Checkerboard Wall Main Page

Checkerboard Wall Area

Routes:

NEWBERRY'S SLABS:
- Newberry's Delight (5.9, 3-4p)

CHECKERBOARD WALL:
- The Maiden Voyage (5.9, 4p)
- King Me (5.10-, 3p)
- Checkerboard Wall (5.10+, 5p)

Region: Colorado
Elev: 6,000-7,000 ft
Rock type: Gneiss
Type: 
Date(s): various
Partner(s): various

This page contains trip reports for climbs I've done in the Checkerboard Wall area.

Climbs I've Done

CLICK THE DROP DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS FROM EACH ROUTE

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: May 13, 2024 (Mon);  Partner: Linn Kelley

Route Overlays

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Intro

Newberry's Delight linked with Maiden Voyage is a nice 8-pitch 5.9 Grade III day of climbing in the Black. The route's best pitch is the first: a beautiful 5.9 hands-to-fists splitter. Linn and I climbed this route as part of an 11-pitch 3-route linkup of Newberry's Delight, Maiden Voyage, and King Me. It had rained heavily the evening before, so all of the routes had some wetness, but it just made it feel a bit more alpine.

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Descend the Cruise Gully, which involves scrambling and two rappels (fixed lines in 2024). Shortly after the second rappel, the gully opens up. Scramble down and right between North Chasm View wall and Newberry's Slabs buttress. The route starts at a prominent splitter below the ramp system on the upper portion of the formation.

Pitch 1

5.9
Climb the hand-fist crack, eventually entering a chimney. At a roof above, traverse left across a slab and belay on a ledge.

Pitch 2

5.9
Move up and left through broken crack and face climbing to reach a ledge. Move right and located a short, left-leaning finger crack that leads to another ledge. Move right onto slabs, ending at a stance below a left-leaning finger-to-handcrack. This is a rope-stretching pitch.

Pitches 3&4

5.7
Climb the crack to easier slabs above, trending up and left to a large ledge and other hand crack. Pitches 3&4 can be linked for a 70m pitch.

Descent

Routes on Newberry's Slabs require a linkup with another climb to reach the rim (unless you want to ascend Cruise Gully). A great 11-pitch 5.9 link-up is Newberry's Delight to Maiden Voyage to King Me (which is what we did).

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 5, 2018 (Thu);  Partner: Tony Bubb
Date: May 13, 2024 (Mon);  Partner: Linn Kelley

Route Overlays

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Intro

A great intro into Black Canyon climbing. An obvious line, entertaining, not very sustained or long, and (mostly) excellent rock.

This was the second route I ever climbed in the Black. July isn't the ideal time to be climbing in the Black, but I was passing through Colorado and just wanted to check this area out. Tony and I had climbed Comic Relief the day before and had found the temperatures pretty comfortable in the shade, so we decided to link two other morning-shade routes, Maiden Voyage with King Me, for 7 pitches and about 700 feet of climbing. Linking Maiden Voyage with King Me was a great way to climb all the way to the rim rather than hike up a gully to the rim as many parties do after climbing Maiden Voyage.

I climbed this route again in 2024, as part of an 11-pitch 3-route linkup of Newberry's Delight, Maiden Voyage, and King Me. It had rained heavily the evening before, so all of the routes had some wetness, but it just made it feel a bit more alpine.

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Pitch 1

5.9 (crux)
The start of the route is the worst part of the route, ascending a dirty face into the crack system. Continue up, climbing through a roof (crux) and up some more to a belay spot below a wide crack. Some parties break this into two pitches.

Pitch 2

5.8
Ascend the obvious wide crack, go around a roof to the right, back left to go around the next roof, then up some fun double cracks.

Pitch 3

5.7
Climb up the huge easy dihedral to a large ledge with trees.
July 2018 photos
May 2024 photos

Pitch 4

5.6
Summit block. The route finishes up the summit block above with an obvious crack and corner over on the left.

Descent from summit block 

Rappel
Rappel from the summit block back to the ledge. From here, you can either (1) hike across a forested ledge and then scramble up an exit gully to the rim or (2) hike only half-way across the forested ledge and climb King Me to the rim. Stroll back to the campground.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 5, 2018 (Thu);  Partner: Tony Bubb
Date: May 13, 2024 (Mon);  Partner: Linn Kelley

Route Overlays

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Intro

Excellent face climbing and fun wide cracks. A great way to get to the rim after climbing Maiden Voyage. A notch harder than Maiden Voyage.

This was the second route I ever climbed in the Black. July isn't the ideal time to be climbing in the Black, but I was passing through Colorado and just wanted to check this area out. Tony and I had climbed Comic Relief the day before and had found the temperatures pretty comfortable in the shade, so we decided to link two other morning-shade routes, Maiden Voyage with King Me, for 7 pitches and about 700 feet of climbing. Linking Maiden Voyage with King Me was a great way to climb all the way to the rim rather than hike up a gully to the rim as many parties do after climbing Maiden Voyage.

I climbed this route again in 2024, as part of an 11-pitch 3-route linkup of Newberry's Delight, Maiden Voyage, and King Me. It had rained heavily the evening before, so all of the routes had some wetness, but it just made it feel a bit more alpine.

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Hike <10 min on a forested ledge from the base of the summit block of Maiden Voyage to the base of King Me, which starts just right of some obvious vertical black streaks (you cannot see the streaks until you are starting to pass by the route).

Pitch 3

5.9+
Climb up an offwidth to a hand crack through a small roof to the rim.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: October 13, 2019 (Sun);  Partner: Tom Wright

Route Overlay

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Intro

This route takes a line directly up the improbable southwest face of Checkerboard Wall Buttress. The climbing is quite good but also a tad bit spicy...

Tom and I climbed this on the second day of an October weekend in the Black. Drive to Black Friday night + Russian Arête Saturday + Checkerboard Wall Sunday + drive back to Boulder Sunday night. A great way to spend a fall weekend!

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Pitches 1&2

5.7
Climb up the ramp, at around 20-25m heading left onto a steeper crack, climbing straight up to a higher ramp system. Follow this ramp system until it ends at the base of a junky chimney. This section is two pitches, and can be linked with a 70m rope or a bot of simul-climbing.

Pitch 4

5.10+
Make some tricky moves off the belay to gain the corner. There is a piton to clip before making the moves, but a fall here would not be fun. Then climb up the sustained corner for 20-25m. Where it starts to arch away to the right, plug in a piece and step left, climbing face into a shallow corner. We thought the crux was gaining the shallow dihedral. Kind of scary here. Belay at the top of the corner.

Pitch 5

5.10-
Climb up and slightly left into another small corner, clip a fixed pin and pull some heady face moves (bolt that was installed has been removed to respect the FA'ers wishes to maintain the original quality of the route) to gain the right-arching roof system above. Undercling and foot smear right under the roof. At an obvious weakness, pull over the roof and climb onto the face above. Continue up face climbing (kind of exciting with minimal pro) to a terrace below the summit block.

Pitch 6

5.6
Summit block.From the top of Pitch 5, you can apparently traverse left below the summit block to above Maiden Voyage. But we didn't see a clear way, so we went right around the summit block, circumnavigating it on 3rd class terrain to the base of the final summit block pitch of Maiden Voyage. For a summit and a bonus pitch, climb summit block to top!

Descent from summit block

Rappel
Enjoy the view, rap back down to the base of the summit block, and hike out via an obvious easy gully across the way leading back up to the rim. Or add a few pitches and climb to the rim via King Me.

Comments Pertaining to this Page / Trip Report

Useful beta. Updated route information. Corrections. Historical notes. Interesting facts. No fluff please.
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *