Der Freischutz and Friends

Following a short drive up to Boulder’s NCAR parking lot, I hit the trails and left the few people behind who were also out this early as I turned up the Mallory Cave Trail. I’d never been to this part of the flatirons before and had a lot of rock formations to sort out and get to know.

Passing by Der Zerkle and Dinosaur Rock, I headed south on a faint trail to the southeast base of the formation known as Der Freischutz. The South Ridge was supposed to be a 4th class route to the summit. I went ahead and donned a helmet and switched to some climbing shoes, both actions I’m grateful for as the route seemed at least 5th class.

To start I headed up and left of a natural rock arch, then further along the ridge. The rock quality varied, with some spots showing signs of recent fractures and making me a little nervous about the holds I was trusting. Partway up I hit what I’d later decide was the crux, maybe I should have stayed further left?

A really enjoyable part of the ridge came later when I got into a solid water channel with plenty of pockets. Okay, this part felt 4th class.

Reaching the summit, I found two blocks of about equal height.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the rappel anchors (which I later saw were hidden a bit off the ridge crest). I certainly didn’t want to downclimb the whole route I’d just done, so I ended up going down the slabby 5.1 variation to “North Vee” which had just a little snow and some cold rock.

Warming up in the sun and glad to be off Der Freischutz, I decided to walk over and check out the “walk off” route up the Red Devil Formation.

Climbing in my approach shoes and helmet I decided the “walk off” was probably class 3. But there were a couple nice looking routes up the south side I’d like to come back and climb with a partner.

Heading back down the Mallory Cave Trail I stopped below Der Freischutz and looked for the West Face (5.0) route up to the top of Dinosaur Rock. The route description was confusing by mixing up “left” for “right” in describing the spatial relationship between a skinny tree and a dihedral, but I eventually figured out where the line must go. However, I decided to dry a variation left of the tree and dihedral which also seemed about 5.0 – but probably harder to downclimb easily than the more standard route.

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Once I hit a flat ledge I had to examine the last 15 feet of slabby climbing for the easiest route and carefully climb up to the ridge crest and shuttle along the top to the "peak".

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Carefully I reversed my steps then went down the regular version of the West Face route and rejoined my pack for the return hike.

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