The Matron with Mark

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I've been trying to revisit all the Flatiron Classics from Gerry Roach's book and today Mark joined me to link up the East Ridge and the North Face, both Classics, of the Matron. We met at 5:30 a.m. and hiked in rather slowly to the Matron. My legs were still a bit dead from the Pikes Peak Marathon and I had little energy to go uphill, though the soreness in my legs had ebbed considerably. We did run into a bit of poison ivy on the approach, but were able to avoid it in the nick of time.

I led the steep first pitch of the East Ridge and belayed Mark up. We unroped and scrambled up the easy but spectacular East Ridge to where the North Ridge joins it. Here we put in a rappel anchor and rapped to the ground, barely reaching it with our one 60-meter rope. We pulled the rope and I led the North Face back to the East Ridge. Mark followed and we unroped again to complete the East Ridge.

We did two rappels down the west ride, hiked back to our gear at the base of the East Ridge and hiked/trotted back to the car.