Howdy Supertaco! Had an excellent adventure up an ancient obscurity this weekend with Elliott Robinson. Some of you may know him- lover of all things wide and holy, willing to go up anything covered in moss, and if it involves a shiver bivy... he’s in. He came to me months ago with the idea to quest up Ribbon Falls to an old 1960’s Les Wilson obscurity- The Hidden Chimney 5.7 A2. With hopes of bagging the likely 2nd ascent, and FFA. All we had was a very vague description from an old guide book. Les Wilsons son was also kind enough to give us the limited beta that he had on the route.
We got a late-ish start and didn’t make it to the base of Chockstone Chimney till around 10am. There’s a great trip report on here by LeBruce that helped us greatly with Chockstone. This route was previously graded A2 as well, and turned out to be 5.9. This gave us hope that Hidden Chimney would also go free at a grade that common mortals could climb.
If you’d like a detailed pitch by pitch of Chockstone, again see LeBruce’s post.
Looking up P2. Climbing through the bush was definitely the crux.
Greasy off hands crack
Elliott questing through chockstones
At some point we got off route and exited the chimney system into another perhaps Lionheart? The right crack was flaring tight hands. Hardman Elliott opted for the brutal squeeze that felt hard 5.10 with a nice dirt covered sloper to mantel off of.
The nails hard dirt mantle
We were moving slow. Some of the route involved cool tunnel-throughs. Although the route is one giant chimney, route finding was not as easy as we hoped.
It was getting later in the day and we soon realized there was no hope at getting to Hidden Chimney by nightfall. We had no bivy gear. Just puffys and backpacks. There was also no hope that Elliott would let me bail. So we topped out on Sherwood Forest, which to our dismay was much steeper than we had thought. This made finding a suitable shiver bivy ledge difficult. But we survived the night and woke up bright and early ready to find this ‘Hidden Chimney.’
In the morning we began wandering up the terraces of Sherwood Forest, aiming for the large water streaked roof that overhangs the upper right edge. It was not a cake walk, and was very 5th class at times. We opted to rope up for it. Nearing the top edge of the forest, we looked left to find the massive Hidden Chimney, right where we expected it.
The route begins on top of a small pillar. A difficult step right through a bush and into a few steep moves to gain the first chimney. 5.9
Looking up at the first chimney, and into the second. Many loose blocks. The first section felt cake, but the second chimney was a tight squeeze. Glad we had the #5.
At the end of P1, the chimney ends with a hand crack filled with bushes, and a very polished and spicy step to the right. Crux of route.
You then wander up some steep blocks with a bit of mandatory tree stemming 5.8. Belay at the start of the massive bombay chimney.
The final chimney is steep, tight and intimidating. Luckily, the route does not go up. Forego all gear on your harness, re-tie your knot atleast a foot out, and hope all the yoga your wife made you go to will pay off. Squeeze sideways 100’ (walking) into the darkness, focusing on the pinhole of light at the end. The chimney narrows so tightly that even the slightest beer gut will not fit. Claw your way out of the abyss and into the daylight through what we dubbed, ‘The Rabbit Hole.’ This hole was caved in with dirt and rock when we found it, and required some serious excavation. Belay if you want.
From here, wander up to the rim through a mix of 3rd, 5th and heavy manzanita thrashing. Run 5 minutes down to Ribbon Creek like madmen, and pray you don’t get giardia. For the descent, we opted for east ledges. We made it from the summit of Ribbon Falls and down East Ledges in 2 1/2 hours. Some girls in an RV were nice enough to hitchhike us back to the parking lot.

Double rack to #3, single 4 and 5. Never needed a 6 for either route.
Overall it was a truly excellent adventure route. Full value chimney thuggery and tree climbing to the rim. Perhaps Elliott will chime in with some more photos.