Burl Scouting #4 (Flatirons, Boulder, CO)

Trip date: August 02, 2020

Caltopo map here: caltopo.com/m/8T3A

This was the fourth scouting adventure for my project I've named the BURL: Boulder Ultimate Ridge Linkup.  The basic idea is to bushwack/scramble along the true crest of the Boulder skyline.  Other trip reports are here:

• BURL Scouting #1
• BURL Scouting #2​
• ​BURL Scouting #3 -- Never did a trip report for this one.  

​​All of these are described in the caltopo map (look for the corresponding folders).

Unfortunately I lost the gps track with all of my detailed route notes for this one.  This was still a very useful scouting trip because it probably killed the idea of the BURL completely.  There's one part of the ridge near the Diamond Head formation that appears to have mandatory technical climbing and it looks fairly serious (5.10+??).  If anyone knows a bypass here I'd love to hear about it.  

Even though this trip was in some sense a bummer because of the difficulties at Diamond Head, it was an absolute blast with lots of little surprises.  

Really fun game trail. This felt wilder than most parts of the Flatirons.

I think this has to be a spot where a bear sleeps.

The sticks have all been cleared away to make a nicer place to sleep. Canines do the same thing and really dumb, domesticated dogs try do it in their dog bed...

Looking NE over Shadow Canyon towards Devil's Thumb.

It starts...

They close this area for raptor nesting Feb 1 - July 31. One of the benefits of these closures is getting to see the birds that have grown to adulthood once it has lifted.

Lots of knife-edges like this on the crest.

Eventually I reached the Diamond Head formation.  It seems that Diamond Head represents the first truly impassable obstacle for the BURL.  It seems it'll be impossible to follow the ridge crest and avoid truly technical climbing.  

Diamond Head. *If* you got get up on thee ridge it might go but I didn't see a remotely plausible way to get up there.

On my second scouting trip of the BURL, I'd actually came within 10's of feet of seeing this obstacle on my before descending west at sunset (see image below).  ​

The approximate path of this trip is shown in yellow and my previous path (BURL scouting #2) is shown in red.

Shortly after taking a look at Diamond Head, the weather began to change pretty quickly.  This time I descended east.  

Supremely un-optimum. I waited this out in a nook in a Flatiron for about half an hour.

The dangers of rock-fall. I'd never seen a "hatchet wound" like this before.

I still wanted to do the rest of the ridge so I started climbing back up after the weather cleared.  ​

"If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes".

There's a magnificent talus field with car sized boulders that somehow I'd never really noticed before.  This was a really welcome surprise and the scrambling was really, really fun.  It was like a maze.  

Early part of the talus field.

These were mostly car sized talus blocks.

Back up on the ridge crest looking north towards S. Boulder Peak.

Looking west from the summit of South Boulder Peak, in a closing weather window. :/

This spot at the base of Shadow Canyon is one of my favorites.

Looking over S. Boulder Creek near the trailhead. This is one of my favorite photos demonstrating game trails. They always go somewhere "useful", usually a water source. There is also guaranteed to be a trail running parallel to the creek.