Looking back over the intervening years, it always strikes me how much climbing I did with my GF Anne Carrier, and our mutual friend Gary Molzan that beautiful Summer of 1985. We has "discovered" the South Platte, and went there every possible weekend. Gary was especially keen on Dome Rock and the beautiful but runnout friction and face routes. One of the guys working at the Boulder Mountaineer suggested we try Topographical Oceans for a great adventure. All we had for beta was Peter Hubbell's "Brown Book of Lies," which rated Top Oceans as a 5.11a (subsequently downgraded to a 5.10b). We had recently climbed Bishop Jaggers, and felt we were prepared to tackle a significantly harder route, tho'.

We made our usual Sunday morning "Alpine Start" at about 6:00 Am from Boulder, and with Gary driving his blue Saab, it didn't take long before we were through Morrison and on U.S. 285 heading up Turkey Creek Canyon. After the high speed approach by road, we began slogging up through the "bench cactus" that Gary called the yucca plants, and arrived at the rock by around 9:30.


The first lead involves a short traverse and a pull-over on to the main slab; this has been rated on Mountain Project as either 5.9+ or 5.10a, and I believe that the key move is pretty height-dependant.



Pitch #2 is bolt protected by six 1/4" rawl drive bolts.


I bitched and moaned that I never had any pictures taken of me climbing, and all I ever got to do was take all the pictures; Anne switched places so I could get some climbing shots of MY butt.


We were messed up with the camera at this point, and all the reamining exposures were too dark to rescue.

I subsequently led pitch #3 at 5.9-, and Gary did the crux 5.10b headwall slab that is protected by 14 bolts, all drilled on the lead!

Here's another view of Dome Rock from another trip, but still shows the magnificence of the area!


The next weekend was a lot hotter and we didn't feel like making the hot and dusty trudge up to the Dome again, so we settled on something on the very accessible Bucksnort Slabs; the route was Classic Dihedral, at 5.7.



A word of caution for Bucksnort Slab: Classic Dihedral it is on private land and access may be denied if we don't make every effort to be neat and tidy, leaving no trash or garbage behind. Thank the Access Fund for the present access! Also, a rappel from the first belay ledge is advised. Topping out leads to a very tedious descent.

This turned out to be the death knell of my camera for the Summer, and even though Anne and I made a subsequent trip to Squat Rock and the routes of Higher Education, 5.10b, and Elusive Wapiti, 5.9+, we didn't manage to get any more pictures. It also was getting too hot for the Platte, and we shifted our focus to the Lumpy Ridge for the remainder of the Summer.