The Agony and Ecstasy

Ecstasy of the People is the striking bolted arete just left of

Enemy of the People

and was originally climbed with a traversing start by Mark Rolofson. Now the direct start goes free as a V10 boulder problem, making the upper, balancy, 12d arete that much more insecure. The whole line is now one of the classic hard free routes in Boulder Canyon, so train small crimps and have at it.

Full disclosure: I climbed the start with the first three bolts (which are 2 feet apart) clipped. The first one is a mandatory stick clip, as is the second one. If you fall from the last hard move with just the first two clipped, you stand a good chance of hitting the rope (and maybe the starting ledge?) since the low bolt doesn't keep you out of the way. Since I'm a wuss, and the start is truly a boulder problem, I decided to play it safe.

(Now that this route, despite being one of the most striking lines in the Boulder area, has gone five (make that nine as of 2011) years without a repeat, I am upgrading it to 5.14a in the hope that it will gain more traffic and there will emerge a consensus on the difficulty.)

9 bolts/anchors maybe a midsized stopper at the top (it's about twenty feet to the anchor from the last bolt).