The Castles East 12,296'

September 09, 2023

~20.5 miles, 4,800' gain

TH: Swampy Pass (~4-4.5 hours from Denver)

Max Difficulty: 5.10b R

The Big O' Bad MoFo's of ranked 12ers was crowned to Turret Ridge near Ridgway but the new LiDAR analysis has dethroned Turret Ridge and the newly crowned Bad Ass MoFo King of 12ers reigns to The Castles East. Colorado's 13er list has some challenging summits with the hardest being Lizard Head (class 5.8+) but the 12ers have Turret Ridge (5.9), Twin Peaks West (5.6), and now Castles East (5.10). The previous champion, Turret Ridge, is rated 5.9 R with the most challenging climbing being reasonably well-protected; however, the climb requires a high consequence R-rated traverse pitch clocking in at 5.6 – a scary endeavor for both the leader and the follower.

Immediately after the LiDAR analysis, elite full-fledged peak baggers searched in a frenzy for information on the elusive summit of Castles East. Some folks attacked the legitimacy of LiDAR, claiming that no one would complete the new Colorado 12er list, while others had their egos bruised since their status of Colorado 12er completer was stripped from them. The only information I found regarding the climbing on Castles East was on Mountain Project. At best, it is a cryptic and poor description with the original topo labeling the climbing as "5.10 WTF." Now, wtf does WTF mean?

Naturally, I have an attraction to climb ranked 5th class summits. Alyson contacted me about climbing Castles East to finish her impressive goal of summiting all the ranked 12ers in May shortly after surgery. She was particularly motivated after rebounding from some significant health issues with Metallosis. A weekend date was planned well in advance, which is unusual for me.

Arriving early Friday night, I met up with one of my stronger climbing partners, Aiden, who lives in Grand Junction. I glazed over John's e-mail about a potential camp and assumed a day trip as that doesn't require schlepping a ton of extra gear. Initially, I think he planned for two days.

The alarm went off early and we left the Swampy Pass Trailhead at 4:45 AM with day packs. We followed the Swampy Pass trail for 0.8 mile to a junction. In the dark, without coffee, we took the right turn – continuing on Swampy Pass Trail – when we should have taken the left turn for Pass Creek. We were back on track with a fair bit of extra hiking, another trail, and some extra gain.After ~6.1 miles of hiking, we reached another trail junction, went left on the Mill-Castle Trail, crossed Castle Creek, and continued following the trail south and then southwest until we were on the south side of The Castles. We left the Mill-Castle Trail at a broad open gully that separates Castles East and Castles West. A steep grind up the gully's right (east) side led us to the southwestern chimney complex at the base of Castles East where we reached the bottom of the climb at 9:50 AM. Some loose, hardpan side-hilling was required to get there.

We scrambled up a long section of a class 3-4 gully where I was slated to take the first pitch. I started up the pitch and after 30 feet of climbing, I had gastrointestinal issues. I quickly down-climbed, scampered to the base and took care of business. Not particularly patient, Aiden took the rack and started leading where I left off – I was not complaining, considering the chossy run-out nature of the pitch. The volcanic breccia was less than inspiring.

As expected, the first pitch wasn't too challenging but had serious run-out climbing with less than textbook gear. I quickly followed while we set a fixed line for John and Alyson. Aiden led and combined the second and third pitches which topped out at an exposed shoulder belay just before the summit. "Safe" would not be the adjective for these two pitches. Difficult, chossy, not well-protected 5.10 was the name of the game.

The final pitch to the summit ridge wasn't as exciting and was relatively tame compared to the other pitches. One last final class 4 scramble on the exposed ridge led to the summit. We took turns taking belays to the summit around 1:30 PM. I replaced the fixed tri-cam on the summit and we completed a series of three rappels to return to the bottom. Remaining out of the way of falling chossy rock was challenging – not an easy feat with four people. We had our ropes coiled and were all back at the bottom around 3:40 PM. Instead of heading back to the Mill-Castle Trail via the south slopes, we decided to descend more pedestrian grassy slopes north from the West-East saddle. Although the descent was easier, the bushwhack once in the valley was not. Plenty of downed trees and swampy areas on the north side made travel semi-miserable. It's a coin toss for which way is better—bushwhack and swamp vs. hardpan and loose.

After intersecting the trail, we thoroughly enjoyed our 7 mile slog back to the trailhead where we arrived just after dark at 8:10 PM—a fantastic long day knocking out the most challenging ranked 12er in Colorado. Congratulations to Alyson for completing the 12ers along with John (I believe at the time of writing, he's only got one class 2 slog left). Also, a shout-out to Aiden for climbing with a solid lead head. I was just tagging along to carry the rack and say farewell to my pink tri-cam that we left on the summit.

Route Info:

The original topo of “5.10 WTF” is valid. It's precisely that, “5.10 WTF.”

Scramble 100 feet up a fluted gully (class 4 near the top) to a stance at the start of pitch one.

Pitch 1: Aim for a wide overhanging cave. Begin up low-angled terrain (low 5th) to a steepening headwall. Get bad gear before the headwall and climb the headwall (5.8 R) to the overhanging cave with a two-bolt anchor. It might be possible to “sling” large cobbles for protection. 5.8 R, ~90 feet

Pitch 2: Step right and climb an overhanging bulge with an incipient crack (5.10a PG-13). Probably don't want to blow the moves – likely a factor 2 fall. Once through the bulge, follow the crack as it disappears (5.7). Carefully step right–exposed–into a chimney (5.7-8 R) and climb the chimney with some gear to a ledge with a 2-bolt anchor backed up by a good hand crack. 5.10a R, ~75 feet

Pitch 3: Climb the overhanging hand crack above the bolted anchor. The climbing is harder and the rock is chossier but better protected (5.10b PG). Once through the overhang, continue up the chimney (5.6). As the chimney peters out, veer left (5.8 R) and climb to an airy perch and bolted belay. It's easy to combine pitch 2 and 3 into one scary pitch. 5.10b R, ~65 feet

Pitch 4: From the airy perch, step right and traverse 15 feet right on a very exposed ledge to a crack system. Follow the crack to the top. A single bolt anchor backed up with gear. 5.7 PG-13, ~50 feet

Pitch 5: Scramble along the summit ridge to the summit. Class 4, ~60 feet

Rack: Single BD #0.3-4, doubles #1-4, optional #5-6. Lots of long runners. Double 70M helps with the descent but is not required.

Rappel Beta

Rappel 1: From the summit, rappel 60 feet from the single bolt and fixed piece of gear (as of 2023 with a new pink tri-cam). The original tri-cam was very sun-rotted so expect to leave a pink tri-cam or BD #0.5. Rope pull is problematic due to drag over the summit cobbles.

Rappel 2: With TWO 70M ropes, rappel 220 feet to the bottom of pitch 1. This provides clean rope pull so the rope doesn't get stuck on cobbles.

Optional Rappel 3: If you're not bringing double 70s, this is your option, I think. It might be possible to rappel with a single 70M from the top of pitch 3 to the top of pitch 1. Rope pull could be problematic due to the angle under the roof and cobbles. From there, a single rope rappel goes to the bottom of pitch 1. Or rappel every pitch. Bring lots of webbing to replace tat.

It's disappointing that the 2017 FA used Rawl Buttonhead bolts; that was maybe acceptable in the 70s. At least the second bolt is a 5-piece sleeve bolt (2” so still not awesome – indicated by the B stamp). Each bolted belay has a single button head and a single 5-piece sleeve.