The previous weekend, Nate and I had climbed
Royal Flush (5.11c, 10p) on Chasm View Wall (a wall of sunny granite just right of the Diamond in Chasm Lake Cirque). We enjoyed the area and the rock so much we decided to return the following weekend. We spent the weekend in Chasm Lake Cirque, under the towering granite walls of the Diamond. It is a rather spectacular place to hang out—one of my favorite bivy locations in RMNP.
Initially, the weekend forecast was for "90% rain", but at the last minute NOAA decided that they really didn't know(a) and that "20%" was a more reasonable prediction. Obviously, work to be done with weather models! But Nate and I had already decided we were going no matter what to keep the weekend alpine streak going, so in the end the bad weather forecast but actually good weather ended up being in our favor by keeping crowds away and allowing us some pleasant weather to actually climb in.
On Saturday we climbed
Indirectissima (5.9, 4-6p) on Chasm View Wall. On Sunday we did a long day link-up of
Stettner's Ledges (5.8, 6p) on Lower East Face of Longs Peak with Zumie's Thumb (5.9, 7p) on Upper East Face of Longs Peak.
Indirectissima climbs along a distinct hollow flake system on the right side of Chasm View Wall. Our actual objective of the day had been
Sharp on Both Ends (5.11d, 6p), but when we got to the 11d corner of Pitch 4 we decided to leave it for another day. It was easy to traverse to the start of Pitch 2 of
Indirectissima from here. Since Pitch 3 of
Sharp on Both Ends is the same as Pitch 1 of
Indirectissima, we ended up climbing all of
Indirectissima, plus we had added two 5.9 pitches to the start (Pitch 1 was a 5.9 corner just left of the official first pitch of Sharp on Both Ends and Pitch 2 was the second pitch of Sharp on Both Ends). With the two extra 5.9 pitches (which I call a "direct start" in this trip report),
Indirectissima turns into a worthy 6-pitch adventure with three pitches of good 5.9 climbing.
The following page provides a trip report for the climb of
Indirectissima (with direct start) as well as photos from our overnight in the Chasm Lake Cirque. Enjoy!
