Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: July 17, 2018 (Tue) Partners: Dow Williams & Tristyn Butler
- Date: July 23, 2020 (Thu) Partner: Toprope solo
Route Overlay
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Intro
Dow had arrived in the Estes Park area the evening before, so to kick off our trip together, we climbed the route Days of Heaven on Rock of Ages. Dow's friend Tristan joined us as well for a team of three.
Rock of Ages is a 200-foot granite wall in Rocky Mountain National Park, with a lower elevation and shorter approach than peaks further into the park. This area is a good choice for a half day or a day with possible thundershowers, or when you want to crag on a harder (5.10 or higher) route, or both. Days of Heaven — which climbs the left side of the main buttress of Rock of Ages — is perhaps the best route in the area, featuring clean splitter cracks from fingers to hands, with some wild 5.10 moves to access these cracks.
I led the first pitch, while Dow led pitches 2 and 3 as a single pitch, and Tristan enjoyed the opportunity to follow the route. The first few moves of Pitch 1 pulling over the bulge are rather committing, but on cool juggy features. Pitch 2 is a very technical pitch, involving some face climbing and hand traversing. Pitch 3 is the money pitch of the route, up an obvious vertical splitter to the top. The pitch ratings seemed a bit off to us. Pitch 3 (10d) is the supposed crux pitch of the route, but actually seemed to be the most straightforward climbing, with great jams and locks; to me, Pitch 3 felt easier than Pitch 1 (10a), which had some committing and more insecure moves. Pitch 2 (10c) was definitely the hardest pitch for us, as it felt significantly more technical and tricky than any other section of the route — specifically, the step left at the end of the hand traverse was the crux move of the route for each of us.
Even though only 200 feet long, Days of Heaven was a satisfying objective for the day (plus, it began to thunder and spit droplets of rain just as we topped out, a sign that it was time to head out). This page gives a route overlay and some photos from the climb.
In July 2020, I climbed Days of Heaven for a second time, this time via toprope solo. I had been on the upper cliff toprope soloing The Wasp. The top of Days of Heaven on the lower cliff is easy to access from the base of the upper cliff, so I decided to fix a rope on the tree above Days of Heaven and run a lap on Days of Heaven before hiking out. With a single 70 and a handful of directional placements, I was able to do the entire route as one long pitch from the ground. Because of the way the rope was hanging, I climbed the steep 11c/12a fingercrack of Pitch 2 of Celestial Gate which starts at the top of Pitch 1 of Days of Heaven and rejoins Days of Heaven halfway through Pitch 2. Fun!
Pitch-by-Pitch Photos
Pitch 1
5.10a, 80'
From the top of a large detached block, pull some committing moves over the roof and climb the left-angling grove to a large ledge.
Pitch 2
5.10c, 70'
Face climb up, hand traverse left along a flake, make a wild and difficult move left to switch cracks, and climb the crack to a stance below the obvious hand-sized splitter. Continue on or set a belay.
Pitch 3
5.10d, 50'
Jam the spectacular tapering hand crack to the top of the face.
Descent
Rappel
Rap from top of Heavenly Daze with a single 70.
(other routes on this pge have more photos of the descent)
For more excellent beta from this climb, see
Dow's summitpost page for
Days of Heaven.
