For this page I will simply give brief reports of each trip I make to the Flatirons in order which they happened

Third Flatiron East Face Direct with Sarah - November 13, 2013

Having a few days off from work in Wyoming, I put a shout out on Facebook and Mountain Project looking for people to climb with at the Flatirons and Eldorado Canyon. Sarah was interested in a short day climbing and we agreed on the Third Flatiron since I hadn't ever climbed any of them before. We met early at the trailhead and started hiking up the old road towards the Flatirons. I was amazed at some of the flood damage from the floods a few months earlier. There was a huge trench along the side of the road over a foot deep and Sarah said the valley just east of the Third Flatiron was deepened by 10 feet when the water cascaded down and into Boulder. The trail where it crossed the valley was destroyed and there was a new 10 foot drop-off that still needed to be fixed 3 months later. The trail was officially closed so we simply went straight up the talus slopes towards the south side of the east face of the Third Flatiron. When we got to the base of the route, there was another team just starting as well. We would end up climbing the entire route side by side as we both swapped leads. Sarah led our first pitch up easy 4th class slabs and belayed me up. I led the 5.7 overhang crux which was made more difficult for me due to some gear mishaps on my harness. Once I sorted it out I was able to pull through the overhang which had great cracks for pro. The other team decided to traverse left and work around the overhang. The remainder of the climb was a fun, slabby and run-out but easy climb. We pitched the whole climb, passing by the "Dog Head" and topping out around noon. We spent a half hour on top enjoying the warm sunny day and no wind. I recall looking across to the First Flatiron and being unable to determine which was higher. We made three short rappels on double bolt anchors down the southwest face and hiked back down talus until we hit the trail. It was nice to finally climb one of the Flatirons despite living in Golden for 4 years!

Looking up from base of the route

Me leading the 4th pitch

Climbing the first pitch. The crux overhang is just above

Belaying Sarah up the final pitch

Me working through the 5.7 crux

First Flatiron from the summit of the third

First Flatiron North Ridge with John - Late Winter, 2014

John and I met up in Boulder for this climb and since I had hiked up to the base of the First a couple times before, I knew where to go. We started our climb on the right edge of the east face and I led up utilizing a tree to get onto the rock itself. We ended up straying too far right though, and about halfway up we were on the north ridge, however we found ourselves on the back side on easy terrain. So we decided to continue directly up the ridge, which was mostly easy 5th and 4th Class. Oly one move was really challenging which involved pulling over a small overhang. We reached the false summit just behind a group of 4 who graciously let us pass. The traverse to the highest point involved a short down climb, then a 20 foot climb up the other side of the small notch. There was a bunch of us crammed on the summit since it was a nice spring day, so we quickly ran our rope and rapped down. A 60 meter rope is needed to make this rappel. From the base of the rappel on the back side it was a pleasant hike down - Unfortunately I forgot my camera on this climb so no photos