Steve House and various partners established two new routes on Camp Bird Road during the 2013-2014 winter season. The first route, Goodnight Irene (900’, IV M5/6 PG13), was climbed by House and Ian Yurdin in November. The five-pitch route was established ground-up and climbs the gully system just right of Snowblind Fiend/Walk the Line (Jeff Lowe, 1978) and left of Desperado and is easily identified by a large chockstone high on the first pitch.

In January 2014, House and Steven Van Sickle established another route, Rusty Cage (800’, III M7 PG13), completing the line ground-up over five days, bolting on lead with both hand and power drill from free stances; they added additional protection and belay bolts on rappel and from fixed ropes to make the line safer. The route lies just left of the Ribbon and right of Desperado and climbs a steep orange-colored groove [the location of this new route was incorrectly identified as Walk the Line in previous guidebooks]. A couple fixed pins help protect the five-pitch route in addition to about 25 bolts; however, a full rack including short ice screws is mandatory.

Additionally, in mid-January, House and Josh Wharton climbed variations to two other routes in the area. First, they added a two-pitch direct start to the Demon, a route that lies just left of the Talisman, which they called Hairy Devil (M6-7). They then climbed a two-pitch alternate start and became the first to top out the previously unreported route True GRIT (Nance-Vilhauer, 2006), which lies a half-mile right of Sapphire Bullets of Pure Blue Ice, in Telluride.

Information provided by Steve House