Bay of Pigs

This route is in the Rossiter and Haas guidebooks to the Flatirons. I led the first pitch on January 8, 1995. My partner was unable to follow, so I didn’t do pitch two until yesterday, when I followed David Light up both pitches.

Pitch one climbs 25 feet to a 3/8” bolt that has an old SMC hanger. There’s a nut placement in a horizontal just before this bolt and a good placement for a small nut a few feet above the bolt and just below an old fixed wire.  Continue up a steep seam, past a pin and a bolt, to a two-pin-and-bolt optional belay at about 50-60 feet (10d R).

Continue up and right, past a blind placement for a #4 Rock or #7 Stopper, to the base of the prominent overhanging-to-vertical crack. This 5.10 crack starts out wide, tapers down almost to fingers, then opens up to hands. It ends atop a pillar. Belay from gear placements and one bolt.

Pitch two steps down, traverses left to a bolt, and wanders up and left, past six more bolts (5.10), to the summit. From a two-bolt anchor on top, a 140-foot rappel reaches the ground. David and I rapped 100 feet to a ledge from which scrambling south (not easy) or north (easy, longer) reaches the ground.

The route starts at the center of the WSW face.

A full rack through a #3 for the crack. David left his #4 on the ground and used his #3 as part of the belay anchor. Because the bolts and pins are >30 years old, I wouldn’t trust those much. The route is past-due for a makeover of its fixed pro.