February 23, 2014

Partner: Brian K.

The forecast wasn't the greatest but we figured it'd be good enough to sneak in some scrambling routes in the Garden of the Gods. Mike was supposed to join us, but had met an unfortunate situation with a chop saw the day before...

Ouch!


The clouds were low and the fog thick on the drive down. I expected the worst. The weather seemed to be better as we left the parking lot, but the air was laden with moisture and carried with it a cutting chill. The upside of the weather was that there was nobody else out and we practically had the park to ourselves. We made quick time over to South Gateway and I soloed up the short ridge while Brian finished tying in. I was very happy to have brought my big puffy jacket and gloves and as I belayed Brian up to the summit. As he topped out, the clouds parted and the first rays of sun light up North Gateway.

Fog...


...and cold.


Kindergarten Rock looks like Ship Rock from this angle.


First light.


One of the summit bolts could be pulled by hand, but unfortunately I had left my wrench in the car so was unable to tighten it. We rapped down from the other good bolt and walked over to the Three Gossips. The climb went quickly and reminded me that this was one of the more unnerving "5.2"s that I have ever climbed. A large flock of pigeons was quite upset when I kicked them off of the summit, but they got the last laugh as I was the one who had to sit in their fresh poop while I belayed Brian. As the weather improved so did the tourists. Several people stopped to take photos of us as we rappelled back down and talked rather loudly about us.



Three Graces.


On the way over to Kindergarten Rock, I did my usual stop and look at the base of Easter Rock. One of these days I'll get up the nerve to attempt the "easy" 5.6X route to the top but it wasn't going to be today. The rest of the hike over to Kindergarten went quickly and we soloed smoothly up the south ridge. I really enjoyed this and thought it was special for the Garden due to the drastically different appearance and feel of the rock. The temps had risen dramatically, and I dropped layers as we ascended to the summit. Wanting to maximize the scrambling, we continued off of the north ridge toward the other summit. The scrambling was good and the few exposed spots made it an enjoyable addition to the climb.







Back on the trail, we were almost out of time before I had to get back home. As a final route we made short work of the Tourist Gulley on North Gateway while making sure to visit both summits. I had always enjoyed this summit and made sure to take in the views. It was impressive to see how dramatically that the weather had improved since just a few hours before and I was happy to see how sandy the routes had been.





Venus of the Garden.




The Garden is such an outstanding place to practice low 5th scrambling and get in a lot of routes in a short period of time. I was looking forward to making another trip as soon we got back in the car to head home.

More photos can be found here...
http://www.brianinthewild.com/garden-of-the-gods-3-south-north-gateway-kindergarten-grey-rock-three-graces.html