Mt. Meeker

Other routes I've climbed on Mt. Meeker: 
East Ridge (3rd)     •    Flying Buttress (left, full) (5.10, 6p)    •    Flying Buttress (direct, post-rockfall) (5.10, 5p)    •     Heat Seeker (5.10a, 5p)     •    From The Loft (3rd) via Estes Skyline High Route (~50 miles, rock up to 5.4, 3.5 days)
Category: Colorado (RMNP)Summit Elev: 13,911 ftRock Type: Granite, Gneiss & Biotite Schist

This page contains two trip reports:

1.

Date: July 14, 2018 (Sat)Trip Report #: 299Partner: Annie Hines

2.

Date: August 24, 2022 (Wed)Trip Report #: 573Partner: Nate Beckwith

Route (2018): Flying Buttress (left, full) (5.10, 6p) 

Route (2022): Flying Buttress (direct, post-rockfall) (5.10, 4-5p) 

Excellent alpine climbing up one of the more striking features in RMNP.

Note: In May 2022, rockfall caused the first half of Pitch 3 to cleave off the side of the buttress. I reclimbed the route in August 2022 to scope out the rockfall scar and the new Pitch 3 bypass. This page contains two trip reports: (1) July 2018: Flying Buttress Left and all the way to summit; and (2) August 2022: Flying Buttress Direct post-2022-rockfall.

Table of Contents for this page

Route Overlays

(updated for 2022 rockfall)

Left vs. Direct vs. Right

Flying Buttress ascends the striking, narrow rib that leads directly up the north face to the summit of Meeker. There are enough variations of the Flying Buttress to constitute at least three almost completely different routes:

In July 2018, I climbed the Flying Buttress via a mix of the Left and Direct routes. My partner Annie and I started on the Left route but ended on the Direct route including the bonus Direct Finish pitches and summit of Meeker. 

In August 2022, I climbed the Flying Buttress Direct. Due to rockfall in May 2022, the nice 1-inch crack on Pitch 3 was no more, so my partner Nate and I climbed the Flying Buttress Right route for Pitch 3. All in all, this route differed by three pitches (Pitches 1-3) from my July 2018 ascent with Annie.

2022 Rockfall

Over Memorial Day weekend 2022, massive rockfall occurred in Dreamweaver Couloir on Mt. Meeker, resulting in one fatality and two injured climbers. The rockfall originated on the Flying Buttress which is just above the couloir. A gigantic part of Pitch 3 had cleaved off. The photos below show the start of Pitch 3, pre- and post-rockfall. 

July 2018: The 1-inch hand crack at the start of Pitch 3.
July 2018: The 1-inch hand crack at the start of Pitch 3.
August 2022: The rockfall scar. The 1-inch handcrack is no more. The rock looks a bit fractured, but climbable. I'd perhaps give it a couple of winters to stabilize.
August 2022: This piece at the base of the rock scar looks like it may fall off one of these days.

Trip Report #1 (July 2018)

(first time climbing Flying Buttress • Flying Buttress Left + Direct Finish • before 2022 rockfall)  

If the content appears to be truncated here, you may need to put your cursor in the region of text above the red line and scroll down to see more!

Trip Report #2 (August 2022)

(second time climbing Flying Buttress • Flying Buttress Direct • after 2022 rockfall)

Intro

After my 2018 ascent of the Flying Buttress with Annie, I had always wanted to return and climb the Direct pitches that Annie and I had not climbed. Word on the street was that Pitch 1 (5.10c) was excellent but a bit sandbagged. Then the rockfall occurred in May 2022. Initially I had been wary to climb in an area of instability, but as the summer went on and more ascents were made and it became clear that the pitches below the rockfall scar were not in the line of fall, I became intrigued to head up and scope out the new Pitch 3 rockfall bypass for myself.

My friend Nate Beckwith was interested in the adventure. We both had Wednesday off work and the forecast looked like it would provide a morning weather window long enough for the 5-pitch climb, so up we headed.

Nate and I had a great day climbing the Flying Buttress Direct. We found the first 10c pitch of the Direct route to be quite challenging at the grade, but Nate puzzled it out on lead and I followed it without issue. We thought it was stellar climbing. We successfully negotiated the Right variation for Pitch 3, and I got some photos of the fresh scar. A minor weather system hit just as we topped out, but it was dry and sunny within an hour. Overall, a fun and successful day climbing a RMNP classic route. 

The following gives pitch-by-pitch photos from our adventure. 

Time Stats

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd-4th

Hike East Longs Peak trail to Chasm Meadows, then scramble to base of obvious buttress.

Approach. The trail crew has really been doing some good work the last couple of summers.
Chasm Lake Cirque in morning light.
Chasm Meadows.
Flying Buttress. Looking chilly over there but the sun is starting to hit the buttress.
The 3rd/4th class scramble to the base of the route.
The 3rd/4th class scramble to the base of the route.
Looking up from the base of the route. We timed our arrival with the sun.
Yay, sun!(Sun arrived at the base of the route at 8:15am. We began to bask in its warmth, congratulating ourselves for timing our arrival at the base exactly right. But we were in for a disappointing surprise: just a few minutes later, sun then moved behind a buttress on the ridge. After a chilly hour, the base was in the sun again at 9:15am. According to my July 2018 photos, in mid-July the sun hits the base around 6am and never goes behind the buttress on the ridge.)

Pitch 1

(Flying Buttress Direct)

5.10c, 165'

There are two ways to start this pitch: a thin crack (5.10, but not as difficult as the 5.10 to come above) near the center of the rib or a hands splitter (5.8) to the right. These converge about 50 feet up. For the upper section of the pitch, follow a seam (tricky 10c, some may say it feels 11a) up the face to a pedestal. Go another 15 feet to the next ledge.

Looking up from the base of the route. The Direct route starts either on the thin cracks (5.10, but not has difficult as the 5.10 to come above) in the middle of the photo of the hands splitter (5.8) on the right. These starts converge about 50 feet up, below the 10c crux section.
Nate leading off Pitch 1. We chose to do the 5.8 start up the splitter handcrack. This was a wise choice, as it allowed Nate to conserve his smaller gear for the clutch pieces on the tricky 5.10c section above.
Nate leading the pitch.
The sun is coming! Here Nate is puzzling out the crux 10c section high on the pitch. Nice lead Nate!
The splitter handcrack start.
An old pin mid-pitch.
The tricky 10c seam.

Pitch 2

(Flying Buttress Direct)

5.10a, 150'

Work up difficult thin cracks through the flat face of the rib. Continue in a hand crack, then step around onto the west side and traverse over to an easy corner that leads to a belay ledge with a single old bolt.

Nate starting off Pitch 2.
Higher on Pitch 2.
The traverse onto the west side.
The old bolt at the belay ledge. Rossiter is a bit generous in calling this a "bolted belay."

Pitch 3

(Flying Buttress Right to bypass rockfall area)

5.10b, 200'

This pitch follows Pitch 3 of Flying Buttress Right described in the Rossiter guidebook. From the belay, climb a steep groove on the west side of the rib to a precarious stance with rappel slings. Continue up and left and follow another corner to the ledge with blocks. 

The pre-rockfall description of Pitch 3 for Flying Buttress Direct route is: "5.9, 165'. Move up and left from the anchor and jam a one-inch crack [this is now gone], then step left and climb a left-facing dihedral until 15 feet below a roof. This section is the same as Pitch 3 of Flying Buttress Left. From here, traverse right past a bolt and climb around the right side of the roof, going past two fixed pins. Climb up and left onto the face of the rib to a stance at a horizontal crack, or continue to a long ledge with some blocks down to the right." It may be still possible to start up the right side of the buttress and regain the Direct Pitch 3 at the fixed gear. Nate and I did not attempt to regain the Direct Pitch 3 above the scar—we just climbed the full Pitch 3 of Flying Buttress Right—so I cannot confirm if this is still safely possible to get to the second half of the Direct Pitch 3.

Nate leading the Flying Buttress Right version.
Taken about 1/3 of the way through the pitch.
The "precarious stance with rappel slings" mentioned in the guidebook description of this pitch. Go up from here.
Climbing up from the rappel sling stance.
At the belay at the top of the pitch. Photo by Nate.

Pitch 4

(Flying Buttress Left & Direct are same for this pitch)

(we linked this short pitch with Pitch 5)

5.7, 80'

From the ledge with blocks, continue up a corner system on the west side of the rib. Either belay here, or link easily with Pitch 5.

Note that by climbing Pitch 3 of Flying Buttress Right, this puts you on a ledge with blocks that is halfway into Pitch 4 of Flying Buttress Direct. So Pitch 4 is rather short in this case.

This is the portion of Pitch 4 we climbed after rejoining the route. We linked this easily with Pitch 5.

Pitch 5

(Flying Buttress Direct)

(we linked this pitch with Pitch 4)

5.8, 100'

Climb a vertical dihedral to the top of the rib. 

Vertical dihedral.
Old pin.
View down at the Flying Buttress.
View towards the Loft and Longs Peak.

Descent

3rd-4th

The Direct route tops out at a long level break in the buttress. From here, one may escape the route by traversing south to a notch. Descend slabs and scree to the west and north. 

While most climbers scramble off after Pitch 5, the route does actually continue to the summit. Annie and I climbed this full finish on our 2018 ascent.

To start the descent, head through the notch and then scramble left to the entrance to the descent gully.
Descent gully.
View of the descent gully taken while climbing the route.

previous and next adventures

(July 2018)
(August 2022)