THE LOST WORLD

Other climbing adventures in Fern Canyon:
Category: Colorado (RMNP)Elev: ~8,700 ftRock Type: Granite
Date: June 18, 2023Trip Report #: 621Partner: Nate Arganbright

3 routes at The Lost World:

The Lost World is a sublime area of granite domes in RMNP with some sunny low-commitment off-the-beaten-path climbing.

Table of Contents for this page

Intro

Fern Canyon represents the two miles of terrain between the west end of Morraine Park and the confluence of Fern Creek and Spurce Creek with the Big Thompson River. The Fern Lake Trail wanders up this forested canyon and reveals a fairly impressive line of cliffs to the north. Relatively few climbers visit these crags, instead drawn to the bigger objectives in the area. However, this area is a good place for some sunny low-commitment or earlier-season climbing in RMNP. The most popular zones of climbing are Rock of Ages and The Lost World. This page is for climbs I have done at The Lost World, a group of domes and buttress on the mountainside north of The Pool. I have another page for Rock of Ages.

Route Overlays

Overlays for the routes I have climbed at The Lost World. Photos of these routes are given in the trip reports on this page.

Area
The Colossus.
Moot Point Apron.
Gnome Dome.

Trip Report #1: Colossus Crack Pitch 1 (5.8, 1p), Welcome to the Jungle Pitch 1 (5.9, 1p), Night of the Unicorn (5.8, 4p) (June 2023)

Intro

Nate and I were itching to get into the alpine, but it had been an unseasonably wet and cool spring, and it was not quite warm enough to head up high. The Lost World in Fern Canyon—where I had never been and wanted to check out—sounded like a good place for a cool June Sunday. The timed entry system makes last minute trips into RMNP uncertain, but fortunately we managed to secure an elusive timed entry permit. 

After perusing the guidebook descriptions and topos, we decided to start the day by linking up Welcome to the Jungle (5.9, 2p) on Moot Point Apron with Colossus Crack (5.8 R, 2p) on The Colossus. But our plans were a bit thwarted by conditions. The corner on the first pitch of Welcome to the Jungle ended up being quite vegetated and wet (the route is apparently appropriately named), so we wisely backed off of this and instead scrambled up to The Colossus. Due to an error on the guidebook topo mis-labeling the location of Colossus Crack, we explored around a bit. Once we located Colossus Crack we climbed the first pitch—which I thought was engaging and quality climbing at the grade—but the wind was whipping around the arete so we lowered off a couple of fixed nuts already up there. Next, we went and collected our gear we had left on Welcome to the Jungle (we created an anchor at the top of Moot Point Apron, fixed the rope, I rapped down to the ground, and then Nate belayed me up, which resulted in a fun 200-foot pitch of climbing for me). After some lunch and feeling the need to do a route to completion, we climbed Night of the Unicorn (5.8, 3p) on Gnome Dome. This moderate route had some good rock and fun climbing. After a rather tedious descent down a gully I wouldn't recommend, we enjoyed a flowery hike out.

Overall, this was quite a fun day of exploring and climbing with my favorite partner. I thought the climbing was just okay, but the sublime and crowd-free (we were the only ones there) nature of the Lost World area made up for it.

Below are some photos from my first visit to the Lost World. The photos are organized by climb.

Photos

THE COLOSSUS

Colossus Crack

5.8R, 2p

This is one of the better routes at The Lost World. The route begins on the left side of the east face in the leftmost (and largest) crack.

P1 (5.8): Classic hand jams near the southeast corner of the formation lead to a sloping ledge.

P2 (5.8R): Climb straight up from the belay on the south face and angle up and left through some unprotected right-facing corners. Continue up broken features straight up the south face and finish with a short, but perfect, finger crack. Belay on a big ledge near the top. (We did not climb this pitch due to gusty winds on the arete.)

Descent: Walk off to the west. (Or, from the top of Pitch 1, you can lower off a couple of fixed nuts.)

Approaching The Colossus by scrambling left and up around Moot Point Apron.
The Rossiter guidebook has the numbers incorrect in the topo. Corrections noted above.
At the base of Colossus Crack on The Colossus.
Pitch 1 of Colossus Crack climbs the wide splitter just above the tree. Fun 5.8 climbing.
A view up. Pitch 1 of Colossus Crack climbs the wide splitter on the left. Fun 5.8 climbing.
Nate starting up Pitch 1 of Colossus Crack.
Nate climbing Pitch 1 of Colossus Crack.
Fun 5.8 climbing on Pitch 1.
Looking up from the top of Pitch 1. Pitch 2 starts slightly to the left and climbs up right-facing corner systems and easier ground to the top. We would have liked to climb this pitch, but the wind was whipping around the arete. So we just climbed Pitch 1 (there is a 2-nut anchor at the top of Pitch 1, so we did not need to leave any gear). 
An intriguing cave on the right side of The Colossus.
The cave. I had to check it out. It turned out to be more of a slot than a cave.

MOOT POINT APRON

Welcome to the Jungle

5.9, 2p

This route climbs the curving open book dihedral on the left side of the south face.

P1 (5.9): Climb the dihedral past some ferns and a steep constriction, the continue up flakes and cracks to a tiny ledge. (The corner was quite vegetated and wet when we climbed it.)

P2 (5.8): Head straight up a thin crack, undercling left around a roof then work up and right and belay in a gully. (We climbed right of this pitch when we lowered down from a top anchor to retrieve our gear and climb the route.)

At the base of Welcome to the Jungle on Moot Point Apron.
Nate heading up Pitch 1 of Welcome to the Jungle. Just above where he is the corner was quite vegetated and wet (the route is apparently appropriately named), so we decided to lower off, and lower down onto the route from above to retrieve our gear. This was a good pitch of climbing, but after toproping the slimy 5.9 corner I think we made a wise choice not to continue.
Climbing above Pitch 1 of Welcome to the Jungle. I think this is to the right of Pitch 2 of Welcome to the Jungle. 

GNOME DOME

Night of the Unicorn

5.8, 3p

This line ascends the middle of the west face of Gnome Dome and passes through a broad A-shaped roof in the wall.

P1 (5.4): Romp up an easy crack and traverse right to belay on a ledge with a pine tree.

P2 (5.7): Work up and left for 40 feet, then go right and climb a thin crack. Once above the crack, follow easy rock to belay beneath the right side of a conspicuous A-shaped roof that is visible from the talus. (We climbed more directly up from the pine tree at the top of Pitch 1, resulting in a good pitch of climbing but probably closer to 5.9 for a few moves.)

P3 (5.8): Climb through the apex of the roof and follow a thin crack up a beautiful slab to a small ledge. Meander up easy 4th class slab to the top of the dome.

Nate starting up Pitch 1 of Night of the Unicorn.
The way we went on Pitch 2 of Night of the Unicorn. We linked this with Pitch 1. I think we chose a variation since it seemed a bit harder than 5.7.
A death block just right of the belay at the top of Pitch 2.
Nate pulling the fun roof on Pitch 3 of Night of the Unicorn.
The roof on Pitch 3. Pretty quality 5.8 climbing in this section.
The crack above the roof on Pitch 3.
A nice view of Moot Point Apron and mountains behind from the top of Gnome Dome.
To descend, we took a ramp system toward the west.
An old sling around a tree someone had rapped off of. The sun had bleached the color out of the outward-facing section, and it cut quite easily.  I wouldn't trust a sun-baked sling to rappel off of.
To get back to our packs at the base of the route, we decided to head down this gully along the west side of Gnome Dome. This is given as a descent route in the Rossiter guidebook. It worked, but had some 5th class moves on wet rock, so I would recommend descending around the west side of Moot Point Apron instead.
The descent gully. I wouldn't go this way again.

Approach

2nd

To reach The Lost World, hike the Fern Lake Trail 1.7 miles to The Pool (going past Arch Rock and Rock of Ages). Turn north and scramble up steep talus, past a marsh, and eventually up a talus gully that leads between Moot Point Apron and Gnome Dome.

We managed to secure an elusive 6-8am timed entry permit when they released them the evening before.
Starting the hike down the Fern Lake Trail.
Fern Canyon was burned in the 2020 East Troublesome Fire, which had started in Grand Lake and jumped the Continental Divide in RMNP. I think I enjoy the hike through Fern Canyon better post-fire since it is open and interesting. The undergrowth is bursting to life.
Burned trunk, from the 2020 East Troublesome Fire that jumped the Divide and tore through Fern Canyon.
Lots of ferns in Fern Canyon.
Approaching Lost World.
Approaching Lost World.
Western wallflower.
A cute tuft of daisies.
Another cute tuft of daisies.
Dasies.
Shooting stars.
Shooting stars.
Green penstemon.
Pussy toes.
Nate was never here. These infrared trail counters continually monitor the amount of infrared energy within their field of view and when there is a significant change from the ambient amount, they record a count.
As we drove out of the park entrance around 4pm, the line of cars was all of the way back to the Visitor Center. Summer has arrived in Estes Park.
Newt likes to get in on the action.
Pussy toes.

previous and next adventures

(Colossus Crack Pitch 1, Welcome to the Jungle Pitch 1, Night of the Unicorn - June 2023)