Lumpy Ridge - Kor's Flake

Last week Grace and I finally got in our first CO climbing, and it was both a slap in the face and totally awesome!

On Lee's recommendation we decided to go up and check out Lumpy Ridge, just outside of Estes Park. Despite the rather unassuming name, Lumpy can be best described in WA terms as a 2-mile long line up of snow-creek walls. Impeccable granite, scores of 4-6 pitch routes of all grades. We chose a route called Kor's flake (5.7+, 6P, 900') as our first taste of this fine area.

The awesomeness needs little explanation: fantastic rock with sustained and challenging climbing on a moderately long route! The slap came in two forms: first, Lumpy tops out at almost 10,000', and I had just come from a week at sea level. Second, the nasty 50' run-out up a heinous squeeze chimney/OW on the 3rd pitch! Thought provoking climbing for a 5.7. It felt harder than the OW pitch on Backbone Ridge (5.9), but I didn't lead that one.

We'll be back!