Two short, technical (5.5) climbs to the tops of interesting rock formations in the Flatirons
The East Face of the Northern Dinosaur Egg. The deep crack on the left splits the face and is the start of a route called Rehatch (5.5). The name is very appropriate because it looks as if something has hatched, cracking open the egg.
The huge crack is actually an interesting, deep chimney that is mostly stiff 4th (arguably very low 5th) class climbing. Even though guidebooks label this pitch 4th class, it is usually climbed roped and I was certainly happy to have one.
Eventually some large chockstones in the chimney mark the exit point. The crux of the route is a 20 foot climb out of the chimney and up the steep south face to reach the narrow east face of the main pinnacle. Here Dominic is standing on one of the chockstones and not looking happy about the crux pitch he's faced with. It was a little awkward and seemed tougher than its 5.5 rating.
Dominic leading the final 5.0 - 5.4 climb up the east face of the main pinnacle.
This little guy visited me for a long time at the belay station. Fat and missing part of his tail, he was actually quite cute. He sometimes bobbed his head kind of like my iguanas do. He closely inspected the pieces of the anchor I was using to belay Dominic from and made an impressive exit by downclimbing overhanging rock!
View of the summit of the Southern Dinsosaur Egg from the Northern Dinosaur Egg. It is signficantly shorter. A route called Hatch (5.5) goes up the east face (facing left in this photo).
Dominic on the second rappel from the Northern Dinsosaur Egg. A bunch of slings around a huge chockstone provided a good anchor.
View of Boulder (NCAR on left) from the top of the second rappel. Slings (barely visible on the right) adorn the chockstone on top.
Dominic belaying me from the deep crack in the east face of the Southern Dinosaur Egg. This route is called Hatch (5.5) and its very similar in character to Rehatch on the Northern Dinosaur Egg. We both thought this one was slightly better even though it was shorter.
Near the top of the crack the climbing takes on a canyoneering flavor. Some serious squeezing and stemming is required.
After climbing the incredibly fun, vertcial 40 foot crux wall of 5.5 rock we reached the spacious summit.
View east from the summit of the Southern Dinosaur Egg. NCAR is just left of center. The obvious rock formation in the foreground is known as the Bear Creek Spire.