Red Beard, M12, Goes On Gear

Ryan Vachon recently climbed Red Beard, M12, in the Rigid Designator Amphitheatre in Vail, Colorado, and protected it not by clipping the bolts, but instead by placing gear. The Rigid Designator area is one of the most famous ice climbing crags in the States. Jeff Lowe’s M8 Octopussy is just one of the many routes climbers session each season. There are easy and hard mixed routes, steep pillars, hanging daggers and slabby ice routes.

Red Beard was first climbed in 2011 by Will Mayo who compared its crux to Will Gadd’s Mushashi, M12, in the Canadian Rockies.