Hiking and climbing in Colorado - Day 2 of 8

Initially, Megan wasn't totally keen on the idea of sleeping in the van, but after one night of surprisingly comfortable rest, she was a convert. We woke up on Sunday fully charged and ready to take on the Flatirons. But first, we made a trip to the Denver REI (one of the biggest REIs in the country) to pick up some fuel for the camp stove and some maps to the Colorado 14er's. While we were getting some information on camping around the Boulder area (not much), Russell the Moose was going wild running outside the REI and playing with some stranger bears he had just met.

Russell the Moose with his new friends

Photo: Megan Dunn

Back to the Flatirons, Megan and I packed a day pack and set off to scout out the approach, the start, and the descent of our intended route, so we don't get any surprises when we try to do it at night. This turned out to be a great idea, I was very glad that we decided not to push on last night, as the descent crossed some talus field. It wasn't difficult to follow in the light of the day, but doing it for the first time at night could potentially be a problem.

I was really out of breathe on the hike in, I blamed it on the altitude (the Flatirons were about 7,500 ft) but in reality, I was quite out of shape. After scouting out the descent trail, we went back to the van so I could take a nap to recharge (it's the altitude!). Then it was cooking dinner and sorting gear. By 7 pm mountain time, the sun was setting, but it was still a bit cloudy. The weather was not as clear as the night before, so I was a bit worried. Megan the Weathergirl assured me the clouds would clear out at night, so we set off as planned. On the hike in, we were rewarded with the sight of a red moon rising over the city of Boulder.

A bathroom on the right? Oh, a badmoon on the rise!

When we got there, there was another party on the standard East Face route (5.4R 8 pitches), but they were already about 4 or 5 pitches up. The route was wide open for us. We roped up and racked up, and Megan took the lead for the first pitch. She climbed mostly by the moonlight, only turning on her headlamp once in a while to look at her gear placements. Soon she found the giant eye bolt that marked the belay for the first pitch, and brought me up. I kept my headlamp off the whole time, using only the moonlight. The moon was up higher now, casting a silver glow on our route, which was east facing. It was bright enough to leave shadows on the rock, which made it sometimes tricky to see your foot placement. Climbing under the full moon was quite an experience, not something you can describe well with words. But I'll try anyway: It was like climbing in an alien world of black and white. It felt really surreal.

Megan shining her headlamp at me from the first eye bolt belay

We exchanged gear at the first eye bolt, and I set off to lead the second pitch (and unbeknownst to me, the third pitch as well). The moonlight was bright enough to see all the immediate moves, but it wasn't bright enough so route finding was interesting, and looking for the bolted anchors was a real challenge. I took what I thought was the easiest path up the slab, but I apparently had gone too far left, which caused me to miss the eye bolt belay for the second pitch. The gear placements were ok when you can get them, but they were hard to spot from afar, so my placements were a bit sparse. But the angle was slow, and the moves were easy. I climbed for what seemed like forever, getting more and more confused because I still haven't found the second eye bolt I was looking for (which was below me at this point), and the rope drag was getting bad enough that if I didn't find the eye bolt soon, I thought I'd get stuck somewhere because of rope drag. Finally I pulled over a lip, and spotted an giant eye bolt right in the middle of the slab.

I anchored in, brought Megan up, and half way up the "pitch" she yelled up, "I found the second eye bolt." Well, no wonder why the last "pitch" felt so long. I unintentionally linked the second and third pitch into one 200-feet pitch, and I placed all six pieces of pro on that pitch.

Megan made it up rest of the way without a pause, took the rest of the gear from me, and started on the fourth pitch. She found the fourth eye bolt anchor, way off to the left, without much trouble. "Mua ha! I have mad eye bolt finding powers!" Well I give her that, so far the record for finding the anchor stood at Megan: 3, Boer: 1. I seconded the fourth pitch, took the gear, lead the fifth pitch, and found the eye bolt this time without trouble, with a little beta from Megan. Megan: 3, Boer: 2.

Megan followed the fifth pitch, we exchanged gear, and she set off on the sixth pitch. She moved steadily up, just when I thought "she's been climbing for a while", and the piles of ropes on my tether to the anchor was getting pretty short, I saw her headlamp shining down at me from what appeared to be a big ledge. The headlamp disappeared again, and soon she called down, "Off belay!", "did you find the eye bolt?" "Nope!" Ahhh, her eye bolt finding power was waning.

I followed her pitch, judging by the distance she had climbed, I think she missed the eye bolt by half a pitch. But I did not find the other eye bolt either. I made it up to what I would call the sixth and half pitch, and took the lead for the next pitch. After a false start of about 30 feet and finding myself off route, I downclimbed and traversed right. According to the guidebook, the last pitch was the crux and runout pitch, but I didn't think it was too bad. The gear was certainly a bit sparse, but after sling a huge plate with a double sling, I climbed about 20-30 feet up and was suddenly at the summit. I had expected one more pitch of climbing, I guess I climbed a pitch and a half as well.

The rap bolts were set back too far from the summit, so I slung a big block with the ropes, and brought Megan up to the top. Looking out to Boulder, and Denver in the distance from the top of the Third Flatiron was really cool. Russell the Moose freesoloed to the summit after us, he posed for a summit shot with Boulder in the background, and then all three of us started the third rappels back to the ground.

Russell the Moose bags another peak

It was well passed midnight by now, we were tired, and Megan was getting a little cold. So we were extra careful, tying stopper knots at the rope ends, and double checking everything. Safely back on the ground, we started the long descent back to the car. This was when I was really glad that we scouted out the trail during the day, there were a couple points in the scramble we could have easily gotten lost in the dark. But nothing bad happened, we got back to the parking lot at 2 am, totally exhausted, but really happy at the same time for having done such a unique climb.

Another night spent sleeping in the van at the Walmart parking lot. Total cost of lodging so far: $0.

• Area: Third Flatiron, Boulder, Colorado
  
• Route: Standard East Face, 5.4R, 8 pitches
  
• Start from parking lot: 7:20 pm
  
• Hike in: 40 min
  
• Start from route: 8:00 pm
  
• Summit: 12:30 am (4.5 hours)
  
• Descent: 60 min
  
• Hike out: 40 min
  
• Return to parking lot: 2:20 am