Friday morning comes with a day off and I get some alone time in the car with the new album The National and an americano as I drive south to Colorado Springs. Once the visitors center at Garden of the Gods opens up I get a climbing permit from a lady who looks just like Sarah Palin. I look towards the park (and Pikes Peak) and spot the route I’ve come to climb, New Era.
Kevin meets me in the parking lot and we circle the park to hit the parking area we want then hoof it towards the southeast side of Grey Rock. The alcove at top of the second pitch helps identify the start of the route and we gear up in the shade of a large boulder.
I find the climbing on the first pitch to be pretty easy, but I remain careful around the sometimes horrible rock quality here. For the most part, the rock is good, except where it’s covered in bird crap. One ledge partway up pitch one is a veritable superfund site that I gingerly work around. I could probably easily link the first two pitches, but decide to go into the crux on pitch 2 with most all my gear so I belay at a not-so-great stance that results in a hanging belay.
Kevin quickly follows, only taking one short fall while trying to get a nut out. He’s less than excited about the hanging belay, but glad I didn’t link these two pitches as he feels a bit out of climbing shape.
For pitch 2 I start left of the belay and run it out a bit before I reach the layback crack. Actually, I mix laybacks, jamming and stemming to get past this section then hit a better belay stance at the obvious alcove. Kevin follows and takes advantage of my lack of cam placements above the crux to move right onto easier terrain then traverses back to the alcove.
I depart for the final pitch by exiting right and stop to capture Kevin’s belay and the road below.
Pitch 3 is easy, but wanders a bit and involves trusting some rock flakes that didn’t seem like they’d be around for a long time. I ended up exiting into a gully and belayed Kevin up then we scrambled to the summit.
We exited Grey Rock to the south, keeping the downclimb to 4th class to 5.0 as we followed a couple different gullies.
The final cliffs to the base were rappelled thanks to some large eye bolts.
[…] New Era […]
Americano good!