The Wright's Fight

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Strava

Three and half years ago, this article appeared in our local paper, written by my friend Chris Weidner. It's about Adam Stack’s Fab Fifteen linkup. The piece did its job. Which was to inspire. What else is the purpose of such a piece? Just to be amazed by an incredible individual? No, not just that.

Adam’s Fab Fifteen was to do five Eldorado Canyon summits, five Flatiron summits, and the five peaks of the Boulder Skyline. What a cool idea. I immediately wanted to do my own version of it. Why not his version? Because he did 5.12 routes in Eldo and that’s too rich for my blood. So, try 5.11, right? No way. That would take all day just in Eldo. So, I decided on 5.10 and mapped out the routes, put them into a spreadsheet with time estimates, and then realized…nope. 5.10 was too hard as well. I had to drop the technical difficulty way down.

Last year, Derek and I started to train for this, by breaking up the challenges into separate days. After some adjusting, Derek and I decided on these five routes: Bastille Crack (5.8), Gambit (5.8) on Shirttail Peak, Long John Wall (5.8) on the West Ridge, the Yellow Spur (5.9+) on the Redgarden Wall, and Wind Ridge (5.7) on the Wind Tower. We linked all those one day and even threw in Over the Hill (3 pitches, 10b) and were finished at 12:30 p.m. after more than seven hours of climbing. 

Then we practiced the next ten summits. Since it was before August, three of Adam’s Flatirons (Matron, Devil’s Thumb, Third Flatiron) weren’t open to climbing. Instead we did the Fatiron to the Maiden (part of Fab Fifteen) to Freezeway on the Second Flatiron to the Direct East Face of the First Flatiron (part of Fab Fifteen) and then the Red Rocks summit (3rd class). This turned out to be pretty brutal and took us nearly ten hours. 

We gave it one try, but 30-degree temperatures, a biting wind, and a sketchy simul-climb of Gambit in the dark started us out badly and we never recovered. While we completed the climbing routes, we lost our drive to see it through. I put it on my list of goals for this year, but we couldn't try it until at least August because of the bird closures. 

Though Chris’ article clearly calls Adam’s linkup the Fab Fifteen, I took to calling it the Stack Attack, which was Adam’s nickname back when he was sending 5.14d and freeing El Cap. We wouldn’t be repeating his link-up, but creating our own. I called ours the Wright's Fight. Maybe this will start a trend of climbers selecting their own five Eldo routes and maybe even five unique Flatiron summits. I could see Stefan selecting 5.11 routes into the Griebel Grind. Weidner could select 5.13 routes and form the Chris Quest. 

My spreadsheet schedule had us finishing in the wee hours of the morning after more than 20 hours on the move. Since it is a point-to-point adventure, that presents a logistical issue. If I were Danny, I’d have just made myself close the loop via a 10-mile run back to Eldo. Mercifully, I’m not Danny. We dropped a car the night before. 

We got up at 4 a.m. and were headed to Eldo by 4:20 a.m. In the canyon it was surprisingly warm and not too windy. We called an audible and decided to do the Bastille Crack first, as that route, classic that it is, seems to be perpetually queued up. We could have done any of a number of variations on the Bastille, if that was the case, but each would burn precious energy. Turns out, there is no queue for the Bastille Crack at 4:45 a.m. Who knew?

1. Bastille

I led it as one pitch, placing three Micros. Climbing in the dark is a bit tricky when footholds are tucked into corners. I went slow and solid and placed nearly the entire double rack that I carried. Our rack consisted of one #3, doubles of #2 through #0.3, and a red/gold offset, 11 slings, and three Micros. It went smoothly and we were hiking towards Shirttail Peak before 5:30 a.m.

2. Shirttail

We hiked up in the dark and Derek's headlamp died. It was my headlamp and my fault for not fully charging it. Lights would become a bigger issue much later on. We swapped helmets, as our headlamps were attached to them, and Derek led off into the dark. By the time I started to climb, I could see well enough. Derek did an expert job leading this route as one pitch. He said he was going to be rusty in Eldo, as he hadn't climbed there in a month or more, but it didn't show.

We had my usual confusion on the descent, but didn't waste too much. I need to learn Tony and Danny's descent off this peak. Back at the base of the Rincon Wall we found a party of three climbers that had approached via headlamps. They saw Derek's light high on Shirttail and were excited about our quest.

3. Long John Wall

Just as we got to the Long John Wall, we saw two climbers headed up the slope towards us. It was Tom and Kirk, out for some early morning cragging. Kirk, a pistol that knows I like volume, jabs at me, "How many pitches have you done so far?", thinking it was zero. When we told him he laughed, thinking I was joking. Then I explained what we were trying to do and he was taken aback. "Wait, were you serious about those two routes?" 

I led LJW as one pitch with three Micros and it went smoothly. At the top I watched Danny Gilbert climb up to join Anton at the Crow's Nest on the Yellow Spur. I yelled over at them, but I'm not sure they heard me.

4. Yellow Spur

I thought we'd hit a party or two on the Spur, but by the time we got over there it was completely free with no other party in sight. Danny and Anton were gone, not that we had any chance of catching those two. I led again, though Derek was poised to take it. One of us had to lead three of these Eldo routes anyway and I am probably a bit more efficient on this route than most. I led it as one pitch, 3 Micros, and took the Robbins Traverse, which I hadn't done in a long time. All good. We were moving well and ahead of schedule.

5. Wind Ridge on the Wind Tower

We descended the East Slabs to the Wind Ridge, where we found Florence struggling to remove the first cam, just ten feet up the route. It was her first rock climb. After watching her struggle for a while we offered to remove the cam for her and we'd return it as we simul-climbed by. She was really nice and thanked me. She couldn’t turn the 5.8 direct start, which is understandable as I think that is a hard move and it's not my first rock climb. I told her about my alternate start to the right (very runout, but good for a follower) and she swung over and climbed that. She was climbing slowly, though, having trouble with another piece. 

Derek started up and was determined to pull the stuck piece so that when he got to the leader, he would be offering a gift for the passage we'd be requesting. All good, right? Not so. Derek made the mistake of giving the stuck piece to Florence halfway up the pitch, so that when he got to them, well off to the side on a big ledge at the top of the short first pitch, and asked if he could climb through, the guy was a bit tweaked. He said, "There are tons of other routes, why do you have to climb this one? I'm trying to teach my friend how to climb." Derek regretted not emphasizing that he had just retrieved their stuck cam. Also, we didn't even climb that close to them and not only didn't hold them up, but increased their speed by allowing Florence to continue up the route, instead of spending lots more time failing to remove the leader's ill-placed cam. When I came by, I immediately said thanks and was hoping to use my line, "You must be the Machine?" Alas, he didn't respond to me and didn't even look at me. He was busy chiding his partner for not organizing the rack as she climbed the pitch. We didn't let this get us down. It was a rare unpleasant encounter. 

At the summit, we caught another party and showed them the way down. They were cool and excited about their climb. It was a great mood changer.

We were back at the car a little after 10 a.m. Just after arriving there, up walked Wade and Joe. Joe had just nearly onsighted the Naked Edge. He sure had a good partner up there, as Wade has more than 100 Edge ascents, I'm sure. Later Eric "Fiver" Warren passed by. He was headed for Hairstyles and Attitudes (12c). I only know about this route because I have some hardmen (and women) friends. 

We ate some cold pizza, downed chocolate milk and a root beer, and packed for the next leg. We carried two 30-meter ropes, one for leading and the other to help with the rappelling. We carried five cams, seven slings, and two Micros. We left the parking lot at 10:30 a.m. knowing we had probably 16 hours more to go.

6. Matron

We headed up the Old Mesa Trail out of Eldorado Springs. We hiked up to the Shadow Canyon Trail and then a tiny way up the Matron trail where we dumped our packs and geared up. We were both carrying over three liters of water each and didn't want to haul it up unnecessarily. Derek led the Matron's East Face as one pitch in his TX Guide shoes. He carried his TC Pros, but only to lead Devil's Thumb. I just had my TX3s. The start of the East Ridge is really thin and polished. I barely scratched up this section and was glad Derek had already placed the Micro above the opening roof. 

There were extended sections where we were simul-climbing with no gear between us. Yes, the scrambling was easy, but definitely not ideal. We knew the score, though, and climbed accordingly. Perhaps we should have unroped.

At the summit, we did two rappels back to the ground and descended back to our cache.

7. Maiden

The long hike around and up to the Maiden was draining, as it was pretty warm, but we got some shade in the trees and then hugged the north side of the Maiden and the shade there. Along the way, we were coordinating with Sheri, who was planning to meet us in Shadow Canyon to bring us more liquids and food, and take our climbing gear. She's a godsend and an integral part of the team. Without her help, I probably couldn't have done this.

At the base, Derek offered me his TC Pros and I took them. Why not? Well, because, despite being a half size larger than mine, they still hurt my feet. But I was more solid with them, so it was worth it. I led the route as one pitch with one Micro (forgot to place one earlier). Despite only a 30-meter rope, I got tremendous rope drag and thought Derek was just climbing slow. He thought the same of me. When Derek got to the downclimb on the Walton Traverse he had no slack and I couldn't give it to him because of the Micro fifty feet below me. I didn't want to downclimb fifty feet, but I offered. Then I suggested he just swing over. We had the Micro in and I was at a solid stance. At first, I didn't think he liked that idea, but then I heard a whoop from below and he yelled, "King Swing!" 

We did the famous rappel from the summit but didn’t continue to the ground. Instead, we reversed the rib of rock back to the west. Once back at the start of the route, we packed our gear and started the complex thrashing up to the base of Devil’s Thumb. 

8. Devil’s Thumb

We first got to the backside of the Fatiron, and then on up on tricky terrain. I had been up there last year with Homie and Derek had climbed Devil's Thumb earlier this year. Devil's Thumb is a prominent tower, located directly atop the ridge forming the east side of Shadow Canyon. The climb itself is quite short, at least the route we did, but it is fierce. I thought the moves here were the hardest of the day. Derek led it super smooth, but I was desperate and weighted the rope a bit. Derek had me on a super tight toprope, so thankfully I didn't lose any ground.

We unroped and scrambled the last hundred feet to the summit and then back to the pole (a metal pole sticking two feet out of the rock), where we rappelled. We scrambled down to our gear, packed up, and traversed around the north side to drop into Shadow Canyon. This was different from the descent Homie and I did, when we went down to the south of the tower. I hoped it would allow us to give up less vert. It might have been a mistake. We found a fixed, frayed, knotted line and it allowed us to descend steeply and then downclimb a slot to hiking terrain. Once down that, we traversed talus down and west until we hit the Shadow Canyon Trail. Sheri was already staged above us. While she hiked down, we hiked up, meeting each other within five minutes or so. 

Sheri brought us frappuccinos, espresso drinks, chips, candy, water, etc. In return we gave her our climbing gear. She hiked out with more weight than she brought in!  We’d do the rest of the summits without any gear, soloing the First and Third Flatirons. After a thirty-minute break, we packed up and started marching. We had a long way to go before our next climb. We left Sheri at 4:35 p.m.

9. South Boulder Peak

We had most of our technical climbing done but we still had to do the complete Skyline Traverse, plus the two Flatirons, so we knew it was a long way to the finish. Still, we were encouraged to have most of the stressful parts done. We started chatting more. I repeated the elements for Derek and he did the US presidents. Then he told me about quantum computing and q-dits, using ytterbium and calcium ions. 

We dropped packs at the saddle and tagged SBP on the out-and-back. We met some nice people on this section and paused to chat a bit. 

SBP went slowly, but steadily and we hit the summit after 5 p.m.

10. Bear Peak

We trudged up towards Bear and suddenly my left thigh was gripped by an extremely painful cramp. My leg was straight, but it wouldn't release. Derek immediately started massaging my leg. I love that he did this without me asking. He saw I was in pain and he knew he could help. What a great partner. He massaged it out and I moved on for just a bit before it happened again. Derek was on it immediately and got it to release again. Afterward I drank some more and ate as much salty food as I had (pretzels and chips). I didn't cramp again, thankfully.

We dropped our packs again at the junction with the Green-Bear Trail. We tagged and descended slowly. My feet were on fire, they still hadn't recovered from my fast descent on the last Tour de Flatirons stage. I'd develop blisters on the bottom of both feet before we were done.

11. Green Mountain

The ascent of Green was slow, but I was thankful for the smooth, soft surface. We tagged the top at 7:07 p.m. and descended the Greenman Trail to the First Flatiron climbers’ connector trail. We turned on the headlamps before getting to the connector trail. I wanted to descend the Third Flatiron connector trail, but without Homie as my guide, I didn't think I could find it. So, we descended to the First, and then took the normal connector over to the Third Flatiron.

12. Third Flatiron

The Third Flatiron had a surprising amount of action on it. As we approached the start of the route, three climbers, laden with gear, were ascending as well. When I got to them at the start, I asked if they were also doing a night ascent. Nope. They had just got back down and were just retrieving the gear they left there. They had taken all day on the route and were psyched to be back down. Cool. We moved on by and up the route.

I tried to stick to my regular route, but I didn't nail it. It didn't matter, though, as nearly every part of this great face is nice, secure scrambling. What a great rock. World-class scrambling, to be sure. Early in our ascent, we were hearing noises from above. Calls of "off belay" and headlamps shining. The closer we got the more stress we heard amongst the climbers. We climbed continuously and found the five climbers near the summit. One was on top belaying a second climber and three more were below. We topped out just as the second climber did, tagged the summit, and started down. Strive and confusion reigned in this team, but they seemed capable of getting down. 

We did the usual Southwest Chimney down climb. It was a bit tricky and stressful in the dark, but we took it slow and solid.  We then hiked north to the saddle and took the usual climber’s trail down until it branched off to the Second Flatiron. We followed that trail past the base of the Second Flatiron where we found a group (not sure how many) of naked female hikers/scramblers. Yes, naked. Talk about a pick-me-up! I'm not sure if they were out for a full moon (in both senses of the word) scramble of Freeway or if they were just trying to avoid close contact with us. If the former, they were Gilberting the hell out of the start. They were giggling away and having a great time. I think we can all agree, we need more of that in the Flatirons. 

13. First Flatiron

We hiked to the base of the Direct East Face of the First and took a break to eat, drink and check in with Sheri, who was going to meet us again at Realization Point. This is a familiar climb, but at this point in our day, in the dark, it was a daunting prospect. Derek insisted that I lead the way. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to find the route or that he wanted to be behind me so that he could keep an eye on me. We were both solid and, despite our fatigue, really enjoyed the scrambling. Unlike the Third, the First was deserted.

We climbed down via the Southwest Face. It felt great to be done with all the climbing. No matter what we did from here on out, we couldn't die. We headed west behind the First, towards the First-Green trail, and took the connecting path over to the Saddlerock Trail. We headed up that to Greenman and then down that to Realization Point, arriving at 11:05 p.m. Sheri was waiting for us with Chicken McNuggets, fries, and drinks of all manner. After another 30-minute break, we started the final section. We had three summits to go.

14. Flagstaff

It was only about ten minutes to the top of Flagstaff and Derek led the way, as he would for the rest of the adventure. We separated a bit on the descent and I thought about listening to something on my phone, but I never did. I just put one foot in front of the other. My feet and knees were bothering me and it helped a lot to go slow, so I did. 

15. Red Rocks

We hiked down to Eben G. Fine Park and then took the tunnel under the road to the park formerly known as Settler's Park. Now called First People's Park or the People's Park. We hiked up the hogsback the base of the Red Rocks spire. Homie turned me on to this small scramble. It's a 5-minute diversion and bags you another summit. Once I added it in, I was committed to always doing it. So we did. I switched to my second of three headlamps here. It was already dim, but by holding it in my hand, down low, I could hike with it.

16. Sanitas

Sanitas is just a horrible trail. It's crazy steep, yes, but super rocky and painful on the feet. While the trail has been significantly improved in recent years, it is still unpleasant. Despite this, it is probably the most crowded trail in the entire OSMP system. It was almost a shock to be all alone on this peak, despite starting up at 1:20 a.m.

I thought I was going pretty well on this ascent, despite Derek hiking away from me. It was okay to be alone. We were just doing what we could to finish this baby off. It took me 46 minutes to ascend Sanitas and I climbed it continuously. I was surprised by how long it took. I was tired, but I didn't feel completely wasted. Turns out, I was. 

Derek was waiting patiently on the summit and we embraced. Adam Stack called this summit the finish and it really is. Yes, you have to get down and if you care about the car-to-car time (I generally do, but on this unique adventure it isn't meaningful) you'll track the time back to the car, but if you make this summit, you've done it. Up until this point, we could have quit or turned around. Now it was done and we rejoiced.

I sat down for ten minutes to switch to my third headlamp (much brighter) and drink. Then we plodded, slowly and carefully, back down to the car. What day.

Conclusion

We finished in 22 hours and 13 minutes. It was nearly 25 miles, 13,000 vertical feet, and involved 55 guidebook pitches. We did just four rappels total. This is the longest adventure I've done in a very long time. It felt great to see this through to the end when it would have been so easy to quit at Realization Point. I never got sleepy and felt okay most of the day. I didn't bonk. I did get tired and a bit clumsy in the end, but I was still moving steadily. The key was that we stayed on top of food and water and we took frequent breaks. And we paced it right: slow and steady.

Derek was the perfect partner. So solid and calm and good-natured. He carried the heavier rope and the rack. He always carried more weight than I did, led the hardest pitch, and took the lead in the end, when I just wanted to follow footsteps. I'm extremely excited that he was my partner. I don't know how many more of these big adventures I have in me. I'll keep doing them as long as Derek wants to team up with me.

Oh, and I can finally clear that article off my desk. I won't be tossing it, though. I'll just file it away under "Inspiration".