In 1989, Steve Porcella and I scoped out the massive climbing potential on the west side of the Middle Palisade massif, which includes peaks like Norman Clyde, Middle Palisade, and Disappointment. The obvious standout line was a massive chimney system splitting the west face of Balcony Peak (13,845+’). By then, however, Steve and I were committed to a writing project describing routes on the 14,000’ peaks, so instead we struck a line directly up Middle Pal’s west face.

On September 16, 2018, 29 years later, I returned to the area with Vitaliy Musiyenko and we climbed Balcony’s roughly 15-pitch chimney line to the summit. The 5.10- crux came on the second pitch, which was characterized by a dihedral and then an arête. We reached the summit as the sun was setting and scrambled and rappelled down the spooky east face of the massif.

– Cameron M. Burns