Russian Arête (5.9+, ~8p, ~1800′)

The Arêtes

Route:

Russian Arête

5.9+, ~8p, ~1800'

The route follows a continuous crack system up the arête, involving 8 rope-stretching pitches of 5.9 jamming and stemming, mostly quality rock, awesome exposure, great belay ledges, and wonderful views.

Region: Colorado
Type: 
Trip Report 1:
Date(s): October 12, 2019 (Sat)
Partner(s): Tom Wright
Trip Report 2:
Date(s): May 26, 2022 (Thu)
Partner(s): Nate Arganbright

Route Overlays

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Intro

"The Russian Arête, you know, like Russian roulette." (Quote by Layton Kor taken from Black Canyon Rock Climbs by Robbie Williams.)

Fortunately, half a century of ascents have cleaned up this line nicely, making Russian Arête one of the better 5.9 multipitch climbs in Colorado. The route follows a continuous crack system up the arête, involving 8 rope-stretching pitches of 5.9 jamming and stemming, mostly quality rock, awesome exposure, great belay ledges, and wonderful views. This route has an alpine feel, being 1800 feet or so with a 4th class scramble to the start of the first pitch and an exposed 600-800 foot scramble to the rim from the top of the last pitch.

October 2019: Tom and I climbed this on the first 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! The route has a reputation of being a really long day, so Tom and I were pleasantly surprised when we topped out on the rim shortly before 3pm, exactly 5.5 hours after we started up Pitch 1. This route was one of my favorites in the Black so far.

May 2022: Nate and I had originally planned to climb Ghost Dancer, but after climbing the first pitch and part of the second pitch, we decided the runout had a bit too high of a consequence so we rappelled back to the base. Rather than the walk of shame back up SOB Gully, we climbed Russian Arête next door, a route Nate had never climbed. We lacked a topo, but I remembered enough of the route from my 2019 ascent, plus it is reasonably easy to follow the route. Although Nate was a bit nonplussed by the route, I was reminded of how much I enjoy the athletic crack and corner climbing, position, and the fact that the climb takes you from river to rim. Perhaps it is my 13+ years of climbing choss in the North Cascades that makes a route like this seem pretty awesome.

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Descend SOB Gully to the river. From here you can see the route and identify the obvious pillar on the left side of the ledge at the base of the route. Your goal is to get to this ledge. Walk along the river a couple of hundred feet, then ascend the first gully on the right (see annotated photo below). This seems to be taking you too far right, but at the top you can cut left (4th) and onto the ledge with the obvious pillar. Pitch 1 starts on the next ledge up, which can be accessed by a bit more 4th class scrambling. Pitch 1 starts at an obvious wide crack on the left side of the wall. Approach time: ~1.5 hours.
October 2019 photos
May 2022 photos

Pitch 1

5.9
Climb the wide crack system, which is a bunch of fun and athletic 5.9 crack climbing. A 70m lead gets you to a nice ledge below the next pitch.

Pitch 3

5.9
 Continue up chimneys and hand cracks. Pitches 3+4 can be linked into a 70 m rope stretcher.
October 2019 photos
May 2022 photos

Pitch 4

5.9
 Continue up the crack/corner system. This pitch ends at a spacious ledge with a massive pillar. This is of the best belay spots in the Black. Some refreshing shade if you want/need it.

Pitch 5

5.9+
Stem up the crack/chimney system above ledge. Thoughtful climbing with fun movement. Belay at a small stance on the right of the system or a small alcove just above this (the alcove might help avoid the semi-hanging belay at the lower stance).

Pitch 6

5.9
 Continue up the crack/chimney system. When the climbing begins to ease up around 30 m, trend right on low 5th class terrain to the end of the rope.

Pitches 7&8

5.7
Choose your own 5.7 adventure for about 300-400 feet up and right, eventually moving back left to a ledge where some parties choose to unrope. We tried to climb this as one long pitch with some simulclimbing, but rope drag forced us into two pitches. The "official" end of this section is at a pillar of stacked blocks. We unroped here and put on approach shoes for the final scramble to the top.

Note: Our route description only mentioned this 5.7 option for Pitches 7&8, but the topo did note a direct finish that climbs a couple more pitches of 5.10- cracks Next time I would opt for the direct finish for some more good pitches of crack climbing!

Comments Pertaining to this Page / Trip Report

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