From: kennison@niwot.scd.ucar.edu (Dave Kennison)
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Re: Lizard Head Peak, CO
Date: 17 Apr 1995 16:27:34 GMT

Dan Muchow writes:

> Has anyone climbed Lizard Head Peak near Telluride, CO?  Would
> appreciate any tips, including what kind of rack to bring and
> whether there are any usable bolts on the route.  Thanks.

I led Lizard Head a couple of years ago (on behalf of two friends who were
finishing off all 638 "ranked" 13ers).  Just to give you a calibration:
I'm not God's gift to climbing.  At the time I did Lizard Head, I could
do all the 5.9's and some of the 5.10's at the Boulder Rock climbing gym.
(Now, I have arthritis in my feet, so I don't go to the gym at all.)  I
did (and still do) a lot of unroped scrambling on the Flatirons (5.4's,
5.5's, a few 5.6's, and one or two very familiar 5.7's), so I'm fairly
competent at that level and gutsy (or stupid, depending on how you look
at it).

We followed the descriptions given in various guide books to find the
route; if you like, I can dig out references, but I don't have them here.

Since I didn't know what to expect, I took an enormous rack.  If I were
to do it over again.  I would take a much smaller rack - perhaps half a
dozen friends of various sizes and a dozen small- to medium-sized nuts.

Lizard head looks and feels like a volcanic plug (but isn't, I gather).
Albert Ellingwood (who did it before most of the loose stuff got cleaned
off) was obviously one hell of a climber and crazy as a loon.  The climbing
route is now pretty clean, but everything else is loose as hell.

The "peak" may be roughly described as a little cylinder set on top of
a bigger cylinder, so the climb naturally divides into two pitches: a
100- to 120-foot pitch to the top of the bottom cylinder and another
pitch of similar length to the top of the second cylinder.  The first pitch
follows a left-facing dihedral on the south (southwest?) side (well, anyway,
on the side that you look at as you hike in from the obvious trailhead);
it's supposed to be 5.8, but most of it is a lot easier than that; I broke
it into two pitches (at the obvious place)in order to have my belayer
closer to me as I did the "crux", which is near the top.  Protection
on this part is trivial; there are lots of fixed pieces and just about any
piece you have with you will fit somewhere.  Originally, there was probably
lots of loose stuff, but now that the route has been done a bunch of times,
most of what's left is pretty solid.  You do have to be careful at the top,
because of all the loose stuff around on the (very sloping) "ledge" and
above.

To get to the second half, you get to walk up steep, very loose, scree
gullies (taking great care not to bomb each other or to start sliding)
for a couple of hundred feet.

Finding the start of the second pitch is a little problematical.  Of the
two things that look like possibilities, you want the rightmost - a slot
with a sort of alcove at the bottom of it.  It looks harder than it is.

The crux move on the second pitch occurs near the bottom, while you're
getting out of the alcove and into the slot above that; it's supposed to
be about 5.7, but I thought it was a little harder than that.  (In part, this
is because I hadn't properly rehydrated after the hike up, so I was getting
some cramps in my forearms.)  Protecting the crux was easy because I had a
friend that would fit in a 2- to 3-inch crack above it.  (I also used an old
piton somewhat to the left of and below the crux, but I wasn't too happy
with that.)  After the crux, the climbing gets easy and, for a while, you
can put small to medium nuts in.  Then, about 2/3's of the way up the pitch,
the slot gets too small to fit into and you run out of protection.  At that
point, I got out of the slot and went up the face to the right of it.  That
face was easy (like a typical Flatiron), but some of it was loose, so I had
to test everything before putting weight on it and I put in no protection,
so I was pretty run out when I finished the pitch.  (You might be able to
go off to the left of the slot, but I didn't try that.)  From that point,
it's just an unroped scramble to the top (for anyone, not just a climber).

Rapping off was scary because of the number of rocks that we managed to
knock off.  Also, coming down the scree was a lot clumsier than going up
it.  When we got to the bottom, I got down and kissed the ground (a sort
of thank you to the climbing gods for not killing any of us).  Rumors that
I kissed my companions are unfounded and will be steadfastly denied.  :-)

This was a fun climb and I'm glad to have done it (because of its historical
significance), but it was scary: there's still an awful lot of loose stuff
around.  Wear a helmet!  Don't go near the climb if there's anyone ahead of
you on it.