The Steak Porch

Fine dining in Boulder was hard to find in the late '80s, and Frank Day, the legendary owner of the Boulderado Hotel, was determined to fix that. He recruited a talented young chef from the hills above Boulder named Dave Query, installed him on the Mezzanine level of the hotel, and named their new restaurant The Steak Porch.

Query was such a hit that Frank renamed the restaurant Q's and moved him to the main dining room of the Boulderado, where Q's remained the best restaurant in Boulder for twenty years. Dave Query went on to lead Boulder's culinary world with Jax, Centro, and Post Brewing Co. all contributing to the great success of his restaurant group The Big Red F.

While The Steak Porch has been toproped by many over the years, it has never appeared as an independent climb in a Boulder Canyon guidebook or on MountainProject.  With the support of two AMGA Guides, Matt Lipscomb and David Wolf, I led it from the ground up, all gear.

The Steak Porch is a trad line of startling quality that ascends the beautiful steep face between the cracks of

Idle Hands

and

Ho Hum

on the Boulderado.

Richard Rossiter claims to have soloed it on his initial exploration of this crag in 1987, and I believe him.

Cams to 2 inches, with doubles in the smaller sizes. Nuts work too, but you better be good at it.

Belay off the bolts at the top of

Idle Hands

.