West Book/Slot

This climbs the obvious, very steep chimney/slot on the West Face. Unprotected squeeze chimney/offwidth moves, behind a dead tree, get you off the ground. Easy climbing gets you up to the crack that is in the back of the slot, where you can place gear until the crack ends. The rock here is suspect. Some is definitely bad. Some might be great, but it is hard to tell. I made sure to push, chimney, and mantel as much as I could and try not to pull down on anything. Above where the crack finishes are some good holds, and there is a hidden crack higher up that will take hand-sized to a 0.5 cam that will protect the final moves onto the summit.

I loved the look of this climb, and the position on the climb is really cool, but I like slots. I could see others disliking the rock enough to rate this lower. It felt like good alpine training, meaning, I tested every hold.

This route is called West Book in the Jason Haas Flatirons guidebook, but it seems more like a slot to me.

It ascends the obvious slot on the west side.

I placed five cams: 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, and 3 -- all Black Diamond Camalots. It would be hard to place more than this, as the crack isn't that long.