Garrett Grove - Day Eight

Today was indeed our grand finally.  No climbing tomorrow, we were all too tired from the days prior.  So we decided to go for it and climb what the guidebook calls one of the most adventurous routes in all of Red Rocks; The Warrior.  It is an 8 pitch 5.11a that ascends Cactus Flower Tower, all week we had talked about when we would finally nut up and just go for it.  I guess today is the day.

We woke up at 5am in order to allow for enough time.  The approach was full of guessing we were going the right direction and scrambling up steep 4^th and low 5^th class gullies.  It took just over 2 hours to reach the base of the climb.  By 9:30 we were climbing and staring up at the 1400 feet that lay in front of us.

Nearly every pitch was at least 130 feet in length and some were nearing 200 feet.  Tons of off-width climbing for the first half and the last few pitches were up some seemingly sketchy rock with long run-outs.  An adventure indeed.  We topped out in the mid-afternoon, soaked up the sunrays and began our long decent back to the car.  We made 10 rappels and lots of steep down climbing and were able to make it to the car by 9:15pm.  Finished, all done, exhausted and ready to not climb for a day or two! Time to sort through the 2500+ photos.

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