I was surprised that not one Minion was there to scramble with me this morning. That’s a first. Stefan must still be on his honeymoon. Tony was be injured or out of town. Homie must think I’m too slow now that he’s crushing me. Oh well. I did notice that Hardly’s truck was in the parking lot. He didn’t get the email as he’s not on my morning list and I figured he was out running the peaks, training for the Pikes Peak Marathon. I jogged up the Kinnikinick road and was surprised to see it all torn up and turned into a dirt trail. I don’t know if they are going to re-pave this or return it to a more natural state.
I got the base of the Third Flatiron in 20 minutes, working far too hard for a time that slow. A pair of climbers were gearing up to climb the fast and I said hello as I went by. I climbed the face steadily, but not all that fast. I was sweating a lot, but it wasn’t that hot out. I think the humidity was really high. A few hundred feet below the top, Hardly calls down to me from above. Sweet! I scrambled up to the summit and Hardly climbed back up to the summit with me. It took me 12.5 minutes to climb the face.
We reversed the last pitch and then descended Slip Slide Ledge to the Southwest Chimney Route. Then we climbed north over the saddle and down the trail to the bottom of the Second Flatiron. We climbed up the East Face of that, escaping near the top to the First Flatiron Trail. We descended that to the start of Baker’s Way and climbed up the steep start to that route. Above the start we headed straight up. I forget what this route is called, but it was a fun scramble. We had to escape right over a short, steep wall at the top of our face and then we followed another system up to the North Ridge.
By now the fogged had moved in, engulfing us completely. We descended the Southwest Face to the ground and trotting back to the parking lot, taking a little less than two hours for the outing. Hope the rest of you had a great morning as well.
Bill
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