| » | » | » |
Eldorado Canyon has probably the best trad (traditional) climbing in Colorado. While I feel completely under qualified to even attempt a write-up on the area, to exclude it from these pages for that reason would be even worse.
Having a hard time adjusting to this style of climbing, Ron Olsen of Boulder, Colorado was nice enough to give me a great tour up a couple of Eldorado's classics in September, 2003. Ron took the left shot as I followed him up the 2nd pitch of Ruper, and making me look better than I felt, took the right shot as I led through the cool exposed traverse on pitch 3.
|
|
The next week, Ron gave me a tour of the classic combo, Touch and Go, to Anthill Direct. After Ron's impressive lead up Touch and Go, a route I took a fall on trying to lead a month earlier, I took this shot, below left, of Jay Woods going through the roof crux on the 2nd pitch of Anthill, the pitch I would be leading next.
To the right, Ron sets up his protection just under the 5.9 crux of pitch 5 on Anthill. Not long after this, I received my first taste of the East Slabs descent route, with route finding harder than the climb itself.
|
|
Approaching the bottom of the East Slabs descent, I took this picture of the Bastille, with Climbers on pitch 2 of the Bastille Crack: one of the most popular climbs at its grade (5.7) in the world.
Shown in this next shot, The Red Garden Wall, including Tower One (left) and Tower Two (right) with much more not pictured, holds some of the wildest climbing in the canyon. Tower One hosts the classic Yellow Spur on the west end: my goal for this next year. The awesome looking roof in the upper center of the picture has Art's Spar (5.10D/11A) ascending the left side, and Ruper (5.8 S) coming up on the right.
Last year, I took this shot of an unknown climber working up Art's Spar toward the crux roof. While seeing this inspired me to make it a "long term" goal, I've been told the roof has become somewhat polished through the years.
I took these last two shots from the top of the West Ridge - Long John Tower Area, looking toward The Red Garden Wall - West Face. Left is the Middle Buttress, with the Yellow Spur Area on the right. This view from where I stood on the top of the 5th pitch of Long John Wall Route, was just awesome!
|
|
Action Committee for Eldorado
Eldorado Springs Canyon bouldering - FrontRangeBouldering.com
Eldorado Canyon climbing - ClimbingBoulder.com
Rock Climbing Eldorado Canyon
Rocky Climbing Colorado
){kind=link}