A couple of purposely Unnamed locations in RMNP

Category: Colorado (RMNP)Elev: ~11,000 ftRock Type: Granite (Loc #1) & Granitic Gneiss (Loc #2)
Dates: August 2020 (Loc #1); July 2021 (Loc #2); July 2021 (Loc#1)Partners: Nate Arganbright, Rob Scrivner
Trip Report #: 439, 477(these trip report numbers correspond to the first times I climbed at Unnamed Location #1 and Unnamed Location #2 and established this page on my website)

Some Photos

August 2020 & July 2021
July 2021

Climbers flock to Rocky Mountain National Park for its great climbing in a spectacular location. Over the years, regulations and crowds have begun to detract from the alpine experience. But there are still a few locations of good rock in the park that most climbers do not know about. Best to keep them that way.

This page features some photos from climbing in a few of these undiscovered gems in Rocky Mountain National Park. These areas will remain unnamed and the photos will not reveal their locations. 

Unnamed Location #1

(First Trip to Unnamed Location #1)

Date: August 2, 2020 (Sun)        Partner: Nate Arganbright

Climbed about 5 single pitch routes ranging from 5.8 to 5.10. Excellent granite.

Photos

Great rock here!
Date: July 14, 2021 (Wed)       Partner: Rob Scrivner

After cragging on a couple of pitches and seeing what the weather looked like it was doing, we climbed Astropocket, a 5-pitch 5.12 route up a 600-foot section of the wall. Astropocket is a phenomenal route on great rock, pretty sustained at the 5.10 grade with several 5.11+/12 cruxes. Pitch difficulties (approx): 5.11+/12, 5.10+, 5.11+/12, 5.9, 5.11+/12. Rob led all of the cruxes beautifully! Thanks Rob for climbing this route with me!

Steep snow on the approach to the base of the rock. Even though it was about 100 feet of snow, it would have been nice to have crampons, but we had changed climbing plans last minute (because of weather) and did not have them with us.
A nice corner.
A nice slab.
Great rock and techy climbing on Pitch 1 of Astropocket.
Nice bolted slab on Pitch 3 of Astropocket.
Fun corner on Pitch 4 of Astropocket.
You can rap from bolted anchors with double ropes. But we brought single ropes so had to rap off a nut at one point.
I had parked my car at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center for the day. Turns out they had planned to repave the very section where I parked, and when the paving crew arrived they were so set on completing the job that they just paved around my car! No signs had been posted in the morning about the upcoming repaving job, and a park ranger actually called me to apologize and check to see I managed to get my car out of the parking spot. I thought the whole situation was pretty hilarious and enjoyed taking some photos of my car before inching it onto the sidewalk and out of the spot without running through any fresh pavement.

Unnamed Location #2 

(First Trip to Unnamed Location #2)

Date: July 10, 2021 (Sat)        Partner: Nate Arganbright

Climbed a 5-pitch 5.10+ route we called "Hackmandy". This was likely the second ascent. Nate had done the first ascent with Scott Kimball in 2011. Pitch difficulties: 5.7, 5.10+, 5.9, 5.9, 5.8.

Photos

Approaching. No trail.
Purple fringe.
Purple fringe.
Western wallflower.
The first three pitches of the route climb the obvious corner system to a cannon hole in the ridge. The final two pitches climb on the other side of the cannon hole to the top of the spire.
Pitch 1. 5.7.
Pitch 2. 5.10+. The crux pitch.
Pitch 2. 5.10+. The crux pitch.
Pitch 3. 5.9.
Pitch 3. 5.9.
Cannon hole at the top of Pitch 3.
Pitch 4. 5.9.
Pitch 4. 5.9.
Pitch 5. 5.8.
Descent.
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previous and next adventures

(August 2020: First time cragging at Unnamed Location #1)
(July 2021: First time cragging at Unnamed Location #2)