Notch Top Mountain — South Ridge (III 5.8)
Though smaller than other walls in the Park, Notch Top has played an important role in RMNP history. The Diamond legend Roger Briggs considers his first free ascent of White Room (freed at 5.11 R/X) to be the touchstone for a new style, one that led to Diamond masterpieces like Ariana (IV 5.12a) and King of Swords (V 5.12a R). Previous to his Notch Top ascent, he’d approached peaks with bivy gear and a sack full of pitons. In 1973, Briggs climbed White Room with only a rack of nuts; it was a perfect place to start his new “fast-and-light” ethic. Climbers today use Notch Top as a similar stepping-stone. But don’t be fooled: the six-pitch South Ridge is committing and has no fixed anchors.

For a long time, the descent was one of the more storied in the Park, with countless climbers attempting the “mountaineering” walk-off only to get cliffed out and benighted. Local climbers and guides, tired of heading into the hills for rescues, bolted a rappel line off the west face. Use it.

Notch Top is not as airy as the Petit, as remote as Blizten, or as storied as Spearhead, but it does have damn good stone. The South Ridge is the highest-quality moderate line up the face, offering plenty of variations from 5.9 to 5.10+. If you keep to the true route, flip-flopping between golden arêtes and sinker cracks, you won’t be disappointed.