The Black Canyon's Cloak and Dagger

When Jim said he wanted to do Cloak and Dagger I rushed into the garage to the climbing library and pulled the Black Canyon Climbing Guide off the shelf. The climbing library is in the Garage because the wife forbids it in the Living Room. Not sure why? It's a volume of books that have taken me almost 20 years to put together.  She has expressed several time, "Our house is not your college dorm room." Ok fine the my climbing hold idea across the living room's high beam might have been taking it a little to far. But why can't climbing related books be inside? The wife works harder at keeping anything to do with climbing out of the house then I work at trying to climb 5.13.
 

The Dragon

I flipped through the pages of the guide but was unsuccessful at finding the climb. Little did I know Cloak and Dagger is a new Black route that got established in 2012. The amount of potential new climbing in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is mind blowing.  

Mountain Project.com

 As usual Gilchrist rolled up to the mail box pick up point at 6:30 in the morning. NPR was blazing in the Prius as I opened the door to greet him. In a flash we were over McClure Pass and descending towards Paonia, Colorado. As we drove along the reservoir we were scared shitless by a massive block that had fallen from the jumble of sketchy cliffs above the road. It’s not uncommon for the road to be booby trapped with large rocks in this stretch. But this rock was the size of a FedEx truck that had face planted in the pavement. . Luckily  Jim was able to navigate around the massive block. 

The excellent Pitch 3

The approach to Cloak and Dagger is much the same as Comic Relief and Escape Artist. It took us about 30 minutes to scramble down the SOB Gully and then traverse over towards the start of the climb. The Cosmic approach ledge continues to the base of Cloak and Dagger's first pitch Pegmatite Gully but we opted for the Gilchrist Variation that first climbs a beautiful 30 foot crack and then traverses right bypassing the lower section of the Gully. As we approached a party was just finishing up Pitch two. Pitch 2 climbs a splendid steep hand and fist crack for 30 feet and then works into a squeeze chimney. Bring a big boy number 4 to make the wide first crack feel stress free. If you've got big cajones don't worry about the number 4 BD.

Pitch 5

I arrived at the top of pitch 2 to find a gentleman by the name of Dr. Tom Bohanon who goes by “Bohanon.” This dude has the same name as Bohannon from Hell on Wheels making him especially bad ass by name alone. I wished he climbed with a low browed tilted leather prairie hat and smoking six shooter. It turns out Bohanon is a old climbing chum of Jim’s and we would have his and his partners pleasant company for the rest of the route. 

Pitch 3 is the money pitch. The pitch seemed to be well over a 150 feet with the initial 100 feet being incredible steep clean and well protected fingers crack climbing. This pitch made the entire climb a true gem.

The next pitch is pretty radical as well. Large hand jams take you through a roof section with comforting large cam placements. A few exhilarating moves lead to 160 more feet of moderate climbing. Just as you run out of rope and gear you reach a massive comfy belay ledge. Kick the climbing shoes off and relax because the rest of the route is cruiser.

Pitch 4 and 5 are more typical Black climbing with sections of great and not so great rocks. The 5^th pitch starts with one final insecure but well protected move that leads to slabby moderate climbing. From here the route joins the final pitches of Escape Artist and Comic Relief reaching the top of the buttress. 

The Swing over. Most rap to the bottom of this gully and hike out.

When I climbed Comic and Escape Artist we did the typical rap of the buttress and hike to the canyon rim up a loose and dirty gully. The hike out always fells much harder then it actually is and makes the day drag on. Jim mentioned a variation to the rap and walk out were you can get a few more pitches of moderate climbing in and end up on the rim just a hop skip and jump away from the campground. 

The variation which I nick named “Astro Monkey Turd.” is actually a fun adventure in rockaineering. You rap about 10 feet as usual and then carefully stem over to the other side of the notch and scramble up to the lip. This option does involve untying briefly from the rope or some rope work trickery and shenanigans. Once on the other side of the formation scrambling leads through a razor knife edge ridge for 40 feet. The exposure is excellent. Two pitches of easy adventure climbing, following the path of least resistance brings you to the rim! 

Jim finishing up the "Astro Monkey Turd" exit to the rim.

I suspected since Bohanon and his partner Terry had done the traditional walk off and they would have vacated the camp ground well before we were finished. But there was a small hope they would still be around with ice cold beers and salty snacks. As we strolled into camp a man turned in our direction, it was Bohanon. Bohanon and Terry were having such a swell time they decided to stay another night.  Not to mention 133 was now closed do the earlier rock fall. Bohannon flipped open the cooler and retrieved two cold drinks extending them Jim and my way. It couldn't be a more perfect finale to our day!

Driving the long way home via Grand Junction Jim and I reminisced about the day. Climbing behind another party in the Black can be terrifying. But we found the belays were often offset from the pitches enough to offer safe places to wait for parties in front of you. The rock quality was over all very good and all cruxes offered great gear placements. Like all routes in the Black there was plenty of “adult climbing.” (Jim G’s term for heads up, run out no fall sections, greater then 15 feet above marginal gear)  The third pitch’s stellar rock and movement makes the climb a must do for any aspiring climber.