MountainProject.com Route of the Week: Pervertical Sanctuary to the Forrest Finish
No list of Rocky Mountain National Park’s routes would be complete without a representative line from the park’s most famous alpine feature, the Diamond on Longs Peak. Pervertical Sanctuary is an excellent route with a couple sustained 5.10 pitches following a good 5.8 warmup. It’s a major step up from the aptly-named “casual route,” which is mostly 5.8 and 5.9 climbing. is Probably graded a tad soft at 5.11a, Pervertical requires thin and wide crack skills on the two crux pitches, but both provide excellent protection opportunities. To truly climb “The Diamond,” rather than just an arbitrary chunk in the middle of the face, move right and slightly down from where most parties rappel, and keep climbing. This traverse is done at Table Ledge, or the horizontal crack feature which continues rightward as the crack peters out, and brings you quickly to the Forrest Finish. From here, two more long pitches of vertical 5.9 gain the top of the Diamond, and a quick walk leads to the summit of Longs Peak.
For more beta, check out MountainProject.com’s page on Pervertical Sanctuary [LINK].
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