Pete had been out of commission for climbing for a couple months now but was finally able to get back on the rock. A few easy flatiron routes seemed like the ideal plan for the day. After a short hike and bushwhack we arrived at the base of the Front Porch and found the start of the two-pitch Tiptoe Slab (5.3) route.
A little run-out, the climbing was still easy and my only complication was finding an adequate crack for a belay anchor. Rumor is there is one bolt on this first pitch, but I didn’t find it (I did find an unneeded bolt on pitch two – not far from a protect-able crack). Pitch two was even easier and we did the short rappel from a tree on the west side while looking ahead at the Lost and Back Porch formations.
For Lost Porch we dropped our packs and the rope near the toe of the north east ridge and scrambled up in our approach shoes to tag the summit before reversing our route and hiking uphill to Back Porch.
Finding the 2-foot arch that marked the start of the East Face route, I led up through the layback “roof” and to a slightly shaded belay to combine the first two pitches in one. One more longer pitch led through the short roof crux (5.6) and on to the summit.
Two rappels brought us down, with the second being a fairly awkward slung arch that you start on top off before reverse-mantling to get onto the rappel.
It turned out to be a perfect weather day with a chance for me to tick another one of Roach’s Top Ten Flatiron routes (East Face on Back Porch marks my 7th of his 10 select routes).
