A great climb if you enjoy getting your knee stuck in cracks. Begin 40 feet downhill to the left of '

Marine Life

' at the base of a 300 foot long, offwidth crack. Follow the crack either using gentle face holds or by repeating the same offwidth move 300 times to reach an interesting squeeze chimney at the top. Pop up through this to reach the ridge. It is impossible to go off-route. There are a few good belay opportunities that don't require 6 inch gear. Descend by downclimbing the easier (5.1) chimney next to '

Green Chimney

' or by scrambling off to the North.

This is an excellent route to climb after 'Inquisition' on The Fin, as it starts exactly where Inquisition finishes.

I Lichen Offwidths

Cave Exit

Seams Like a Crack

The Dolmen

Green Chimney

Marine Life

Crescent Variation

I Lichen Chimneys

Crescent

Smoother

Pine Tree Pitch

Yesterday, I started up the seam, not optimistic about finding pro. With cleaning, I found placements for small Tricams (two pinks, a red, a blue), a #3 C4, a yellow C3, and doubles of #0.4 and 0.5. When the seam ended, I placed a red C3 and a yellow Alien in a horizontal. I continued, unprotected for 40 feet, up the steepening slab. Eventually reaching a good horizontal, I cammed a pink Tricam (wishing I had another 0.4 Camalot) and traversed left to the top of the chimney. For the belay, I placed a bombproof #0.75 about 10 feet west.

We left a sling and rapped down the southern of the two short, overhanging chimneys directly to the west. Once we were on the ground, our rap route looked downclimbable. Once on the ground, we made the mistake of descending west and south, eventually down the flood-ravaged gulch. Going north and up, around the north end of the Ironing Boards would be better.

Very much like its namesake,

The Cave Exit

at Lumpy Ridge, this exit from the wall may have you scratching your head for a minute and also feel like a sandbag.  I found myself spinning around in full body stems trying to figure out how to gain the crack....  This steep little crack is a perfect finish after an ascent of

Smoother

or

Crescent

.  Just as safe to solo as to lead, since the crux comes right away and you would be looking at the same ledge fall either way.  Once you figure out how to get started, you are almost done.  After the perplexing opening moves, there is plenty of good gear and the difficulty eases quickly.  I would assume that this has been climbed before, since it looked fun and was the most obvious way to go....

The Dolmen is a good route with less signs of travel than the other similar, more classic routes of the area, those being Sooth and

Smoother

.  I got 1 cam in behind a flake about 60' up, and that was it for gear, but the rock was solid and predictable, and it was a comfortable "lead" for an otherwise experienced climber.  Much like Smooth, it may well be over-graded for difficulty (maybe 5.5-5.6 rather than the given grade of 5.7.  At the very least, it is not sustained at the 5.7 grade.

This route is called "Green Crack West" in Rossiter, but there are already too many Green Cracks/Corners in the Ironing Boards, so I though "Green Chimney" was unique as well as more descriptive.

This is a good, easy chimney climb, but the long approach and only 90' length make it hard to justify a trip to climb only it.  This climb is on the West side of the West Ironing Board (WIB), and is not easy to locate.  Approach either from Bluebell Canyon, or by going up the drainage between the Second and Third Flatirons, then climb a faint trail just west of Jaws to a wooded saddle just west of the summit of the WIB.  From here hike south two hundred yards, staying near the WIB until you can locate the chimney.  The chimney may be identified by the fact that an even easier (4th class) chimney lies only about 20' right of it.  There is no other place on the West side of the WIB with two such easy chimneys close together.

The chimney itself appears more difficult than it is.  Huge bucket holds always seem to appear when they are needed, and the crux is about 20' up getting into the narrowest part of the chimney.  From the ridge crest, continue north to the summit, or downclimb or rap the 4th class chimney.

About 100' feet up the bottom from the Cresent is a wide crack in the face.  Forty feet further north locate two cracks that criss-cross about mid-face.  Ascend cracks about 200' to where they fade out.  Then run it out 60' to the top.

This is an interesting name for this route, as a variation of

Crescent

, given that it does not share a single foot of territory with that route until high on the summit ridge where you would rap.

This route is much more runout than

Crescent

, as it lacks the P1 and P2 cracks entirely.  Othewise, it is a good and aesthetic route.  A lack of travel, however, means that it is slightly less cleaned, and some caution would be advised in pursuit of the route.  Remember this "If you fall, you are going to have a very bad day."  It seems unlikely a solid Flatiron slab climber should encounter any trouble, so the route is not ill-advised; it is simply recommended with caution.

P1 (5.6, 210'): start from the ground, and aim more or less for the lower section of the arcing, thin flake mentioned in the location description. Once this is reached, about 100' up, start placing gear when available in it, using 2' slings as needed to avoid drag.  The flake will curve strongly to the right and over.  When it ends, move up to a nice horizontal, a nice ledge shared with the belay as for the route '

Crescent

' to the left.  If you traverse back 20' left, you get into a vertical crack that takes a perfect old #4 and new #4 (1 each) Camalot for a belay.  Bring your parnter up this 210' pitch!

P2 (5.6, 150'-ish?): traverse back right from the belay back to just above the right hand end of the curving flake.  Staying to the right of P2 of

Crescent

, but left of a yawning chimney and OW system to the North, wander your way up gritty slopers and cobbles as securely as you can past a few horizontal cracks and get protection when possible, as opportunities are slim.  When you eventually reach the summit ridge, a few more pieces are offered, and you run up and right (North) as far as possible, considering drag and rope length, to set a second belay.

You can search for the anchor above

Pine Tree Pitch

and rap.  You can downclimb the

Green Crack Chimney

, or you can improvise a simul-rap from one of many places.  I've done all of the above and am not sure I'd find the same solution each time. If you are qualified to climb this thing without crapping your pants, you are qualified to find your way off of it as well.  Don't sweat that too much.

If, however, you can find

Pine Tree Pitch

and its obscured anchor, I recommend going down there so as to set yourself up to do that pitch next.  Nothing ends a day of slab mongering better than a stout, overhanging jamcrack.

Begin 30 feet uphill to the right of 'Thinsignificance' at the base of an enormous, never-ending, lichenous chimney. A few face moves enables you be engulfed by the massive chimney. Continue up, grinding your clothes/skin on rough rock for 350 feet to reach the ridge.

Descend by downclimbing the easier (5.1) chimney next to '

Green Chimney

' or by scrambling off north.

This is a fun route but requires lots of big cams to protect well.  I doubt anyone owns six #4 Camalots for this one, thus the S rating.

Start in the large crack a few feet right of Smoother.  This crack curves up and right and is rather striking from afar.  Unfortunately, the crack is an offwidth size and is awkward to climb and only useful for protection.  It is even awkward to protect as the easiest climbing is on the face a few feet right of the crack (where you can't reach the crack), and you may have to reach far inside it to place a #4 Camalot.

After about 120', you reach a sort of pod, and above this the crack narrows to about 3" for a short section.  You can belay here off a #3 Camalot, or continue.  After 30 more feet, the crack starts to lean right significantly and the climbing becomes much easier.  After walking right 50' (using a 60m rope from the ground), you will discover you are out of rope (and the crack is still 8").  My second had to climb up about 10' so I could reach a section where the crack narrows and I could belay (save one or two big cams for the belay).

The next pitch follows another wide flarey crack which continues up.  This crack is friendlier and offers several placements for small pro, although one section is filled with grass.  Move left at a horizontal crack, traversing until it is easy to go up (this point is about 30' right of the "320' anchor" on Smoother).  Continue up and right beside another large crack to the ridge crest.

You can do one easy pitch up the ridge, and downclimb or rap the Green Chimney, or continue two more pitches (when in doubt, head left) until the ridge become broken and very easy, and then walk off west.  The actual summit of the West Ironing Board is just north of here and can easily be scrambled up from the NE.

This is a very serious route and it is dangerous of Rossiter to give it a mere "S" rating.  There is a 300' section of rock with no decent pro at all (there is one ancient, worthless-looking bolt, see photo).  This climb begins a few feet left of the Crescent Crack, and heads straight up the face between the SE ridge crest and Crescent Crack.  The rock is smoother than average Flatiron rock, but it is solid and the position near the ridge crest is magnificent.  This would be a popular route if it had any pro (too bad it is not a little bit steeper or Erickson might have put some more bolts on it!).

The first 30' of the face are the crux.  After that, you can place a good cam in a downward crack.  Cross your fingers now, this [used to be] the last decent pro for the next 300', at least it is only 5.6 from here on up.  At 120', you will run into the [formerly] ancient bolt, this bolt is 10-20' above the summit of the tower to your left (Rossiter calls it The Dolomen) [this bolt was replaced by a bomber 2 bolt anchor in 2007].  From here, head up the face 200' to a belay on the left end of a crack/ledge (the 320' anchor).  After this, the climbing becomes easier and you can actually find pro, too (move right and finish as with Crescent, or head left behind a big flake to the easy upper ridge).

There are at least 4 ways to climb this route:

(1) free solo (elegant and simplistic, but potentially fatal),

(2) simulclimb the first 2 pitches, then belay everyone up conga-line style (more dangerous than free soloing for a party of 2, but this technique has been used by larger parties and is safe once the first climber reaches the 320' anchor).

(3) Climb Crescent (large cams recommended) and toprope each pitch individually from that route.

(4) Climb Crescent to the 320' anchor and set up a "toprope".  To find this anchor, climb 2 pitches up Crescent and find the first ledge/crack which extends left to the ridge crest.  Where this crack hits the ridge is the 320' anchor.  Set gear (medium-size cams) and do a single rope rap down 200' to the worthless bolt, then rap down another 120' on another rope (back bolt up to first rope!).  You now essentially have set up a toprope on the crux section.

This is a climb with great movement.  Were it a little less sharp or a little cleaner, it would be 3-4 *s.  Were it just off the road in Eldo, it would be all of that + crowded.

Start off on an awkward move to get feet up and stable enough to access a jam that started out of reach to the right.  You'll likely be barndooring off of some awkward-looking sidepulls to get there, but the rock is so course and sharp that the hands and feet stick like glue.

Toss in that jam and start a series of liebacks and jams up very steep rock, alternating between slots and shallow, left-facing corners in a singular line.  You will reach a gravel-covered shelf after 60'.  Looking up a right-facing corner and overhang (with massive pockets on the side), you can see a rope anchor that constitutes a belay and rap.

This is a pitch worth finding if you are coming off of the back of the West Ironing Board.

Description

Protection

Routes in West Ironing Board