Iron Monkey shares

Superfly's

start but goes left into the thin crack. Climb bouldery moves into the hanging corner, and top out.

Iron Monkey

Flyswatter

Kloof

Extendogap

Paligap

The Wizard

Half & Half

Sequential

Lug's Crack

Weevil's Walk

Superfly

Jimmy G.

Overhanging, finger crimps, over small wired stoppers. Originally graded 5.12a by Skip and John.

This is not a bad route, it is pretty good, actually. It climbs better than it looks and is mostly good rock relative to its neighbor,

Lug's Crack

. Put the belay up on a ledge right at the entrance to the chimney. Climb up the unprotected 5.4 chimney facing left on casual moves with good rock and solid feet. Top out on the big rock that forms the right side. A critical gear placement can be made out on the left side of this. A knuckle-sized cam goes deep into a small crack and would keep you from tragedy if you made a mistake stemming up into the corner.

Get whatever other gear you can and head up into the corner. The stem over felt 5.7 for me, but I was strtched a bit. Shorter climbers may find this to be a bit harder (5.8 suggested by my partner). Head up the corner with reasonable protection and to the top. Once on top, climb up and slightly left to a solid tree on a ledge to belay.

To descend, scramble out onto the slabby backside, head across this slab 30' over to the right side, and go up top, coming back left to reach the raps. Chain and webbing on a solid juniper lead to a 100' rap to the ground. A 60m rope should be fine if you stay aware of the landing and don't try to go too far right at the sloping base.

Kloof is the leftmost route in the eponymous alcove for which it is famous.  It follows a very chalky crack line out the left side of the alcove and finishes at a double-bolt anchor (50+ feet).

Start on the chalky incuts under the center of the wall and boulder right until you can roll over onto the ledge.  Sink some gear in the crack and charge left on excellent buckets to a powerful crux (the pump clock is ticking!) Move right at the top of the route to reach the bolt anchors.

Repeat as neccessary.

Climb up the very soft .12a "Space Neutralizer" to reach the base of the overhanging arete above, or traverse in easily from the left (the start of "

Kloof

"). Clip the 2 pins hidden back at the base of the chossy dihedral and place a small cam in a horizontal break on the arete (double ropes are useful for making this work without drag). Move slightly down and right to gain bouldery moves that lead up right to a set of fixed wires. One more move past the wires leads to easier terrain and a gear anchor off mid-size cams. Although it looks quite dangerous the fall from the crux (which I tested a few times for good measure) resulted in only a bruised hip, so a ground-up ascent would not be unreasonable. I believe Baldwin applied to have this route bolted but was denied (Rossiter mentions it as the TR line "Extendogap" .12c in his guide) and I assume it has never been lead until now--although in Boulder I could certainly be wrong. Skip Guerin may have done in barefoot in '85? Zach Smith deserves most of the credit for this line as he had the vision to see it as a headpoint and placed the fixed wires just above the crux.

"An obscure route worth seeking out...."

This quote is the opening line from the Levine book implied, to me, a good route, yet it was only given one star. I am the sort of climber who does EVERYTHING, but this piqued my interest even further. It's been on my list of to-do's for a while, but somehow I never got to it until recently, and it didn't disappoint.

The first pitch was like a scruffy Flatiron, unfortunately with some pine needles on it. The second had some odd, mostly sideways climbing on shallow and sloping heucos with sparse gear. The third pitch was the business. It is significantly steeper than it looks at first, the protection is pretty good and relatively close at any given time, and the climbing is thought provoking and employs a lot of tricks. The steep route folks from the gym would have to give a route-setter credit for a climb like that.

The first pitch is something you just have to do to get there, nothing special. It might have been more fun if it were cleaner. The second pitch was cool and thought provoking. Jo described it a '

Alice in Bucketland

-like' I guess I agree, but it is less steep and less positive. The pro is similar, but if you can climb 5.10, it hardly matters. It's not R/X but maybe PG-13. The top pitch is why you came here. My only criticism of it is that it isn't long enough. Then again, were it much longer, perhaps I'd have had a harder time of it and the grade would be higher for sure if sustained at the difficulty it was.

All in all, I understand Levin's grading. You can't give it 3 stars, because the first pitch is not worth much, but it is worth going to do for the last pitch for sure, and the second pitch is engaging.

Climb steep weakness approximately 20ft left of Kloof with a crux down low and another difficult section near the top of the pitch.  Currently a bit dirty, but a worthwhile and steep route.  Start up a left facing corner to a roof, with a stance below.  Plug the cracks in the roof (#1 camalot, with other options).  Continue to the top.

Locate the start of

Kloof

and boulder up the jugs to the ledge.  Jam and layback straight up the groove to the second chalked-up jug rail.... Place bomber pro and launch off on the crux sequence and the best 3 feet of steep jamming in Eldo.... Weave out left and up to the anchor OR finger jam straight up the crack (better and a little harder).  An excellent pitch, possibly the best (sans fixed) pitch of its grade in the canyon!

This route gets a star in the Levin book, which could easily be justified by the interesting climbing, yet the route has detractors sufficient enough for me to point them out.

I frequently speak of certain obscure routes as "a good 5.9 for 5.10 climbers" or something to that effect, but this one is "a good 5.9+ for 5.11 climbers."

Yes, it is a sandbag. It is runout in spots. There is also some bad/dubious rock.

Buyer, beware!  This write-up comes from a fairly choss-tolerant and runout-tolerant climber.

Find the last of the route at the far right end of the buttress. I attempted to boulder out a more direct start at first and despite being fairly careful with weight distribution, snapped off 2 consecutive hand holds, and took a short grounder. There *IS* a reason why the route starts where it does.

So start off on the right and head up and left onto a left-leaning diagonal seam and crack, heading for a right-facing open book.  You will pass a pin placement that should be backed up with an alien or other small cam.  This old ring angle is over driven, frozen by rust and levered.  Nice to have, but not trust-worthy, and the nearby gear is actually good.

Clip those, and head more directly upward in an open book (questionable gear here - I bypassed it) onto a nice ledge. This part of the climb was 5.9-ish.

From the ledge, one can belay or continue. Considering what is to come, you might want to belay here (optional in the book) so as to minimize the rope you have out for the next crux, which is a complete sandbag and not too far off of the ledge.

From the sloping ledge, go inward to a very steep (roof/bulge), right-facing corner, and look up to a small cam placement just out of reach. You will want that clipped before pulling the next few moves, and if you are short, that will be problematic. I reached into the sharp in-cuts on the left and toe hooked into the corner hard with the right foot to gain some height and place and clip that gear before coming down to rest, which was a good idea.

Gear established, work your way up through this bulge and onto the rock above it. There are some slopers, some off-angled cracks, some sidepulls, a heel-hook,

etc

.... I am not sure how to do this at the 5.9+ level, so I can't give great beta. My shorter partner, a regular 5.10 to 5.11 trad leader in Eldo, fell several times before giving up and aiding that section. I thought that it was at least solid 5.10 and I was just having a bad day... (

caveat emptor

). Get established up there,  get a little gear, then continue. A few more bulges clock in at the 5.9+ level (more honestly) including one up high which either goes on slopers or a strange/blind side-pull out to the right.

Place solid gear before this, then top out in a brief section of offwidth through scabby rock and breath a sign of relief on top. A long cordalette  around a boulder or some creative gear sets an anchor, but you have gone up, over, and down, and the rope will run through a small crack (rounded), so the stance in and of itself is probably sufficient for a belay.

To descend, scramble up and northwest on the rising traverse of a slab, then back South to a juniper with chains and webbing. Rap 100' to the ground. A 70m works great for this rap with spare rope, and a 60m is fine if you watch where you want to land, so as not to go too far right.

This climb begins with a bit of unprotected face climbing to reach a short but steep, hand and finger crack. The crack is the crux, but be prepared for a bit of spicy climbing getting to it.

Not really a one move wonder, buuuttttt. It has a burly set up with one fat reach at mid-height, then stays hard 11 all the way to the top. This a great route for the climber that's got that, "Been there, done that, Eldo 12+, kinda attitude". Definitely unique.

If that's not good enough for ya, Chad Greedy has added a VERY sweet direct start to Superfly, tentatively called "Supah Dupah Fly", that kicks the whole thing to 13b or so....

Jimmy G. is a short but good pitch with solid rock and technical moves and jamming. It is perhaps a little harder for people with large hands.

The route rises up a few feet on a face to intersect a finger to hand crack in a corner... that leans left 45 degrees. This route climbs like something 1/2 way between a normal climb and a traverse under a roof. Cruxes come whenever the footholds get scarce.

Find your way up to a very water polished slab, and squeak your way up that for 20' to a small ledge.  Another 10' of easier scramble will take you to the base of a large pine, which is at the start of the route.

Crimp a few holds to reach a seam (protection here), and then make a move up and left to get into the obvious diagonal crack that runs up and left for several body lengths. This protects well every few feet on middle-sized Aliens and hand-sized cams. A crux comes just past halfway through where the crack changes sizes at a pod and feet are scarce and then again getting around the corner of the roof.

Once on top, go back to the second tree to belay. This is large and has a few fixed slings.

One can rap from this tree, though it should have a link added (no ring/ling present right now), or continue on

Weevil's Walk

(recommended, since you are there).

Description

Protection

Routes in Kloof Alcove