Kristine & I had been wanting to get back to this wonderful moderate rock climb above the town of Frisco ever since we were weathered off it below the headwall in late August of 2010. A late start, the impending weather, a crowded route, and our slow progress due to our unfamiliarity with the route (it was our first time) all contributed to us rappelling down the lower half of the route that day a few years ago. I had been back since to climb the route successfully with my friend Andy Dionne a few weeks later in September of 2010 as well as just this past July with a group of friends for Steve Cizik’s birthday.
The Royal Flush up Mt. Royal from Interstate 70
The Royal Flush is an awesome 1500′ sport climb up Mt. Royal’s north face above the town of Frisco. The approach is literally 5 minutes from the parking lot and anyone that enjoys rock climbing at moderate grades (up to 5.9/10) and can mentally deal with the exposure of being high up on a wall should climb this route. Some routefinding is necessary in terms of locating anchors, knowing when to combine pitches to make the climb faster, and navigating the two hiking sections, but after the first time, it really becomes a very fun and fluid climb. This is the kind of climb it was for Kristine & myself this past Sunday.
Kristine on the easy 5.4 pitch 1
Me at the top of pitch 1 on a chilly Fall morning
Kristine making the 5.10 roof move on pitch 3
Some route descriptions note the route can be climbed in 15 or as many as 20 pitches, but honestly many of these pitches can be combined with a 60m rope. Perhaps many of the intermediary bolt anchor stations are more for rap stations. Also, I think some route descriptions include the two hiking/scrambling portions of the routes in which you just coil the rope and hike as pitches themselves. As I had done before on my previous two climbs up this route, Kristine & I combined several pitches, for example pitches 1 & 2, which made for 9 roped pitches. This seemingly works pretty well and is fairly efficient.
Kristine on the fun 5.7 pitch 5 (we combined two pitches into one here)
The upper headwall is the prize of The Royal Flush. It is 500′ of quality rock climbing. There are two or three variations on the headwall with the easiest route including a long 5.9 pitch. This is the variation we climbed.
Kristine climbing the lengthy 5.7 pitch 6 on the headwall (we combined two pitches into one here)
Kristine making the short 5.6 pitch 7 traverse on the headwall
Kristine & I at the base of the 5.9 pitch 8 and still in the shade
Me starting the lead of the really fun 5.9 pitch 8
Kristine pulling the 5.9 roof move on pitch 8
Kristine climbing the 5.9 pitch 8
Kristine on the final 5.8 pitch 9 on the headwall (we combined two pitches into one here)
There is a summit register at the top of the last pitch (our pitch 9) with three volumes of summit log books. We fiddled through the books and found my entries from my two previous climbs. Then, all of the sudden, as we were signing our names, I noticed two guys’ names who had climbed this route a month earlier on August 3 – Tom Hornbein & Jon Krakauer! My dad & I had met Tom & Jon at the 2011 American Himalayan Foundation in San Francisco. These guys are great. We talked with Tom for quite a while about everything from Everest to Colorado. Tom made the first ascent of Everest’s west ridge in 1963 with Willie Unsoeld just a few days after Jim Whittaker reached the top of Everest via the standard southeast ridge as the first American to summit Everest. Even more so, Tom is 81 yrs old and climbed the Royal Flush just a month ago! Wow! I can only hope Kristine & I can come close to doing what Tom is doing at 81 yrs of age.
Anyway, after signing the summit register, we belayed each other up the final class 3 dirt/rock gully to a large tree as a fall down this 3rd class gully would send you airborne over the headwall for a long time. We topped out on Mt. Royal’s summit around 12:30pm, about 4 hrs after we left the car. We spent about 45 minutes on top relaxing and stowing our climbing gear in our packs. It then took us almost an hour to hike down the nice Mt. Royal trail back to the car. A wonderful morning with my wife on an awesome Fall day!
Mt. Royal summit (10,502′)
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