WHITE ROOM

In 1974 I was climbing a lot with Larry Hamilton and one day we headed to Rocky Mountain Park to free climb the face of Notchtop Peak. There were a couple of easy lines up the face that followed the major weaknesses, but the clean and elegant sections of the face were untouched. We spotted a possible line up the center, leading to the the big white corner at the top, and launched upward with our small rack of hexes and stoppers. Pitch after pitch things were falling in place. It was one of those days where I was on fire, moving upwards smoothy and relentlessly with no hesitation. Larry sensed this and let me take over leading, plus I don’t think he was too thrilled about the unprotected 5.11 we were encountering. In the photo I am on the last pitch, just reaching the big corner, the White Room, and the major difficulties were over. I think we rated the route 5.10 because we thought is was damn hard, but Gillett’s guidebook gives it a modern rating of 5.11 R/X. It’s probably had only a handful of ascents after almost fifty years.