a burly, tough SOB standing over the trail at the mouth of the canyon, guarding the entrance to the whole Skunk canyon area.  As you come out of the creekbed trail, the base of Ridge One is the first rock you encounter.  Its lowest downhill face is a 40 feet, severely overhung face covered with honeycombed pockets and pierced by bolts up the line of least resistance.

Negotiate some low angle, suspect, slab to the base of the overhang, clip an upward driven piton, (possibly backup with a second, more trustworthy pin farther in, long sling required) and start pulling yourself up past three bolts to stand up over the lip.  The holds are pretty darn awesome, although long moves or pulling on intermediates are required.  The crux is just having enough endurance to hang the holds but no real buckets till you clip the third (last) bolt and prepare to go for the top.

The Guardian

Better Than Better Than Love

Stairway to Heaven

Army

The Seeker

In God We Trust

Ariel

Inscrutable

Party Of One

Like Hell It Is

Arms Reduction

Who, Who?

Gunky

Armed Forces

Casual Slabs

The Wanderer

What, What?

Pepé Le sPew

Forget Me Not

Love

Better than Love

Start as for

Armed Forces

.  Clip

AF's

first bolt, and climb up overhanging rock, using excellent huecos and jughandles (10b).  Move right, clipping

AF's

second bolt.  Continue right and make a long reach to the bottom of the right-angling handcrack (crux).  Jam and crank up the short, intermittent crack, and reach a platform that is high on the southwest corner of the ridge.

Take a breather (or belay from gear); since clipping the first bolt, the climb has been consistently overhanging.  For me, the finishing moves to the platform were among the most difficult on the pitch, partly because of the endurance challenge.

Move a few feet east on the platform, and find the easiest way through the bulge to the top of the ridge.  Belay from gear.  To get down, traverse north, climb down (exposed fifth-class) to the double bolt-anchor atop

AF

, and rappel 85 feet.  Or traverse the ridge crest north (belayed fourth-class) to the first big tree (where

Ariel

ends), and sling it for an 85-foot rappel.

This has good clean rock and occasional but solid protection for a good trad leader.

'Better Than Better Than Love' is better than '

Better Than Love

', but as it is almost universally accepted that '

Better Than Love

' is no better than '

Love

,' it should be understood that it is not implied that 'Better Than Better Than Love' is not better than '

Love

.'

This particular line starts on a clean face and goes up to a hidden, horizontal, 2" crack, 5 meters up, then past a flake on the left with a tiny pine growing from behind it, then up a short and small, right-facing corner, past this to a crack and slab to the top. The crux is encountered just above the tree in a clean corner but can be escaped by bumping out left onto good face holds.

Head up Skunk Canyon to the base of this ridge. It will be the first ridge that touches down in the canyon, and start climbing up the bottom of the slab heading toward a big roof. The crux is moving left underneath this roof. Once around the roof continue up easy ground 4th class and some 3rd class. Further up you'll actually step off the rock completely as you come upon a deep cleft. Now step out to the right onto the east face of a pinnacle known as Like Heaven. Climb up to the notch just north of this pinnacle on typically great rock.

An extra credit ascent can be done by hand traversing out to the summit of Like Heaven. This traverse must be reversed back to the notch.

Continue up the ridge to the summit. Some might find the downclimb to the ground the crux of the climb. Downclimb to the east from slightly north of the summit. This is a steep slab with some tricky moves on mossy rock.

From the ground you can descend south along the base of the east face of Stairway to Heaven back to the base. This involves some 3rd class scrambling.

See Gerry Roach's classic and out of print "Flatiron Classics" guidebook. Gerry lists this as one of his Top Ten Flatiron routes. Despite its discontinuous nature this climb is on excellent rock with great positions and fun moves. And there is lots of it - this climb is almost a thousand feet long.

This is another line on the Casual Slabs section of the west face of Ridge One of Skunk Canyon.  Its slightly more challenging difficulty makes it feel less likely to be covered by one of the "many variations exist" line in Jason Haas'

Climbing Boulder's Flatirons.

Start this climb perhaps 30 feet down from

Casual Slabs

at a subtle, right-facing dihedral.  Scamper up to a short crack through a bulge.  Pop over the bulge at the crack.  This may feel harder for the vertically challenged.  Continue up.  Near the crest, you can go right with more protectable features or finish on the more enticing slab face (red Alien).  Consider a directional for the second (perhaps the tree 20-30 feet back). Once on the crest, move left to the

Casual Slabs

tree and belay.

The simplest descent is probably to downclimb/down lead the route or one of its neighbors.

This is on the plus side of a star.

Uphill of "

Love

" and approximately 40 feet left of a large gully lies a 5 foot flake below a clean and featured, orange colored section of wall. This marks the start of the route.

Mantle the flake, say a few prayers, then launch up sloping and angled rails toward the first and last bolt on the route. Clip the bolt, an ancient nail drive that does little to inspire confidence, then run it out over gradually easier terrain to a large ledge above. Continue up the corner above with good gear to the top.

Be aware that the crux of this route lies before the bolt, and a fall could be very bad.

This is a climb on mostly good rock and good holds but one that suffers for lichen and runouts. If it were to get a few good cleanings or a hundred ascents, it would be worthy of a might higher quality rating, but as is, its potential is unrealized.

From the small juniper, climb up and right (long reach) to a large flake, throw on a 3' sling, then go right to get established on top of it (crux, 5.8). Break hard left along a horizontal band below a bulge, passing some cam placements along the way, for perhaps 10 meters, until the bulge has ended, then climb directly up on jugs, tending left here and there when necessary to avoid difficulty.  The protection is scarce at best, but the climbing mellow.  Beware of the potential of slipping in the crisp lichen underhand or foot.

This is another line on the Casual Slabs section of the west face of Ridge One of Skunk Canyon.  Its slightly more challenging difficulty makes it feel less likely to be covered by one of the "many variations exist" line in Jason Haas'

Climbing Boulder's Flatirons.

Start (perhaps the crux) this climb perhaps 10 feet up from

Casual Slabs

at a blockier, right-angling feature.  Scamper up and rightward playfully on nice rock reminiscent of easier bits of Wind Tower in Eldorado Canyon.  Finish and move down and right to the

Casual Slabs

tree and belay.

The simplest descent is probably to downclimb/down lead the route or one of its neighbors.

The relative abundance of easily cleaned rock makes one wonder if another scrutable passed this way.

This is a reasonable route that could use some more cleaning, though we cleaned it up quite a bit already.

Climb up the steady overhang getting a few surprisingly good flakes and avoiding some not-so-obviously bad ones (but bad none the less). **Stretch** up over a crux to place a hand or large-sized cam (3"), and pull through with the gear above you on some questionable feet.

Once established up there, the next 90' are easier climbing but for an awkward bulge here and there. Sparse protection is adequate and seems to come when you want or need it.

Save a 2 or 2.5" piece for a directional, and beware that the top crack is a rope jammer/eater. I put a barkless stick in it to prop the rope out on a 'bearing' of sorts and it was a tremendous help. The stick is still up there. Lastly, I wore stiff high-tops on the climb, because I expected OW. There is far more (that being any) sloper, rounded feet than actual OW climbing with feet, so sport shoes or at least softer ones would have been much better.

From the top of Ridge One, traverse right for 30 feet (5.9). Place a #2 Camalot and head for a sharp point out right, then go straight up and over the apex of the large overhang. One can sling the point to reduce the runout and also place a small cam behind a flake at the lip. After pulling the lip, continue to the summit or build an anchor in a horizontal slot just over the lip with large cams.

Start as for

Armed Forces

continuing straight up after the first bolt to the top of the crag.

This is a tiny line up to the rappel tree on the Heaven Pinnacle of Ridge One.

Do a crux move to start made harder by shorter stature and the tiny bush to the right.  Move up and right to the arete.  An old style #4 Camalot (or #3.5 Camalot), works in a flared horizontal.  There is a funky, thin thread on the arete.  Go up the arete, and finish on a face below the tree.

This is a deceptively hard boulder problem to a moderate route.

Start from the ground on a few mail slots and power up to a sloper or a shallow pocket before clasping the edge of a crack and flake. Be prepared for the fact that it isn't over yet... setting gear here will be strenuous, and a fall without it ill-advised.

Step up off of the stack of stones which normally sits below this route, or clasp the bomber left jug and hop to the right to get started. No matter which, this was not the crux. Hook a heel hard right on the long slope and work your way up on less-than choice holds to the left-leaning crack above (crux). The existing Flatirons guide lists this at 5.10d, but it seemed a few letter grades harder to me and to my partner.

Once pulled onto vertical terrain, continue up for a short distance, to about the place of the fixed sling for the rap from 'Like Heaven.' Traverse hard right to a spot where you are looking up a long, shallow corner into the 'Slot' of the summit of 'Like Heaven.' Find a belay to avoid a drag penalty later. Finish the route as for Slot, climbing up cracks and into and through the clean bomb-bay chimney up top, which is far easier than it looks (5.8) Belay up top and finish on the summit of Like Heaven and rap down.

This is endurance crimping on consistently good but inobvious holds.  Climb up to the first bolt, and hang a long runner on this before the exciting traverse right to the next bolt (5.9+?, R), place another long sling, then head up to the next several bolts, tending slightly left to a 2-bolt anchor. The crux is not that hard, but it is high and requires some endurance to get without a hang.

This line lies in the lower angle section between Like Heaven Pinnacle and The Guardian overhanging section of the lower west face of Ridge One of Skunk Canyon.  Its description in Jason Haas'

Climbing Boulder's Flatirons

seems to be the first documentation of its ascent. It drew the eye of any slabber wandering up between Ridge One and Ridge Two.  In some ways, this section is reminiscent of Boulderado in Boulder Canyon.

Climb up a right-angling, faint crack system past a tree halfway up this slab.  Finish at a notch-like feature near a modest tree.

The simplest descent is probably to downclimb/down lead the route or one of its neighbors.

Note, in Haas' book, "many variations exist" may include some of the neighboring routes.

This is another line on the Casual Slabs section of the west face of Ridge One of Skunk Canyon.  Its slightly more challenging difficulty makes it feel less likely to be covered by one of the "many variations exist" line in Jason Haas'

Climbing Boulder's Flatirons.

Start this climb perhaps 30 feet down from

Casual Slabs

at a subtle, right-facing dihedral.  Scamper up to a short crack through a bulge.  Traverse up and leftward (crux) around a plate.  Move upward on easier but slightly runout terrain.  You can finish with the crack-ish system angling right or more directly up a face (less pro).  Once on the crest, protect your second and move left to the

Casual Slabs

tree and belay.

The simplest descent is probably to downclimb/down lead the route or one of its neighbors.

This is an interesting toprope line that is made more interesting with a few contrived sections to keep the challenges up.

Start on a slightly bulging crux start.  Move up and right slightly.  Stay left of the groove on a huecoed face.  Cross the gully and move onto the bulging face to the right of the crack.  Finish up and to the right of the tree anchor.

Probably 4 bolts would make this leadable, but it's not clear it'd be worth the application.

Start in the same place as

Who, Who?

Head up some easy scrambling past a bolt. Follow bolts up a steep wall to a corner. After bolt 5, start heading left for the arête. This traverse is the crux. A couple moves up the arête lead to the anchor.

You can toprope a few variations from the anchor:

Going straight up instead of moving left (easier).

Or traverse left with your hands on the lip, feet under (harder).

This is a short pitch with nice position that goes to the top of Like Heaven after going up 2/3's the way up

Love

.  The name is in reference to

Jenny Lowe's touching book

.

From a good, angling ledge in

Love's

dihedral, venture right onto steeper terrain connecting nice face holds with a short jog left and then right and the occasional gear placements.  The rock juts out in places, so you may move your legs carefully to avoid scraping them up.  Finish up at the 2 bolt anchor on top of the Like Heaven block.

It has some loose blocks, so it seemed unclimbed.  If it happens to be your route, let me know and we can update it.

If you link it with

Love

, you can make it a 155' pitch.

This west face route starts 400 feet from the southern edge of the rock. It ascends a steep left facing dihedral to the summit of Like Heaven.  The Like Heaven summit jets out of the face to the west.

P1: Begin on a large block, reach over the void and pull over the overhang.  This move is a little committing, a small nut placement at the lip might help this mental move. Head up a a few feet and tarverse right to a belay spot.  (~40 feet).

P2: Head up the wonderfully pocketed wall next to the wide left facing dihedral.  Belay at the top, off of slung knobs or large cams. (~80 feet).

P3: Climb the northern edge of Like Heaven to the pointy summit. (no pro w/ great exposure, ~30 feet).

Descent: There are two old bolts on the summit.  I guess one could do a double rope rap to the west.  We did a low angle rap to the east and continued up the ridge line. We then downclimbed to a tree and rapped.

This route begins in the same place as "

Love

".  See the description for that route to locate the start.  Crank the entrance move to get onto the rock.  After you reach a large ledge about 15' up, instead of moving up and right into the large dihedral (

Love

), move up and left.

The exact line of this route was not clear to us.  If you move far enough left you run into a clean arete, and we climbed this to the ridge.  I believe you can also climb the face right of this arete.  It may be possible to lead this entire thing in one giant pitch with a 60m rope, but you would have to be careful with the rope drag.  We split it up into two pitches.

Once you reach the ridge, you can downclimb the east side, or continue to the top.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Ridge 1 aka Stairway to Heaven