I've been saying for the better part of the last year that I was going to extend one of my work trips to Denver and stay through the weekend to climb. A couple of weeks ago, I finally made it happen. My friend Max met me in Golden, CO, and we made the hour drive to Frisco early Saturday morning to have a go at Royal Flush, a 5.9, 8-pitch sport route located in 10 Mile Canyon on Mount Royal — my first proper multi-pitch.
The "planning" went something like this:
Max: "Been interested in this if you're feeling multi-pitch." Max texts me the link to the route on Mountain Project.
Me: "Awesome."
Max: "Pretty sure we can be at the summit in six hours and hike off."
Me: "Awesome."
Max: "Pretty sure we can be at the summit in six hours and hike off."
Well, you can't know what you don't know.
We started our ascent at 9:30 that morning, and between my inefficient rope management, some tricky route finding between pitches and getting backed up waiting on other groups on the wall, it was some 9+ hours later before we made it to the summit at approximately 11K feet. Ah-mazing. Another hour and a half hike in the dark back to the car and a beer never tasted so good.
After some sleep and a nice, greasy Denny's breakfast, our little mini-epic had me gunning for more. I definitely see a trad rack in my future...
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