On Sunday August 9th I rope soloed Healy’s Haunted House, a Red Rocks cult classic. This under appreciated route ascends a continuous 700 foot chimney system, with off-width, squeeze or true chimney climbing on every pitch.
Healy’s Haunted House is a Red Rocks cult classic. Standing alongside Tunnel Vision, Community Pillar and Adventure Punks, Healy’s represents authentic traditional climbing – a demanding journey of off-widths and chimneys following the single most impressive weakness on the popular Angel Food Wall. Adhering to the admirable style of 1974, first ascentionists Joe Herbst and Bob Healy placed only one anchor and two lead bolts despite frequent runouts approaching 100 feet. I seek challenges like Healy’s for one reason: adventure. There’s something about the cavernous chimneys of Red Rocks, laced with the chocolate varnished huecos of dreams, exfoliating Navajo sandstone of nightmares, monster chockstones, and hair raising runouts that swoons my soul. Inside these wide cracks I feel feral – like a wild animal.
I usually prefer well protected routes for rope soloing, as a jammed rope or otherwise system malfunction amidst a difficult runout is sickening. However, I had my eyes on Healy’s for over a year, and finding partners for routes of such character is difficult. Furthermore, when facing mid-August temperatures of 105 degrees, deep chimneys are one of the few reasonable options. While the cactus laden valley floor of White Rock Springs browned like neglected granola, Healy’s promised shady salvation. With one weekend left before heading to Minnesota for a wedding, and eight hours before picking Bobbi up from the airport, I schlepped a hulking pack stuffed with big cams, three liters of water and a brand new 70 meter Maxim rope to the Angel Food Wall, racked up, and cast off.
The first pitch sets the tone for the entire day, with funky 5.7 crack climbing through a series of bulges contained entirely within an ever constricting chimney. By the first anchor at 130 feet the thirty foot wide chasm thinned to proper bombay, and shortly thereafter a scant 12 inches. With a 70 meter rope I was able to continue directly into pitch two, one of the two cruxes. Bob and Joe led this 90 foot pitch with no protection, offering the devious grade of 5.7+. Somewhere in the mid 2000’s a lone vigilante bolt sprouted 20 feet off the belay, perfectly protecting the hardest off-width moves while simultaneously sanitizing a historic pitch of Red Rocks climbing. I believe this bolt blasphemous for two reasons. First and most importantly, Healy’s had been enjoyed without this bolt for 40 years. Second, if someone really needs protection in a squeeze chimney that’s near impossible to fall from by definition, a large “Big Bro” fits beside the bolt. Third, if you don’t own Big Bros or can’t run out a squeeze chimney, Red Rocks has no shortage of over-bolted trad climbing. I did not carry Big Bros nor clip the bolt. Instead I forged upwards like Joe and Bob, using body, mind and experience for protection. The moves through the slot were of the finer squeeze variety, arm bars and leg locks with the perfect smattering of positive edges to maintain security. Being alone with a rope-solo rig and nothing more than a #6 Camalot 30 feet below compounded the excitement. As I rappelled to clean and follow this excellent 210 foot pitch, I was teeming with excitement for the remaining wideness above.
Pitch three and four bobbed in and out of the main chimney, utilizing face cracks where possible and retreating to the darkness when matters thinned. I linked both 150 foot pitches by free-soloing the blocky first half of pitch three before belaying, trailing a lead rope clipped to a locking carabiner on a bight. At a small stance the size of a pizza plate I fashioned a belay and transitioned to rope-soloing seamlessly, climbing and following approximately 300 vertical feet of rock in under an hour. One of my favorite components of rope-soloing is refining the inherently complex systems to maximize efficiency. I find progression in strength, skill, strategy and systems equally gratifying. In Healy’s Haunted House, rope-soloing and me synchronized like never before. But 200 feet from the summit, that synchronicity would be severely tested.
Lurking above the pitch four belay ledge was one of the most menacing off-widths I’ve ever seen, an overhanging slot underpinned by an aggressive square cut roof. While details of the first ascent are murky, it appears Joe and Bob skipped this final difficulty by traversing right to an easier 5.8 crack, atop which they placed a bolt anchor. According to Mountain Project the direct finish goes at 5.9, and while rope-soloing runout 5.9 off-widths isn’t my usual ideal, I’m a sucker for aesthetics. In short order I was wrenching my body through the roof on tenuous chicken wings, high above yet another #6 Camalot, with 700 feet of direct exposure. A handful of committing moves quickly relinquished to standard squeeze stuff, a few bulges, and finally – the summit. Cleaning and following this pitch was the low point my Healy’s journey. Rappelling pure squeeze chimneys is difficult, and following while trailing a pack is downright horrible. I shuffled off the Angel Food Wall in short order, reaching the car in seven hours and change – parched, dizzy and cramped, but satisfied.
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My experience in Healy’s Haunted House was everything I desired and more. While Mountain Project offers the enigmatic X danger grade, and the Handren Guidebook describes the second pitch as a “serious”, I found the entire route a reasonable lead. Runouts and chimneys are synonymous in traditional climbing, and anyone with wide crack mileage and margin at the grade shouldn’t shy away from this unique gem. I placed my #4, #5 and #6 Camalots on every pitch. I returned with bruised knees, sore palms and a scraped back. The paracord on my DIY ziplock chalk bag severed, and I had to remove my helmet twice when it got stuck on lead. But never once did I complain, for this is exactly why I came to the Angel Food Wall on August 9th, 2026. In my opinion, Healy’s Haunted House trumps both Tunnel Vision and Group Therapy for best route on the wall.
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DISCLAIMER
Ski mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing and all other forms of mountain recreation are inherently dangerous. Should you decide to attempt anything you read about in this article, you are doing so at your own risk! This article is written to the best possible level of accuracy and detail, but I am only human – information could be presented wrong. Furthermore, conditions in the mountains are subject to change at any time. Ten Thousand Too Far and Brandon Wanthal are not liable for any actions or repercussions acted upon or suffered from the result of this article’s reading.
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