This route is a wild, improbable and varied climb. When I dragged my friend up for the first ascent, I had a fantastic day of climbing. At the same time I may have convinced him to never climb an “adventure” route with me again. Be prepared for a wild ride. There is a lot of traversing on this route, thus both leader and follower need to be ready for the sharp end.

All bolts were drilled by hand, 3/8" stainless. All anchors (except the first optional belay) are bolted.

Pitch 1: Traditional Prelude 5.7 150’
Climb the arching, low angled crack placing gear, then traverse left along a dike to the base of the perched boulder and a comfy stance. You can build a gear anchor here with a bomber #1 cam and a tipped out #6 cam. Or skip this belay and link into pitch 2, watching for rope drag.

Pitch 2: Staccato Step-Up 5.8 50’
A fun short pitch climbing around the right side of the boulder. Use the #5 and #6 to work your way up and around a chalkstone to a bolt. Do a creative move to get on top of the boulder to the anchor.

Pitch 3: Diminuendo 5.10+ or 5.7 A0 60’
Make an exposed step onto the slab and dance left past 2 bolts. Then down climb slightly left to another bolt and straight down to the anchor. Given that this route is not 100% free, I recommend lowering past this tricky down climb once you clip the fixed biners. The follower must stay clipped in to the fixed biners and top-rope the down climb.

Pitch 4: Tempo Traverse 5.10 A0 120’
Look straight left across an improbable traverse. See the topo photo for what gear to bring, or at least make sure to bring the #5 cam and the #6 nut.
I find this pitch to be phenomenal in that there are JUST enough features to make it climbable in a sea of blank rock. It’s mostly balancy 5.7/5.8 with a few 5.10 moves. Following is a bit scarier than leading this pitch. The last 2 bolts have not been freed. Just pull on draws through those bolts to the anchor.

Pitch 5: Crescendo 5.10+ 70’
When I first hiked to Harmonica Dome, I bushwhacked and scrambled up the valley to the south and popped out on the ridge directly facing the dome. The view is striking and that is where the beta photos are taken from. Unfortunately, the standard approach does not afford nearly as stunning a perspective. The moment I stepped onto the ridge, the slightly diagonal dike slashing the dome as if the scar of an ancient sword wound stood out as THE obvious feature to climb. This would be a king line on a king rock. Well as you have learned by now, accessing this dike is an adventure - and a worthwhile one in its own right - but this pitch… this is the money pitch. This pitch is why this bizarre route exists. At this point the gear is done so grab a few quickdraw and lead this pitch. If the bolts look a little spaced out, believe me, they are exactly where they need to be. No more, no less. If you get scared, do one more move and you’ll be smiling.

From the anchor do a tricky move from a small pocket to a big pocket and jugs to the first bolt. The crux uses a streak of beautiful quartz and some creative stemming. The hard moves are well protected. Above the crux, be prepared to smile with nearly every move.

Pitch 6: Outro 5.9 150’
From the pod, make one 5.9 move then follow the dike as it slowly eases to walking. Finish in another pod with a small tree and a bolted anchor. This pitch is runout on easy terrain with just enough protection right where you need it. From the final anchor, walk to the summit.

See Descent info below.

A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

Harmonica Dome is known for the very cool Harmonica Arch that sits near the top of the dome, and the "Organ Pipe" tower. The Arch seems to be occasionally visited during peak season, with an established trail to the summit. As a climber, you'll have this place to yourself.

Harmonia Dome is an impressive 400’ granite dome with an impressively clean southwest face, lined with smooth water grooves reminiscent of Big Rock Candy Mountain, and streaked with 2 perfect crystal filled and pocked lined dikes, one horizontal, and one nearly vertical, making a giant + sign meeting in a bullseye in the middle of the face. These two dikes comprise the most unique and best climbing on the formation via “A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines”. Directly below the bullseye on the SW face there is no reasonable climbing access. One old lead bolt and 2 anchor bolts at the top of a slab indicate an early direct attempt. The climbing above the 2 bolt-anchor is either dawn-wall-hard, or 5.impossible.

Fifty yards right of center, past a huge roof, is an incredible 165’ overhanging dihedral, topping out on a large perched boulder. I am not the first to attempt this dihedral crack either. About 40’ up, there is an old tricam. I have no idea if that was a bail piece or if the whole crack has been climbed. On my on-sight attempt of that crack I didn’t even make it to the tricam before the painfully sharp jams, mossy crack, bush navigation, and suspect rock deterred me. I bailed from a sling around an unnerving chockstone. I later top-roped the entire crack, and while it certainly “goes”, the sketch factor is far too high for my taste. It’s unfortunate because it’s a striking line, but I don’t think the dangers justify it as a quality climb.

With the direct start and the dihedral out of the picture, an alternate way to access ”Madman” follows a much tamer (and still great!) crack a hundred feet to the right of the dihedral, surmounting the perched boulder on the right. Then an unintuitive traverse &amp; down climb grants access to the improbable dike traverse, the bullseye, and the vertical dike. I believe that an old Crusher route “Joey’s Traverse”, shares the first pitch and a half with “Madman”, before splitting to the right.

Climbing History on Harmonica Dome

Per Steve Crusher Bartlett:
“I think we called that formation Arch Dome. My wife Fran and I actually climbed a long water streak that's on the far right of [the beta] pic. We began somewhere under the large tree. There's an overlap that angles up and left. Our route followed a deep water streak that ascends just left of the far left end of this overlap. Pretty easy climbing, super high quality, maybe 5.9-ish but very runout (called it "Joey's Nervous"). I have a note that I free-soloed a 5.7 called "Mysterious Today" on the same formation. I have no idea where Mysterious Today is located, nor anything about it. I was poor, I have few photos from back then. And few notes.

I was  about done at this time with first ascents in the South Platte and began pivoting to spending more time with desert trips. Strappo did a lot more exploring around there. Strappo and Noel Childs did a route on Arch Dome they called Crimson Minge. This was very high quality. They may well have climbed, or attempted, other things there.”

Season

Spring and Fall provide good moderate temps. A cooler summer day with an early start (and no rain!!!) can also be reasonable. (it gets sun starting around 11-12 in July).

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Harmonica Dome