Monkey Trial is a fun mixed line that shares the start of

Hollow Be Thy Name

.  Start with 2 well-spaced bolts (gear) and then branch out right past two pins and a bolt. Angle left past the final pin (crux) and follow thin crack systems to the top (gear). You can clip a nearby bolt on an adjacent route near the top.

Monkey Trial

Summit Block

Sunshine Dihedral

Fringe Dweller

Amy, Good Gorilla

Hollow Be Thy Name

Looking for Trouble

Ripple

Casual Corner

Fever Dance

Skull and Bones

Upside The Cranium

Very nice route.  Lots of fun if your over 6'.  Significantly harder if you're 5'4".  Kind of run-out w/o a few pieces of trad gear.

Number 3 on the picture.

Start from the ledge above

Upside the Cranium

. It is protected by 3 coldshuts and 2 anchors on the top.  Bring gear.  In fact, don't even waste your time climbing this route.  It is a P.O.S.  I still don't understand the intended route.

This is the beautiful, large, right-facing dihedral to climber's left of

Upside The Cranium

. The Hubbel guidebook lists this climb as 5.10a/b. We clipped the first two bolts of

UTC

to protect the start. The majority of the start and lower portion of the dihedral is 5.8/9 climbing easily protected with small / medium gear. Over the last 25-30 feet, the dihedral arcs dramatically to the right across a steepening face. This makes for a fairly strenuous jamming / stemming / smearing crux rewarded by positive holds at the top of the dihedral to an easy finish. This is a high quality route, well worth doing.

This is the line of bolts shown on the Monkey Skull overview photo as route #5.  Begin slightly lower than the start of

Casual Corner

, then cross over that route and continue up the face staying left of the arete.  There are some thin face moves that may have you climbing more horizontal (I am not sure exactly what that means anyway, try it), head up and finish with a bomber hand traverse and solid smearing to a mantle up onto the ledge.

This is the (less than) finger crack that heads to the tree on climber's left.  Short and cruxy.  Worthy if you are tired of clipping bolts on all of the *** routes on this rock.

It's under the number 5 on the picture.

On Nov. 2, Manny Rangel and I were looking for sun to please his Arizona sensibilities. This would be his first time in the SSV, so I suggested the most popular rock there. By the time we could hike up to Monkey Skull, the right side would be in the sun. No one else was around.

Each of us has enjoyed many decades of exploring unpublished terrain. At least 50 feet to the right of

Fever Dance

, past a jumble of unappealing blocks and behind a tree, we found a short, left-leaning, unpublished hand crack that leads to the right end of an unpublished overhang that caps a short right-facing, unpublished dihedral. My 5.6 lead continued upward, weaving around blocks and reaching a big ledge at about 60-70 feet.

Behind a flat boulder, a clean-cut, 90-degree unpublished dihedral is capped at 15 feet by a horizontal ceiling. Manny led this, finding a horizontal squeeze chimney that was hard to enter and exit (crux, 5.9). He threw up his right foot to enter the slot; I threw up my left, then inched outward until my head, then shoulders, then torso was protruding. Just as I was about to fall out, head-first, I twisted enough to reach a finger lock. Easy climbing continued up to the big ledge/slope that could be descended to the right, to return to the ground. I wish that I had brought my smartphone, so that I could take pics.

We hiked/scrambled up and left, with the intention of following what is now known as "Alvino's Variation" to the top. I had led AV in 1981, after climbing what is now known as "

Sunshine Dihedral

." Finding recently installed bolts next to AV, we climbed that route (Ripple), instead.

Start on the second tier of the Monkey Skull directly above

Upside the Cranium

. Clip the first bolt and make a couple tenuous moves (crux) (from a strange (rattly?) little knob with a bouldery bear-hug past two bolts to a finger slot on the right (crux #1)) up to better holds. Surmount the bulge onto a rounded shelf and find easier, ledgy climbing and a hand crack for a bolt or two. Move right and up a moderate face to the base of an obvious water chute. Step right into the chute, layback up a rounded protuberance past four bolts, and mantle up to a two bolt anchor. This makes for a fun continuation of any of the lower routes.

Per

JF M

: this goes to anchors on the summit block shared with Alvino's Variation, 5.8, and

Summit Block

, 5.10R.

This is a combination of two submissions on the same route.

This is a nice short route, but Hubbel's guidebook doesn't even give it a star!  It is one of the best routes I've done in the South St. Vrain (out of about 6).

The route is the right-facing dihedral on the left side of The Monkey Skull, and left of

Sunshine Dihedral

.  This route faces west and is in the shade until about 1PM (in July).  Tiptoe up the trail avoiding the poison ivy to the base of the route, where the easy slope funnels down to a narrow chute made of solid rock with a fallen dead tree in it.

The dihedral does not reach the ground, face climb 20' straight up to the crack, passing a small fir tree on your right.  This section is runout but is only about 5.5.  Move into the dihedral and follow it for about 60', ending at a large fir tree with slings.  You can rap back to the base from here with one 50m rope.

This is the crack in the face to the right of

Upside the Cranium

.  Choose your start wisely, as the beginning is a bit chossy, and gear is not always trustworthy.  I was forced left of the little roof to avoid yarding on a loose flake and would rate the moves as 5.8 R. The dihedral to the right looks easier and safer.  This climb starts to get sweet at the hand to finger crack with the shrub growing out of it.  Follow it up and hand traverse right and then left to gain the thin steep crack (crux) near the top of the climb.  Fingerjam and crimp up this sustained crack being cautious of the attached but moving flake about half way up the crack.  Finish at the chains for

Upside the C

.  Be careful when being lowered, as a 60 meter just makes it to the ledges at the bottom.  With a little more traffic, this climb will only become sweeter.

This is the bolted route to the left of

Sunshine Dihedral

. It is mentioned in the comments sections for the SSV and Monkey Skull.

There are a couple cruxes in the 10/10- range. The 10c crux is a bit of a one or two move wonder with a possible fall into a bush and some poison ivy (might go up your shorts!). This move is just before the traverse around the corner.

The route is a little spicy, dirty, and contrived on the last half.

The route is over 100 feet so a short down climb or a rap off other anchors is necessary.

Upside The Cranium is the best of the lines on the Monkey Skull. It begins just right of the main trad dihedral on greyish, sub-vertical rock. The route begins to steepen as you approach bolt 4 and finishes up just about vertical. No one move is all that difficult, and most moves are 5.10- until near the last bolt where a long reach on thin but good edges delivers the crux (5.10c). Worth a pair of stars for the good rock, the continuity, and the fun climbing moves on well bolted stone.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in The Monkey Skull