HELMETS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

This is a great adventure climb! If you climb this route, please help clean it by ripping out moss and tossing loose rock. It has a chance to be a good route. Be cautious in the Spring or Fall. There is a chance of ice, and the rock will probably be wet with melt. This is a Northeast-facing wall with slab, ledges, and overhangs.

P1. Start on the right side of the bottom slab near the corner of the

Diamond Wall

. Scramble up the dirty slab and ledges to the first bolted anchor located near a small tree (5.5 R).

P2. Climb up and slightly to the left through more dirty slabs and ledges and then cut back to your right towards a bigger tree, girth-hitch the tree for additional protection, and make your way up to the first roof. Below this roof you will find the 2nd bolted anchor (5.6 R).

P3. Follow the obvious corner up to the next big roof. There is lots of good rock but also a fair amount of loose rock and moss (5.7).

Descent: Three 70 meter rappels will get you down. Hike up to the right. You will find a big spruce with some cord and blue webbing and a rap ring. This will give you an exciting free hanging rappel back to the first roof with the bolted anchor.

Tres Amigos

Upper Tiers

This is a great 'alpine-like' line that can vary depending on conditions.  It was designed as a dry tool route but can vary with some ice and snow.  It has loose rock, and the turf, when frozen, is quite good for climbing.  I guess it could be climbed as a pure rock route but would not be considered enjoyable.

Begin the route on the lower right edge of the slab and (P1, 60m) climb, trending left, on ledges and short faces staying on the slab under the steep face, to a stance and 2-bolt belay.

(P2, 50m) Work a slight bit left up short faces and ledges to a shallow left-facing corner to a great, protected 2-bolt belay.

(P3-70m) Climb up 30' to the roof, set some pro and drop back down a bit before following the weakness/crack that runs under the roof. Tricky moves up a steep face with some crumbly overhangs lead to a wide chimney. Pull out of the chimney when you can, and trend right to the huge trees.

Do a double 70m free rap off the overhang and use the 2 bolted belays below to the deck.

Three Tiers

is most well know for its fat and consistent lower half. After glassing the route's upper pitches, we headed out for a moonlit solo to the end of the ice, 1,500'+ above 10 Mile Creek. The line goes at WI3+/4-R with some potential M4/5.6 climbing. Protection can be sparse in places due to poor features for gear, although where you find solid rock, there are excellent holds. There was another group that had climbed this a day or so before, which set some new rap stations mixed in with the old.

This is an excellent outing that one could possibly call the

"

Polar Circus

"

of 10 Mile Canyon. The mid-route crux can be delaminated or non-existent and is reached by walking right up a gully that bypasses an overhanging 60' face that rarely if ever forms ice. We face climbed 70' of face and stepped right on thin, delaminated ice in the upper crux to continue to the tiers above. It also appears that one could skirt the entire 30m crux with 5.6 R rock climbing to climber's left on a loose, broken gully/ledge system. The old bolt anchor could use replacement as only one flattened hanger remains. We simul-rapped the upper half and downclimbed the lower half for a 4 hour round-trip adventure in the backyard.

As mentioned for

Three Tiers

, this is a massive terrain trap. It is a great fall alpine route before enough snow falls to create deadly avalanche potential. Up high, we experienced 2' of wind-blown in the gully with 3" windslab. It is not a place to be with any significant snowfall.

UPDATE, 1/2018: with a consistent freeze/thaw cycle, the upper most part of this gully was soloed to the summit ridge near Peak 3. Stanley Vrba climbed past my highpoint through an arduous and dangerous steep snow slog to tackle 2 more delicate ice pitches (thin AI 3/4) and 2 more sketch drytool/rock headwalls around some spectacular towers. He reported waist/chest deep snow in the gully above Upper Tiers and a lack of anchors for any possible retreat. The alpine ice encountered was variable and thin. Rock sections are the usual suspect quality. With a full 3,000’ ascent, descent requires a tedious and super exposed traverse along the ‘Dragons Spine’ between Peak 3 and 2 to Peak 1 and down the Mt. Royal trail to Frisco. This is dangerous and demanding (Grade III, AI4-R/X, M5/6-R/X). Unlike ‘

Polar Circus

’, rapping the route is extremely difficult above the Upper Tiers. This is probably one of the best alpine routes in Colorado, with a super short approach to a long day and all the physical/mental demands of similar routes in remote ranges.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Tenmile Canyon aka Officer's Gulch