Flatirons

Photo cred: Micheal Zdero

I have had the pleasure of climbing all five of these soaring slabby beasts of foundation sandstone, and four of those were with Mikey (we will get the 3rd when it reopens). The 1st and 3rd are well deserved classics, but I found the 4th and 5th to be more adventurous and have more solitude. All of the east faces are extremely easy, fun, runnout slab climbing. Many of these are common solos, as they are very low fifth class terrain- and some of the pro is so sparse that leading them feels like a solo.

Rack: if you DO pitch them out like I usually have, you need only a single rack of cams to 3-4", nuts, and slings. A long cord is useful for making anchors and slinging large boulders. The advantage of simul-climbing comes in on just about all of them, as you will encounter 4th class terrain and not be able to establish belays within 70m sometimes.

Brief reports:

Ist

-1st Flatiron -2nd Flatiron -3rd Flatiron -4th Flatiron -5th Flatiron

-Flatiron Ice flatironsbouldering DerZerkle