The Unknown - Pikes Peak

Hey man, do you think I could get some info on the north side of Pikes Peak? I hear there are some awesome routes up there. Asking my friend last year after he told me that some of the best alpine pitches he'd climbed are in our backyard. Information on this area is almost non-existent but here is what I learned. "Park below the summit, walk north until you can access the arete". Sweet, that's all I needed to get on this special route. After looking at topo maps and pictures, I figured out the route and knew we were in for a treat. I had read that you'd better be prepared for full on adventure factor and this was very true. We did not see any evidence that a climber had ever climbed our route, but know that it sees maybe 5 ascents each season.

Laura and I left home at 7 am and got to the toll gate on Pikes Peak at 7:20. We drove the Pikes Peak Highway to the summit and looked around. The morning was crisp and the sky blue so we hung out for a few minutes and then headed down the road to find our parking area.

By 8:20, we were walking, first down the Crags trail, then to a steep gully that took us 700 feet down to the base of the arete. We didn't have any information but knew that the route was rated about 5.6, so we picked a starting point, geared up and started climbing. The first few pitches were wet an mossy so I chose to have Laura belay me until we got to more solid ground.

After about 200 feet of climbing, we began simu-climbing - both moving at the same time with only a few pieces of protection between us. This is something we will be doing a lot of on our Switzerland mountains and was one of the reasons we chose this climb.

We made our way through a maze of boulders and ledges to finally find ourselves on the actual arete. We estimated 8 pitches, all climbed in about 2 hours time. After wandering along the edge for another hour, we made our finish point. We took some pictures and headed for the car pleased that we had a great adventure for the day and looking forward to the next time we can get on this spectacular north face of Americas Mountain.