Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1501124007/a=38054161_38054161/
Tuesday 7/21:
Got together with Brian for another after work Flatirons climb. This time, we were going to head up Freeway on the Second Flatiron, and then use that as a link to Zig Zag on the First Flatiron. We started hiking around 5:30pm. On the way up, Brian realized he forgot the tri-cams (rock protection). We joked that it was starting to have the makings of a good epic story; "We started late", there were some clouds so "the weather looked iffy", and "I was in a rush so I forgot some gear." We were planning on going up Freeway on the second Flatiron, which both of us had already done and it's a pretty easy route. We would then hook up to Zig Zag on the First Flatiron which was a new route for us. It's not that difficult though, and I still had my pared down rack; so we continued on.
We got to the base of the Second Flatiron, and took a few minutes to get into our harnesses and shoes, and to cool down a little. We discussed the climb, and decided to just free solo Freeway. Both of us had climbed it before and felt comfortable with it's difficulty. We started up around 6pm, got to the diving board and made the jump. Shortly after, we traversed to a ramp exit that would get us close to the Zig Zag start.
Headed over to the start of Zig Zag and took a look at it. Didn't look too bad, but looked like the roof section could be a little loose. We got the rope ready and I started up the first pitch around 6:45pm. Sure enough, there was a lot of loose rock on the first roof section. Carefully picked my way around it, and made a solid belay at a tree. Got Brian up to me, and we discussed the next sections. It didn't look that bad, so we would communicate over the radios and if it was good, we would do some simul-climbing. The rest of the route was pretty fun. There was one more roof section (which after the fact, now looks like we shouldn't have climbed up and over.) That roof was a little challenging; but we were able to still simul-climb all the way up to the ridge. I arrived at the ridge around 8pm, and then set up a belay and got Brian up to the ridge.
Brian then headed towards the summit dragging the rope as I sorted out all the gear. He made it to the summit, and started to thread the rope through the rap rings. I climbed up to the top of the next ridge, and then untied the rope so Brian could finish threading and preparing the rappel. Soon after, we were both on the summit enjoying the setting sun. We rapped off the summit around 8:15pm, packed up and were heading down around 8:30pm.
Got to the cars just before 9:15pm. It was a great night. We never really rushed, but definitely traveled efficiently this time. Went up 10+ pitches of climbing, saw a new route, and still made it car to car in less than four hours. I'm looking forward to my next Flatiron outing with Brian...
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1501124007/a=38054161_38054161/
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish