10/7/2003

Amy and Charles eventually had to return to work, so Lauren and I were on our own for the first time this trip. Our legs were still aching from the previous day’s trek, but otherwise we were feeling good. We set our sights on a climb called Rewritten (5.7+) in Eldorado Canyon. Rewritten is one of the tallest climbs at Eldo. It is 700’ tall and perfectly vertical. The approach to Rewritten isn’t nearly as bad as the Maiden, but still required a good 45 minutes of uphill hiking. Tom had given us awesome beta which led us right to the base of the climb and outlined each pitch so we would stay on route. Tom was my first climbing partner back when he was getting his PhD at Cornell. Now he calls Boulder home and provides free guide services and five star accommodations every time I head to Colorado.

Rewritten is an awesome climb. The final pitch heads up the outside edge of a narrow arete, so you have a 320 degree view of a 700’ drop. The exposure is intense. The arete ends about 30’ from the top of the cliff, so there is a small leap of faith from the top of the arete to the main rock face, then a beautiful hand crack to the top.

We managed to trim one pitch from the standard route of six by extending p4 to the base of the arete, then finishing the climb on p5. Once at the top we gloried in the 360 degree view. Great plains and Boulder to the east, Eldorado Canyon to the south, and the magnificent Rockies to the north and west. Stunning.

After the looooong walk down the west side of the cliff we retrieved our packs and (blessedly) changed out of our climbing shoes. There was enough daylight remaining to start Bastille Crack (5.7), one of the most famous climbs in Eldo. I had decided that we needed to climb Rewritten and Bastille in the same day. Mostly because Tom told me it wasn’t possible. I’m weird that way. Ok, I’m weird lots of ways. Anyhow, I sprinted to the base of the climb, flaked the rope like a madman, and started up the climb as soon as Lauren put me on belay.

The climb was harder than I expected. Much harder. And with terrible protection. I cursed my way up slopey, awkward holds. Managed to get a single cam in at 20’ that barely supported its own weight in the rock. Moving up another 10’ the route was getting harder. 5.7 my ass! Lauren worriedly watched me struggle and suggested that the climb might be easier over to the left. Where all the chalk was. On the beautiful crack.

Yup, in my manic mode I had managed to start up the wrong climb. This is pretty amazing since Bastille Crack is a very obvious, heavily chalked line. And we had a guide book. And I had ogled the crack on a previous trip to Boulder. So it turns out I was heading up the climb immediately right of Bastille Crack -- I believe the book called it X-M (5.10c R).

After reversing all those difficult moves and arriving safely at the ground, I decided we still had enough daylight to do at least the first pitch of Bastille. We moved the rope to the base of the correct climb and I started up. Now I was in much more familiar territory. The climb was slick from the wear of tens of thousands of climbers, but not super difficult. I reached the giant detached flake about 20’ off the ground and kept telling myself that it had held thousands of climbers more massive than me. Placed some gear and started to move left into the crack. At that point I realized that I was still shaking from my experience on X-M. Tried to rest, take a few deep breaths, but nothing worked. My lead head was gone. I apologized to Lauren and told her I had to come down. She was more than happy to call it a day, so we bid adieu to Eldo and went to get some dinner.

Along with Yosemite, the Gunks, and Joshua Tree, Eldorado Canyon is one of the top rock climbing destinations in the United States. We could have easily spent the entire two week trip enjoying the cliffs. But I’m happy with the way we did our trip. We were able to climb in a huge number of locations across Colorado and Utah. We did our best to hunt out the most classic climb between 5.7 and 5.9 in each area. Then we declared that we had “climbed it out” and moved on.

Next Day