9/10/2024 - The Second Flatiron

A year after moving to Colorado, something that brings me just as much (sometimes if not more) joy as searching for wildlife has become rock climbing. If you asked me a year ago if I would ever be a serious rock climber, I would tell you no, and that I'm not cut out for it. That idea died pretty quickly, I became a total gumby (enthusiastic new climber) falling off 5.9 routes, and now I'm comfortably working on 5.13- (7a+) routes. 

Gym climbing is fun, but absolutely nothing beats touching real rock. I feel much better as a climber with my hands and feet on the features of a big ole' rock. While out doing some bouldering in the Poudre Canyon with my friend Finn (the person responsible for my insatiable need to climb), the shoelaces to my climbing shoes shredded themselves. Not exactly ideal if you ask me, so I ordered new laces online to be picked up in Boulder, CO at the La Sportiva factory store. I figured that if I was going to drive an hour to the butthole of Colorado for some shoelaces, I needed to put em to good use. 10 minutes after picking up the laces, I found myself hiking up to the base of the famous Flatirons.

Towering slabs of 290 million year old gorgeous conglomerate sandstone leaning into the foothills, the flatirons are the pinnacle of shallow slab climbing. The route that I chose to "climb" is a classic route of the area, and just about as easy as climbing gets. "Freeway", a 600 foot, 6 pitch line from bottom to top of the second Flatiron loomed over me as I sat lacing up my shoes. "Freeway" is very likely one of the most climbed routes on the entire planet, and I mean that. People rope up their toddlers to climb it, people do it barefoot, heck, people bring their cats up with them, among the thousands of people that trek up it all year round. It's hardly technical climbing, you really don't even need to use your hands for the majority of the route. Graded at 5.0 (a full 13 grades easier than what I can climb, and just harder than 4th class scrambling), I felt amazing about this massive slab climb. 

The first two pitches (~200 feet) and very last pitch (80ish feet) involve the most focus by far. The fall would be pretty big if you slipped off either... I take a very thoughtful approach to climbing, my style is very calculated rather than just throwing myself at the rock. That made this climb very easy for me, and as the middle 300-350 feet of scrambling were just cruising, I made it to the top of the flatiron in just over 15 minutes including water breaks. Canyon Wrens, one of my favorite birds, were following me the whole way which was the cherry on top for me. My favorite part of the route is just about 2/3 of the way up where you have to take the plunge off of "the diving board", a cool rock feature shaped exactly like a diving board. You have to jump about 5-6 feet out and 3 feet down to a nice incut ledge in order to summit the flatiron. 

A big, multi-pitch route such as this sometimes involves a descent along a real trail to get back down. At the top I made a wonderful realization, the realization that I just climbed 600 feet to the top of the second flatiron and had tucked my hiking boots just about a mile away from me at the base of the climb. Awesome. Thinking about how bad it would be to have to do the descent in my climbing shoes, I figured I had no other choice but to feel every pointy rock underfoot and just tough it out. I did in fact think to put my socks on on the outside of my shoes to not completely destroy what little rubber is left. 

If you ever get a chance to climb the Flatirons, it's extremely fun, but take great caution. You may be able to do it in your worn down running shoes or barefoot, but take your time and think about where you're going. It's a long way to the bottom.