The Wasp

The Wasp may be THE best single pitch, trad, granite route of its style and difficulty in Colorado! There are a couple single-pitch routes in CO that come close, but this is a unique gem combining great rock, super aesthetic moves, and great pro. In my opinion, California fine-grained granite has always catered to more memorable crack pitches than almost anywhere in CO, except for this very spot (and parts of the Platte).

A word about ratings. …I had heard a couple comments from climbers who felt that The Wasp does not warrant a 13a rating, and to be honest, neither did I. But...I did not onsight it, and I completely sieged the route by fully inspecting gear placements and moves on rappel. How can anyone accurately rate a climb? It is so subjective and with any climb there will always be many factors that will obviously affect the perception of difficulty. At the time I redpointed this route, I knew a couple climbers who came close but only 2 climbers who had onsighted it, and I am assuming each was a true onsight. To onsight the Wasp without ANY prior knowledge of the moves OR the gear placements is an awesome accomplishment. En route, there are some cryptic sections and a couple of moves where you must bear down, but in general the climbing is more cerebral, and there are no “stopper” crux moves. On the other hand, the gear requires some thought in a few placements, but as a whole the route protects beautifully. Every climb is different. The Wasp was for me “easy to learn”. I believe this would be the same for most. Nonetheless, it is a worthy and challenging climb whatever you decide to personally rate it.

Located on the upper tier of ROA between

Greensleeves

and a Tommy Caldwell 13- fully bolted route (which is left of a Topher D. torturous corner route) is The Wasp. Start at a flake that becomes a straight in crack. Near the middle, the route zigs left and zags right to a rest before the last leftward stretch to the top and the bolted anchor.

Bolted anchor, one pin (last piece), an assortment of standard and "offset" nuts through the size range but mostly in the medium range, double cams from Metolius #0 TCU through flexy WC Friends #2.5 (three 1.5 Friends), and runners including double-length. Double rope technique could be helpful due to the zig-zagging nature of the line.