Mt. Meeker- Flying Buttress

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July 18, 2026

The Flying Buttress is a very geometrically enticing arete on the north side of Mt. Meeker in Rocky Mountain National Park. Its close proximity to Longs Peak Trailhead makes it a pretty relaxing daytrip. We found mostly excellent and well protected rock throughout the route.

Routes climbed

Name	Grade (YDS)	# Pitches	Quality (1-5)	Type
Flying Buttress (with direct start)	5.10c	6	4	trad
extension to Meeker	5.10a	1	2.5	trad

Peaks climbed

Peak	Elevation	Topographic Prominence	Summit Coordinates (lat/lon)
Mt. Meeker	13,916 ft	454 ft	40.24843, -105.60497

Gear

- 60m rope

- cams: doubles 0.1-2

- nuts: small to medium nuts, extra small nuts or brassies

- 12 alpine draws

Total Stats

11 miles

4,900 ft gain/loss

Mike and I started hiking from Longs Peak Trailhead around 4:30am. Even at this hour the main parking lot had already filled, requiring us to park about half a mile down the road. This place was popular! Most people seemed to be heading towards one of the standard routes on Longs Peak. We would share the first 4-or-so miles with them.

sunrise on Flying Buttress

first light on Longs Peak

We followed the main East Longs Peak Trail up for about 4 miles, turning south into a separate drainage about 200 ft below Chasm Lake. Some faint trails and easy rock hopping brought us to the toe of the Flying Buttress. About 300 ft of class 3-4 scrambling brought us to a large ledge at the start of the proper climbing.

There were two ways to start the route. A 5.8 way starts to the left of the main buttress. A 10c way (which we took) starts to the right at an obvious splitter hand crack.

Pitch 1 (5.10c, 120 ft)

My mouth was watering as I started up the 5.8 splitter hand crack. Great solid jams on low angle rock made for the perfect warm up. After 40 ft, the crack petered out at a band of angled jugs and small ledges. From the highest ledge, the face above blanked out except for a small left-leaning seam. I placed my first nut and set off up the seam, making balancy moves and placing a few more nuts as well as 0.1-0.2 cams. This 40 ft section of sporty trad climbing was great fun and I wished it wouldn't end. The section abruptly ended as I reached left and grabbed some hidden holds, pulling myself onto a narrower section of arete. Some easier climbing on the prow brought me to a large ledge where I set up a belay with finger sized pieces. 

Pitch 2 (5.10a, 130 ft)

I placed a finger sized piece not far off the deck and made a bouldery move directly onto the prow from an undercling. The following 30 ft had many options, with easier options to the left. I headed right and aimed for a short vertical splitter hand crack which was a delight. After the crack, I traversed left and then back right on fun and easy face climbing, surmounting the highest tower visible from the previous belay. I belayed on top of the tower with hand and thin hand sized pieces.

looking up pitch 2

Mike following pitch 2

Pitch 3 (5.10b, 170 ft)

In 2022, a large section of this pitch fell off, rendering the original route which headed up a hand crack to the left, nonexistent. There are now several ways to climb this pitch to the right. The seemingly most popular way headed up a ledge system to the 10-20 ft right below the main prow, staying right for the entire pitch. A more direct line started right but trended left onto the prow. This is the route I took.

From the belay, I headed up a ledge just right of the prow, crossing left and clipping an old bolt out left about 40 ft up. I continued right from there, clipping two pitons and making sure to extend each one as I traversed around a corner. I could tell that this section was still cleaning up, as evidenced by a few visible rock scars that were probably created from others pulling off holds. From the second piton, I made some exciting slightly overhanging moves left onto the prow, savoring the amazing exposure.

Now on the prow, I followed it directly up on runout but easy slab and face moves, until I reached the top of a tower and could see the next section of ridge.

Pitches 4 + 5 (5.2, 5.8, 190 ft)
An initial class 4 traverse to the right of a pinnacle brought me to a notch before another large tower that was split by a prominent chimney. I climbed up a #3 sized crack to access this fun chimney, climbed it, then stepped out right just before the top. I continued along the prow until running out of rope, climbing a full 60m.

From the top of pitch 5, we unroped and scrambled class 3 terrain initially along the prow, then slightly right to bypass a tower, arriving at a prominent notch before the final buttress below Mt. Meeker. The standard Flying Buttress route ended at this notch, with a descent to the right (west) down a loose class 3 gully back to the base. Since we had good weather and wanted to continue on to the summit, we continued up the final buttress.

Pitch 6 (optional extension, 5.10a, 150 ft)

Although a bit lichen-y from lack of use, this pitch was still decently fun and worth doing, especially to access the scenic summit of Mt. Meeker. From the notch, we scrambled up and left on ledges to the highest ledge to belay. Some 5.8 face climbing from there with decent gear led me to a left facing corner. I placed a small piece in the corner and pulled a few easy 5.10 moves onto a ledge and then slightly right into a large chimney system. After 60 ft of stemming and palming on 5.9 terrain with some wiggly rocks but good gear, I stepped out right about 10 ft below the top of the chimney and climbed up on some huge incut jugs for 10 ft, then traversed back left to belay at an alcove above the chimney.

looking up pitch 6

looking back at a group topping out on pitch 5

top of pitch 6

After belaying Mike up, we unroped and scrambled up about 400 ft of class 3-4 slabs and blocks to the summit of Mt. Meeker where we enjoyed some great views towards Longs Peak and the Continental Divide.

scrambling up slabs to Meeker

summit of Meeker

Descent

From Meeker, we walked northwest to The Loft, then descended east along a series of class 3 ledges back into the drainage below Flying Buttress. This was the lower part of The Loft route. There were a lot of cairns and several well beaten down paths here and it was relatively easy to follow.

Soon we were back on the main trail below Chasm Lake. An easy downhill jaunt back down the trail brought us back to the trailhead in about an hour.