My good buddy Mikey has repeatedly urged me to come climb Center Route (5.9+) on Cynical Pinnacle with him in the South Platte over the last year. Well, he had good reason. Frequently regarded as one of the best, if not the best, crack routes in Colorado for its grade, I have to say I now agree. Its wonderful. Great crack climbing, great gear, steep, sustained, long pitches, and super fun. Even better, we were the only ones on the route all day. I would bet the 45 minute approach and 1,200′ vertical gain deters the crowds. Mikey took the 1st pitch (5.9) and then I took the crux 2nd pitch (5.9+) and the 3rd offwidth pitch (5.9+). I was happy to have led them both clean and can honestly say following on the 1st pitch with our 2nd rope on my back was tougher than leading the 2nd and 3rd pitches 🙂
Cynical Pinnacle on the approach. Center Route literally climbs the crack where the sun meets the shade in the center of the pic
Mikey leading pitch 1
Pitch 1
Mikey stemming on pitch 1
Looking out over the South Platte from the top of the 2nd pitch
Mikey on pitch 2…sustained 5.9+ for 125′
Just awesome crack climbing
Mikey having fun in the sun
Looking down at Mikey at the 2nd belay from a rest up pitch 3
Mikey high on the 3rd pitch
Finishing off Center Route
We topped out on Cynical Pinnacle’s false summit. There was still a 5.11b (old school rating) crack/sport climb to the actual summit of Cynical Pinnacle and I attempted to free climb this final pitch, but I could not get secure enough to climb to the 1st fixed piton and fell twice on my 0.4 camalot. It was hard. I could have pulled on gear and made it, but I decided to lower and forgo the summit pitch. C’est la vie. We came here for the crack climb (as the 3 pitch Center Route officially ends on the false summit) and decided to leave the goal of reaching the true summit for another time.
False summit of Cynical Pinnacle
We then double rope rappelled from the false summit to the hanging belay bolts and then did a 2nd double rope rap straight to our backpacks below.
Mikey on the 2nd double rope rap
As some extra credit, we hiked around to the west side of Cynical Pinnacle and climbed the 100′ 5.9+ crack called Hand Job Direct to get one more long pitch in before we hiked down to the truck.
Hand Job Direct as seen from below. The 1 pitch climb tops out at about the midpoint of the picture
Mikey nearing the anchors on Hand Job Direct
A super fun day with Mikey followed by some ice cream and me arriving back in Edwards by 7pm to see Kristine, Sawyer, and the dogs. Nice little Sunday.
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