Life of the Party

Route Description

Life of the Party (route #4 in pictures) shares about 10 feet of Route #3 before veering right up a sweeping, orange wall for 40 meters. It’s slightly lower-angled and more featured than its neighboring routes to the left, and therefore substantially easier. It begins about 15 feet right and downhill of “Shoulder Season” (5.12d) and ascends sculpted rock through a series of scoops and waves to some juggy features and a final mini-headwall.

Climbers will lower (or rappel) to a ledge at about 25 meters where I propose an anchor will be placed to make it possible to lower (or rappel) from the route, twice, with a single 70-meter rope. All three routes to the left are similarly equipped with two anchors.

I have scoped the line, top-roped short sections from a rope on the anchors of Shoulder Season (with a few directional placements) and have confirmed the rock is of equal quality to the other sport routes on the wall. I believe it to be in the 5.11+/12- range.

Route diagram

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Existing route information

The main south face of South Shanahan Crag has 9 existing routes, two of which are newly developed sport routes, plus one more project in the process of being bolted:

1) Leonine (5.10d), 2 pitches, traditional + bolts. The only route left of my proposed line, and the closest to it, Leonine begins about 60 feet uphill and around a corner. Leonine veers rightward throughout its length, and near the top it ends up about 30 feet to the left. *The route line in the Flatirons guidebook (left-most route, photo attached: “Shanahan routes”) is incorrectly drawn too far right.

2) DK Superstar (5.12, 1 pitch, sport). It’s about 20 feet downhill from Leonine.

3) Shoulder Season (5.12d, 1 pitch, sport), which is 15 feet down from Route 2.

4) “Route 3” (5.13, 1 pitch, sport), about 15 feet downhill from Shoulder Season.

5) Great Expectations (5.8+), 2 pitches, traditional. This line is about 80 feet downhill from my proposed route.

6) Prune Face (Identity Theft) (5.7), 2 pitches, traditional. This is immediately right of Great Expectations.

7) Better Offer (5.9+), 1 pitch, traditional. This is a few feet downhill from the Prune Face.

8) Beau! (5.7), 1 pitch, traditional. Located a short way downhill from Better Offer.

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Approach

The approach starts from Cragmoor trailhead. Hike the North Shanahan Trail to the Mesa Trail, then turn left (south) and walk for about 10 minutes until you reach a drainage just beyond an open meadow (with some prominent boulders). From here, a climber’s path — a faint path on rocks and dirt, then grass — leads up the drainage, then up the hillside on the right to the Shanahan Crags. These are located approximately a quarter-mile from the Mesa Trail. The South Summit is about 5 minutes uphill from the Eastern Crag — the first of the Shanahan Crags one encounters (about 55 minutes total to the south face of South Shanahan Crag). The base of the entire south face is talus and rocks interspersed with dirt.

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Descent

The descent from the proposed route is to lower (or rappel) from the top anchor down to the intermediate anchor at ~25 meters with a 70-meter rope. From here, an additional lower (or rappel) will reach the ground. Reverse the approach to reach the trailhead.

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Climb base area

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Reconnaissance work

I could have top-roped the final portion up high with quite a bit of extra work finding directional placements. But I was satisfied with having climbed on the lower two-thirds of the wall, especially having top-roped “Route 3” 15-20 feet to the left of this line.

Top Roped / Hazards

The route has been mostly top-roped. I have confirmed its quality. Generally, the rock is very solid. I kicked off a few loose flakes while top-roping and did some minor cleaning. There are a few hollow blocks up high, in the red band of rock, that will need to be removed, but again, the rock is overwhelmingly solid.

Additional notes

The sunny exposure ensures this will be an excellent mid-winter route option. This route will provide a welcome “warm-up” for Shoulder Season, DK Superstar and “Route 3.”

Total of 22 bolts – 19 lead bolts plus 3 anchor bolts: 1 extra bolt at ~25 meters for second rappel anchor and 2 bolts for top anchor at ~40 meters

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FCC Voting Results

OSMP Decision