North America, United States, Colorado, Longs Peak, Diamond and Twin Owls

Publication Year: 1977.

Longs Peak, Diamond and, Twin Owls. Chris Reevesly and Bill Rouse took advantage of a good day in early July to make the second ascent, but the first all free one, of the Obelisk, a long vertical white crack at the left edge of the Yellow Wall on the Diamond. It was not until July, 1975 that this much-tried route was first climbed by George Fowler and Phil Fowler. While discussing the climb with Hurley, Reevesly learned of a thin crack inside the double overhanging 4- to 4½ -inch crack. Acting on this information, Reevesly and Rouse decided to have a try at doing the route free. Their hunch was right, but barely so. The 130-foot stretch of crack below Obelisk Ledge proved a vicious crux. Roger Briggs and Bob Candelaria did a new free variation on the route done by Wayne Goss and Jim Logan on the Yellow Wall side of the Diamond. They traversed to the right side of the Yellow Wall bivouac ledge, having climbed the lower part of the face as Goss and Logan had, and then finished on the Yellow Wall route. The significance of this is that it adds three more pitches of difficult climbing above where the other free routes finish. The Epitaph route on Twin Owls was done all free (F11) by Earl Wiggins and Dan McClure.

Michael Covington