Organ Pipe Spire - Aces & Eights

Aces & Eight's was an old mixed free/aid line put up in the early 2000's by James Stover and Elizabeth Fortushniak. Over the years, some work has been put into it to clean it up and get it totally free ready. It still needs some work. All pitches have been free climbed. Not all pitches have been led clean. This is mostly due to the fact that P2 is pretty scary and requires some big lobs if you blow it in the wrong places. P3 is just fun 5.9 climbing, and P4 is an easy 5th class scramble.

It's a good aesthetic climb with everything set for a strong free attempt, I am putting it out there for the next generation to see if it inspires anyone.

P1. Twenty feet right of Chris Widner's

Pipe Dream

is a long, clean corner. It starts out wide and over the course of 100' blinks down to nothing. This is OK because as the cracks thins out the feet and face holds start becoming more plentiful on the right wall. Eventually things disappear entirely, and you are forced to make some mandatory gymnastic/dynamic moves past a fixed anchor to clear the blank corner (the crux 5-7' was originally aided on blades - it might be doable now on aid with some micro wires and a hammer), this gets you back into some wide hands. Move left to a decent belay ledge and some solid anchors, 5.12 or 5.10 C1/2, 130'+/-.

P2. Ascend the chimney. Once you get up in it proper (scary), there's a crack deep inside to keep gravity at bay. Eventually you are forced out to the clean, highly featured corner above and some fun & exciting 5.11 climbing. Don't plug your cams in your finger locks, 5.11R or 5.9R C1 100'+/-.

-- With a few bolts through the outer lip of the chimney, this pitch would be really fun. Right now it's a dark scary voyage into a belly full of choss and gigantic spiders!

P3. Avoid the huge gash by heading up and left into a sweet corner on bullet hard stone on mostly fist-size cams. Climb to a great belay just below the summit cap. 5.9 50'+/-

P4. Scramble up to the summit then over to a gear belay at the top of the Original Carter Route.

This is on the southeast face of the Pipe Organ. It's a great winter outing, and temps on this face in January can be in the 60s. It's a long fairly, unbroken line straight to the summit. Rap 3 solid stations with 1 70 meter rope.

To access it, I have always rapped at the Organ Pipe Overlook and downsoloed the cleft between the Organ Pipe and the rim (5.6 chimney). This spits you out on the south side and 5 minutes from the base of the climb. The jug out is a bitch, but with some big wall skills and some ingenuity, it goes fast enough. You can also come in from the Sentinel Spire overlook and walk across the canyon floor - this is about 45 minutes from rim. The hump in from Lower Monument Trailhead is an hour fifteen plus.

Doubles from very thin - 00 TCUs to #6 Friends, Lowballs, and Valley Giants #9 and #12 help take some of the sting out of pitch #2.