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The Practice Slab (5.1 - 5.8)
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The Practice Slab (5.1 - 5.8) 

Page Type: Route

Location: Colorado, United States, North America

Lat/Lon: 38.87780°N / 104.88°W

Route Type: Toprope

Time Required: Less than two hours

Difficulty: 5.1 - 5.8

Route Quality: 
 - 1 Votes
 

 

Page By: sisyphus

Created/Edited: Aug 15, 2005 / Feb 28, 2008

Object ID: 166298

Hits: 1412 

Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes 

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Approach

This is on South Gateway Rock - West Face. The Practice Slab is on the northern end of the West Face, and is easily spotted from the sidewalk. Once you've spotted the slab, walk to the south for about 25 feet until a trail takes you to the access ramp to the slab. There are chopped steps in the sandstone here that will take you to the anchors. Climb the steps, then traverse north across a ledge to the anchors.

Route Description

The Practice Slab gets harder the more you veer north (climber's left). Choose your line. Belay from a large ledge at the bottom of the slab. The slab is one pitch.

Note: The anchors at the top of the slab get a lot of wear. I always back up the anchors with some of my own pro.

Essential Gear

As I said above, backing up the anchors here might be a good idea. Bring a sling and some pro. One rope rap to the bottom here.



"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotised by desk calculators. I promise you this; you will outlive the bastards."   --Edward Abbey   

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