Putting up new climbs is sometimes like an artist seeing an image in a piece of stone and needed to carve it into that image. Sometimes you actually need to do some carving if the rock is bad enough. That’s gets into a whole nother subject and we are not going into that here. Moving on….
So no shit, there I was… I hammered in the last bolt to extend the “Holy Girlpile Batman!” route another 40 ft. and I thought to myself, “how am I going to climb this?” Last year, I climbed the mixed (rock and ice) route “Holy Girlpile Batman!” and rated it M12. It climbs up some hanging ice that forms from seeps in the back of an amphitheater cave and out a big roof follow by some 45 degree steepness to another section of roof out an arch feature. This route became the hardest in the Ouray area with that ascent. After driving by the cave a few times this summer, I thought to myself “that route needs to climb out the whole arch”.
Since it took me 3.5 days bolting that pitch on lead, I really wasn’t psyched to continue bolting it on lead. It would be a big enough effort getting the rope back up to the top of the climb. Bolting on lead is tough on the shoulders and core. I’ve dealt with enough injuries this summer and I really didnt’ want to hurt myself bolting on lead. With some shenanigans, I got a rope fixed over the route from the cliffs midway ledge. Several hours and eight bolts later connected me from the new anchor to the existing route. The new route will have a total of aprx. 22 bolts and will be over 100 ft. long. Most of those 100 ft. will be tackling severely overhanging rock. Climbing along the lip of the arch above the cave really gives you and “out there” feeling. It’s hard not to be terrified even though you know if you fall, you won’t hit anything. Building upon something you’ve already done is kind of a neat concept. It’s like perfecting something I guess.
I needed a project for this winter and now I’ve got one.
Now, I just need to climb the route and come up with a name for the extension.
In the photos: The blue line is the Holy GirlPile Batman! route and the red is the new extension. There’s also a pic looking down the route in case you don’t get a chance to get up there to climb on it, you can get a little idea of the exposure and perspective.
