UKC

Free in a Day on North Howser

© Chris Owen
Boulder residents, Bruce Miller and Chris Weidner had a useful trip to the Bugaboos recently, freeing a new route on the North Howser Tower. Their line, Hey Kool-Aid, takes a crack system to the right of Young Men on Fire. After eight pitches, they joined Young Men, bivied after 13 pitches, and then did 10 more pitches to the top, with many variations to the existing route. Weider did a short tension traverse on this ascent, so the two returned later in their trip to blast the route in 15 hours, with Miller freeing the short crux section at 5.11+ with cold fingers. This is only the second all-free route on the North Howser's 3,000-foot face, along with All Along The Watchtower (5.12), which was freed by Topher Donahue and Kennan Harvey in 1996. The pair also added a five-pitch direct start to the classic Beckey-Chouinard Route on South Howser Tower called Lost in the Talus (5.11-) and two four-pitch, 5.11+ new routes on "Peek-A-Boo Pinnacle," a 300-foot tower in the Pigeon Feather Group.

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