Photos:
http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2593749007/a=38054161/
Friday 9/25:
My friend RJ was planning to climb the third Flatiron with another friend from Michigan, Wayne, and one of his co-workers, Sam. I talked to my friend Thom, and we would attempt to climb a trifecta of the First, Second and Third. We would climb the Second, then the First, then the Third. Not the most optimal route in terms of hiking; but we figured we might be able to catch up to RJ and crew on the third if we started a little earlier than them.
Thom is a good climber, so we were planning on free soloing the routes. That is, climbing them without ropes and protection. Just in case we ran into trouble, we brought along some thin (7.7mm) line and a very small set of protection (think two link cams and a small set of hexes.) We would go until we didn't feel comfortable, or got tired, or whatever. Hopefully, nothing would occur and we could finish all three.
Thom and I met at 1:30pm, and made sure we were on the same page with respect to plans and gear. We began hiking around 1:45pm, and got to the base of the Second Flatiron around 2pm. We wanted to climb from the lowest point on the base to the summit on all three Flatirons, so we would start on Freeway (a good warm up) and then traverse over to the Pullman Car to climb to the actual summit. This would be a new twist for both of us. We had the rope just in case things got hairy (but I had looked at that route before, and it looked okay.)
The climbing went smoothly, and we reached the diving board around 2:30pm. This was Thom's first time there, and he checked out the jump. It's steeper than it looks in the pics. We both made the jump, then we made the traverse over to the Pullman Car. From there, we climbed up and over to the summit; arriving at 3pm.
I had only done the downclimb from the summit on the Second Flatiron once before, and that was with a rope. Fortunately, that wasn't too long ago. The downclimb went smoothly, and we changed back into our hiking shoes, and hiked down to the base of the First Flatiron. We climbed up the first Flatiron, taking a few new variations on the route. It was a great climb, with fantastic views. Pulled the small overhanging crux, and did the ridge traverse to hit the summit around 4:10pm. This would be the first time Thom had done the downclimb off the first Flatiron. I told him we could use the rope if we needed to; but he did fine. We even did the spicy finish, and were back on the ground at 4:30pm.
From here, we hiked down to the base of the First again, and then hiked over to the Third Flatiron. We ran into a friend and his Dad; they had just gotten finished with some climbing. We chatted for a few, and found out they had run into RJ and company. We headed to the start of the climb of the Third Flatiron; now around 5pm. When we got there, RJ and crew were still in earshot. The normal start to the Third isn't at the base; it's a bit of a ways up. It looked like we could downclimb to the base though; so we could finish all three Flatirons from the lowest point to the summit. We called up to RJ, and told him our plans.
Made the downclimb to get to the lowest point on the base, and then started climbing from the lowest point around 5:30pm. On the way up, we saw some old home made bolts and hangers. Neat. While we were climbing, it started to get dark. We caught up to RJ and crew near the summit; and were up on the summit of the Third Flatiron at 6:30pm. Not bad. Less than 5 hours; for I'd guess at least 25 pitches worth of climbing. (Albeit not that difficult climbing...) From here, we joined up with RJ, Sam and Wayne; and chatted while making our way from the summit. The Third Flatiron has a couple raps to get off the summit (at least, Thom and I weren't going to try to downclimb the spicy exit, for the first time, in the dark.)
We did the raps, and were all back on the ground around 7:45pm, then leisurely hiked back to the cars; arriving around 8:30pm. We headed back to my place for some celebratory drinks and to share tales of adventures from the past. It was a great evening!
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2593749007/a=38054161/
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish