Retrospective: Stardancer

10/9/23

In 1998 Barry and I met a couple of Colorado climbers at Middle Marker in the Black Hills. We wanted to do a route called Stardancer—a 5.8 sport route—but we were chicken. It’s more than ninety feet long and looks significantly harder than any other 5.8 I’d ever seen. And I was at best a solid 5.8 climber at the time. I made it to the fifth bolt on my lead attempt and came down to rest my pumped calves. 

One of the Colorado guys offered to lead it—he was going to anyway—and leave our rope on the route so we could top rope it when they were done. We graciously accepted his offer and both of us climbed the route. It was a great route.

Fast forward twenty-five years...Dylan and Christian were the most stoked of anyone I’ve ever travelled to Wyoming with. I think they appreciated my love for it. And when they got to the Black Hills in South Dakota the stoke remained high. In a roundabout way I led them to Picture Window and the iconic route Gossamer. Barry and I had looked at it in ‘98 but it was scury. It was a forty foot 5.7 with three bolts and a long runout to the first one which was actually over a forty-ish foot fall. We didn’t get on it then. 

Dylan dropped his pack and started racking up. He put it up and Christian and I top roped it. It was a fun route for sure. I would have pissed my pants if I’d gotten on it in ‘98. The actual climbing is relatively short, but the narrow fin is airy and the summit exposed and provides great views across an incredible panorama.

After we cleaned up the route, we ambled over to Middle Marker and I pointed out Stardancer. It was much more intimidating than I remembered it. But first we got on a newer bolted route called Solo System. It felt easier than Gossamer, so I had hope for Stardancer. After I’d cleaned up the 5.6 sport route Dylan roped up at the base of Stardancer. 

I suddenly realized the significance of its name. I was standing slightly uphill and east of the route. The sun wasn’t too low, but definitely in the western sky. All of the tiny crystals in the matrix of the formation shone as piercing points of white light. The route was just to the right of the shade-sun line. A climber would appear to tiptoe up through the constellation of crystal flecks. Stardancer. 

As Dylan ascended the long slab that vision played out. He became the Stardancer. It was an amazing experience in an incredible landscape. There was definitely a spiritual component to it. I tried to capture the moment with my camera but ultimately failed. I may have one image where you can kind of see the “stars.” 

The theme of the trip seemed to be stars. I took a cool photo of the Big Dipper over the Teton Range. 

There was an incredibly bright star that preceded the sunrise on Saturday as the supermoon set over Garnet Canyon. 

Stars blanketed us at Vedauwoo after our moose encounter. So, dancing amongst the stars was a fitting end to our climbing trip.