South Boulder Peak via South East Ridge

[Sugar Madison]

It's done all the time... like Homie said, Fred probably does it once a week.

[vandy]

I was staring at the SE ridge of Sobo today from the summit and was thinking it would be a fun thing to try as well. I found a great angle of it from the Eldo Mtn page on SummitPost. It does look like a long outing.

http://www.summitpost.org/south-boulder ... mtn/514047" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[izzy]

Re the Roach quote: "The length of this traverse becomes apparent long before you reach S. Boulder Peak."
I have been piecing together bits of the ridge as shorter outings over the past year. I reached Shirttail via Old Mesa, and accidentally ended up soloing up the slab just east of the actual summit. Better to stay just north east before scrambling up the final summit block.
The ridge north from there is straight forward for half mile- I have approached it via the 2 gullies north of shirttail, and they are both crap fests, though there is a cool cave in one of them...
Yesterday I figured out the pseudo-summit just north of the Matron on the ridge. I achieved the ridge from the meadow at the top of Old Mesa, staying south of the Matron. The ridge is nice here, but there is a large conglomerate slab interrupting the traverse just west of the Matron summit. I did a traverse on the East side which went, but could be considered a bad idea on a wet day due to the moss. Easier to drop below it on the east as the West side is talus and wind.
From there, the rocky pseudo-summit has three ribs of sandstone. I reached a saddle just west of the eastern-most slab and worked up to a rocky saddle. You can worm your way up through a hole heading south, traverse out over some exposed sandstone, then just slab up to the top. There was at one time a wire-wrapped post here that has snapped and sits in the crack just east of the tip-top.
From here the remaining ridge to SoBo is easy to spot, but still a long haul. Given the shorter day, I bailed on the north side via wet talus to Shadow Canyon and came out just about where I have left the trail for the Maiden. I hope to have a better feel for the final push and put that whole traverse together one day, but the micro-adventures are fun enough if you have long pants and a big imagination...

[jerseybrian]

I was wondering if anyone knows if anyone has done South Boulder to Sanitas and back before, or any similar out and back on the Boulder Skyline?

I've done the skyline from South Mesa Trailhead summiting South Boulder Peak, Bear Peak, Green Mtn., Flagstaff, Anemone Hill, and Mt. Sanitas. After that I walked down Mapleton to 9th st. and then to Chautauqua to get on the Mesa Trail and back to South Mesa Trailhead. I think it's around 25 miles and at least 8k vert but someone with a gps measured it around 10k. I'd have to go back with an updated gps because that was in 2008 that he measured it. It's quite the day though for just around Boulder. I'd be down to do that loop again if anyone is interested. We could add in Dinosaur Mtn. and Eldorado Mtn. to make it a little longer haha.

I've also done the South ridge of South Boulder Peak which is why I actually chime in. I took the Old Mesa Trail like someone suggested and went up on of the formations but I don't know which. I gained the ridge just north of Shirt Tail Peak. From there it was anywhere from class 2 down lower on the ridge to class 3/4 and even some 5 on some of the ridge proper. I had to back down a couple of the formations because the down climbs on the north side were class 5. I stuck to the ridge proper as much as possible and there was a lot of fun solid rock! The last bit to the summit is really fun! I'd be down to do it again because that day I got to the ridge at sunset and was in a rush haha.

[justiner]

Ah, good reminder I should give this a go - and soon! As the raptor closures are still not in effect!

[jerseybrian]

Ah, good reminder I should give this a go - and soon! As the raptor closures are still not in effect!

Haha I didn't realize when I responded to this thread that it was started 5 years ago and by you. Also, I saw where ezabielski got the idea from Paul Maggs for the super slam which is where I got the idea too. Small world! Anyways I've always been dreaming of new adventures in Boulder. What about a ridge proper traverse of Eldo Mtn. -> Sanitas haha?

[ezabielski]

Ah, good reminder I should give this a go - and soon! As the raptor closures are still not in effect!

Haha I didn't realize when I responded to this thread that it was started 5 years ago and by you. Also, I saw where ezabielski got the idea from Paul Maggs for the super slam which is where I got the idea too. Small world! Anyways I've always been dreaming of new adventures in Boulder. What about a ridge proper traverse of Eldo Mtn. -> Sanitas haha?

Yup, this is a blast from the past. I've done the Skyline many times since then, point to point and as a loop. I also did it as an out and back several years ago (which is what I was asking about in my post): SB - Bear - Green - Flagstaff - Sanitas - Flagstaff - Green - Bear - SB. It was a great day out. Since posting that, I have learned the Skyline has been done in basically every permutation and variation you can imagine. Including quad skyline, and climbing most every significant feature along the way. I think my next long Skyline day will be dropping to the Mesa Trail between each peak. I've been meaning to do that for a while.

[SchralpTheGnar]

What’s the route like to the north of fern canyon up the se ridge of bear peak? I ran up south boulder peak recently and was checking it out on my way back to the Mesa trail, it Looks rocky but what does it go at?

[justiner]

I think on Bear, there's a few choices you could make, to have an excellent link up of things. You could take the trail down to the saddle of Nebel Horn, and do Nebel Horn and link that up to (yadda yadda) Dinosaur Mountain, then go west to South Green, then over to Green. That would certainly keep the flavor of the route from Shirtail to South Boulder.

Another option is to drop down from Bear almost due north, until you cross the Bear Canyon trail, then up Green's South Ridge - I'm guessing that's just bushwhacking - might even just take the West Ridge Trail. It's not easy climbing on the South Ridge tho, and you would primarily be hugging the west side of it, until you get to South Green. Although I've tried to stay just below the ridge (or on top) from South Green going south, there's a few pretty tricky points that I wouldn't commit to. I tried going east of the ridge, but that also cliffs out into pretty hard to navigate terrain (basically, the Sacred Cliffs). I had to go pretty far west to make it down a more gentle gully to the Bear Canyon trail.

I'd love to do some sort of linkup like this and bring a rack, so that the day can start on Gambit, and if raps are needed on the way to Sobo, they can be done. There's developed crags north of Shirttail, so there should be some sort of rap anchors of some sort around. From Nebel, there looks like a fairly unpopular ridge just west of Overhang rock that could potentially add some fun, before crossing over the trail to the south ridge of Green (Poot?). Then up some of the routes to Dinosaur.

[FireOnTheMountain]

I was wondering if anyone knows if anyone has done South Boulder to Sanitas and back before, or any similar out and back on the Boulder Skyline?

Cool thread and alright, I'll have to bite. I once (and pretty sure its been done before in similar style) did all 5 boulder peaks by their biggest climbs one way then reversed it starting at Sanitas and ending at Sanitas. Obviously there is some interpretation to each peak's 'biggest climb', but for the sake of many words lets just say for the Bear-SoBo-Sobo-Bear portion of it I did fern canyon for Bear, down shadow, up shadow for Sobo, down shadow, up shadow for Sobo, down shadow, up shadow for Bear then down Fern...

Think it came out to somewhere around 20k and the google earth satellite topo kind of looked like a king's crown since I didn't traverse the skyline ever so I called it the King's traverse between myself and I.

Actually started the day with Peter, his buddy Mike and Tina Lewis and we also ended up running into Homie that day. Just a small world day in the Bubble I suppose.

[ezabielski]

I was wondering if anyone knows if anyone has done South Boulder to Sanitas and back before, or any similar out and back on the Boulder Skyline?

Cool thread and alright, I'll have to bite. I once (and pretty sure its been done before in similar style) did all 5 boulder peaks by their biggest climbs one way then reversed it starting at Sanitas and ending at Sanitas. Obviously there is some interpretation to each peak's 'biggest climb', but for the sake of many words lets just say for the Bear-SoBo-Sobo-Bear portion of it I did fern canyon for Bear, down shadow, up shadow for Sobo, down shadow, up shadow for Sobo, down shadow, up shadow for Bear then down Fern...

Think it came out to somewhere around 20k and the google earth satellite topo kind of looked like a king's crown since I didn't traverse the skyline ever so I called it the King's traverse between myself and I.

Actually started the day with Peter, his buddy Mike and Tina Lewis and we also ended up running into Homie that day. Just a small world day in the Bubble I suppose.

That explains a lot about you, spending that much time in Shadow Canyon really would ruin your mental health

[dannyg23]

I find that as a general rule, if I think up a cool idea in the Boulder area: Bill Wright already did it, or knows somebody that did it, or at least had the idea and named it something clever. Saves time to just copy him outright.