In the summer of 2020 I was climbing Sky Pilot on Mt. Goode with Thomas “Moose” Loftis when I noticed the striking wall that makes up the right side of the northeast face of Trapezoid Peak. A brief reconnaissance of the wall revealed a smorgasbord of abandoned bolts and tat anchors, despite there being no record of an ascent on the wall. I spied a number of cracks and good-looking corners on the wall and decided it would be worth more exploration. Moose had other obligations, so I recruited Rett English, then Zach Wasserman, and later Michael Drake and Haley Wiedenman to do some climbing.

Rett and I were the first in our party to rack up. Scanning the wall, one line in particular really stood out to us: a continuous crack system that ascended the headiest of headwall—dead vertical, sometimes gently overhanging, from the very bottom to the very top of the coolest part of the wall. At the top of the first pitch, we found a bolt anchor; we were dismayed to discover we were not the first climbers there. However, on the second pitch, some rattly-looking bolts branched out left toward an offwidth/chimney system. Our intended objective lay ahead, presumably untouched. We ascended a great and sustained 5.11- finger crack, cleaned it up a bit, then fixed ropes and headed down for the evening.

The following day, after a lazy breakfast, Zach tagged Rett out and we ascended the fixed ropes to our previous high point. Ahead of us was the steepest part of the wall. Our 5.11 finger crack steepened at the same time it closed into a set of seams. I ended up employing some C1+ thin aiding at this point, taking note of climbable features and decent clipping stances. Zach followed behind, confirming that it was difficult but not impossible to free. We decided to add three protection bolts to the crux, establishing what would be a challenging alpine wall climb that is also well-protected and has a relatively easy approach. The final pitch was overhanging but turned out to be relatively easy.

I later returned on my solo rig to climb the crux moves free, and to my delight the climbing was even better than I had imagined it would be, and a not-so-impossible 5.11+ or 12-. We called the five-pitch route Man on the Flying Trapezoid.

That evening, Michael and Haley arrived at our camp. We spent the next couple days of catching up on our lives, making merry, laughing, and even doing some occasional climbing. We ended up with two more quality routes, albeit shorter, up the right side of what we ultimately called the Geometry Wall. We called those routes It’s a Trap!…ezoid (5.10) and Don’t Be a Square (5.10-). For one final success, we hiked out a bunch of trash and gear left behind from previous climbers attempting other lines on the wall.

— Matt Carpenter