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Indian paintbrush campground6/1/2023 ![]() High above South Boulder Creek, you’ll have bird’s-eye views of the Bastille and the Wind Tower, home to many more Kor routes. You won’t find the solid cracks typical of other moderate classics in Eldo instead, it’s all face holds and huecos, making it feel more like the hard-to-protect east faces of Boulder’s Flatirons, only tilted to near-vertical. The steep, wandering face climbing comes to a head at the namesake third-pitch “bulge” with some in-your-face 5.7. ![]() The Bulge is a window into Kor’s mind early in his career: It was his first major first ascent in Eldorado, and the blankest piece of rock yet climbed in the canyon. The runouts are long, and the route zigzags, making big swings a serious issue for the second. ![]() The Bulge(5.7R, four pitches) Redgarden Wall, Eldorado Canyon, Coloradoĭon’t make this the first Kor route you try… or your first Eldo 5.7… or a route you climb with an inexperienced partner. ![]() Guidebook: Rocky Mountain National Park: The Climber’s Guide: Estes Park Valley, by Bernard Gillett ($30, ) Head straight uphill to a large boulder, and then head right to the start of the climb. Gear: Rack up to three inches two of the largest pieces are niceĪpproach: Park at the Twin Owls trailhead, and walk the Black Canyon Trail to a signed turnoff for the Book. I also did five routes on Sundance Buttress, but I got credit for only three. I went around it and found an easier way. There’s this big, long layback crack that I did on the first ascent, but that time it scared me. Kor Says: “I went back and repeated it with Steve Komito. From near the top of the Book, pine forests and golden-green meadows sprawl below you, with views of Rocky Mountain National Park’s high peaks, Estes Park, and Sundance Buttress. Above is one of Colorado’s best granite hand and finger cracks, followed by pure Kor climbing on the Cave Exit-a roofed alcove with fun, thoughtful, 3-D turning and stemming moves. The technical crux-stepping from the big flake into a finger crack-comes later on the pitch and will feel like gravy after that scary start. The start of the 500-foot Pear Buttress is the mental crux: no pro till you master 20 feet of 5.7 slab and make a committing stem onto a huge flake. Pear Buttress (5.8, five pitches) The Book, Lumpy Ridge, Colorado Guidebook: Rock Climbing the Wasatch Range, by Stuart and Bret Ruckman ($35, ) Past the boulders, where the trail forks, take the right fork and head east to the base of the Schoolroom routes. Follow the trail west of the north-side parking pullout through the Gate Boulders. He remembers everything he’s ever climbed.”Īpproach: Drive 1.25 miles from the neon road-conditions sign at the intersection of Highway 210 and Highway 209 and park. Kor Says: “ The Hook-I don’t remember it. Savor the green-and-granite views of Little Cottonwood Canyon, sublime in autumn or at sunset. The final pitch ascends a wide 5.5 crack to a shelf, where you can downclimb to a rappel. When the flake ends, face climb right and then up to the belay-clip the bolt added by other climbers, or skip the clip and climb it with an “R” rating as Kor did. Reach this trad climb via Schoolroom (5.6), Schoolroom Direct (5.7), or Bushwhack Crack (5.8)-but make no mistake, you’re here for The Hook, the aesthetic, quintessentially Kor flake that makes up most of the first pitch. The Hook(5.8, two pitches) Gate Buttress, Little Cottonwood Canyon, UtahĪlthough relatively small at only two pitches, The Hook brought together two of American climbing’s larger-than-life first ascensionists: Kor and Fred Beckey. Here are seven classic, safe-enough moderates, courtesy of the legendary “Hard Kor.” Kor has acquired mythological status through his infinite energy and courage, especially on steep, rotten, terrifying terrain.įortunately, you don’t have to climb loose, unprotected 5.10 offwidths in the Black Canyon or nail up muddy walls in the Fisher Towers to paint in Kor’s brushstrokes. We can also walk the same lines as the legendary Layton Kor, who put up scores of visionary first ascents in the Utah desert, Eldorado Canyon, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yosemite Valley, and dozens of other crags and alpine faces across the continent during a decade-long frenzy beginning in the late 1950s. But as climbers, we can pull on the same holds John Bachar used on the Bachar- Yerian or do Sharma’s heroic full-body dyno on Es Pontas-theoretically, anyway. If you brought your own paintbrush into Spain’s Reina Sofía Museum and started tracing Picasso’s “Guernica,” you’d be arrested. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!Ĭlimbing is one of the few disciplines in which you can literally walk (well, climb) in the footsteps of the masters.
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