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.
Stettner's Ledges is a famous route that follows the long system of right-facing dihedrals that defines the boundary between Stettner's Buttress and the Diagonal Wall. It was a visionary climb at the time of its first ascent. For awhile it was one of the more popular climbs on Longs Peak, but today has fallen a bit into obscurity. We thought this route had lots of good 5.8ish climbing with a great position.
Zumie's Thumb climbs a narrow pinnacle atop a 600-foot buttress that towers above the south end of Broadway Ledge on Longs Peak. According to the guidebook description, the climbing on the buttress itself (until the final crux 5.9 pitch) does not exceed 5.6, but we felt that we repeatedly got into 5.8ish DFU terrain despite the fact we kept to the route. Getting back to walk-off terrain from the Thumb is a bit complicated. The guidebook mentions rappelling back down to the top of
Lambs Slide, but this looked very unappealing, so we climbed a 5.10(ish) DFU pitch on the opposite cliffs to get to walk-off terrain. I enjoyed this route for the adventure, position, amazing summit, and the problem-solving of how to safely get off, but Nate decided it was not worth the risk of the looser rock and descent shenanigans this route has to offer. To those who like a bit of adventure, heads-up terrain, and a day with lots of climbing, I recommend the
Stettner's Ledges with
Zumie's Thumb link-up. A nice addition for an even longer day and another summit would be to tack on the summit of Longs Peak— this would involve negotiating the Notch by either a rappel or via Gorrell's
Traverse (5.4), and then head to the summit via
The Stepladder (5.5).
The following page provides a trip report for the link-up of
Stettner's Ledges with
Zumie's Thumb as well as photos from our overnight in the Chasm Lake Cirque beneath the towering face of the Diamond. Enjoy!