A couple weeks ago, I lay awake in bed in the wee hours of the morning and decided I hadn't had enough winter yet. My ice tools hung neglected in the gear room, and I just wasn't ready to wait until July to swing them again. I jumped on the internet and bought some plane tickets to Colorado right then and there, planning to be in the high country just in time for the spring alpine climbing season to reach full swing.
I arrived on the night of May 30th and stayed with my friend and regular climbing partner Paul and his girlfriend Stephanie at their awesome mountain cabin outside Golden. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the high country on Saturday was a bit crap, so we made some plans to meet another friend of ours, Jason, in Eldorado Canyon for some classic CO trad climbing.
We met Jason in the Eldo parking lot around 9:00 am on Saturday and decided what to do. I've never done any climbing on the Redgarden Wall, and I was interested in doing a route up there. We decided to link Green Spur (5.9) to Icarus (5.6) mostly a face climb that then joins the ultra-classic Yellow Spur for its airy finish. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a miscommunication at the parking lot about who was going to bring the rack...
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| Jason starting up the Green Spur with what little gear we could muster from our packs |
Jason, our resident rope-gun, took the lead with a measly rack of stoppers and small cams cobbled together from the nether regions of our packs. He got around 20 feet up before deciding he just didn't have the pro to protect this kind of climb. It was around a 30 minute hike to the base, so we decided to hike down to the car and climb something a little closer: the Eldo mega-classic Bastille Crack.
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| Soloist on the first pitch of Bastille Crack |
We retrieved our rack from the car, and jumped in line. The Bastille Crack is the most popular climb in Eldorado Canyon, which itself is really the epicenter of trad climbing in Colorado. We had to wait our turn. Thankfully, the weather down in the valley was gorgeous, and we spent our time catching up.
The Bastille Crack is nominally a 5 pitch 5.7+ with multiple cruxes in the first two pitches. It is relentlessly steep with thought-provoking cruxes, but the angle is supposed to ease off on the last couple of pitches. In order to save some time, we decided to link pitches 1 and 2, and then 3 and 4, to make it a 3 pitch climb.
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| Jason starting the crux flake on the first pitch of Bastille Crack |
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| First pitch of Bastille Crack |
Linking pitches 1 and 2 made for a strenuous-but-fun romp until the 2nd belay ledge, where we ran up against the party ahead of us, moving slowly. Unfortunately, the typical Colorado afternoon thunderclouds were building, and we were nervous about whether we could finish the climb or not. We were under the impression that the next few pitches were easier than the last two...
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Paul taking over lead for the "easier" pitches 3 and 4 |
Oh how wrong we were. The clouds that had moved in began sprinkling lightly, making the climbing a little slippery. The climbing was once again relentlessly steep, with awkward and thought-provoking moves that just kept coming. For a 5.6 pitch, pitch 4 had a remarkable amount of 5.8 on it. With the weather looking worse and worse, we arrived at the pitch 4 belay ledge with only a 5.5 squeeze chimney left to the summit of the Bastille.
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| Paul tackling the last pitch, 5.5 leading to a squeeze chimney |
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| "Easy" walk off made a little more exciting with showers and thunder |
The walk off from the summit was a typical Eldo affair: exposed 4th class climbing around sandstone boulders and a loose, talus-strewn trail. We reached the car before the heavens opened for their grand finale; happy, hungry, and glad to have avoided getting struck by lightning. Paul and I said goodbye to Jason and we headed to Golden for some food. Unfortunately, Paul had re-aggrevated an older back injury on the climb today, and he was worried about continuing climbing this weekend.
I really enjoyed the Bastille Crack, and I can understand why it's a mega-classic. That being said, I heard once that its much better to have climbed it before you try to lead it, and I'm very glad I did. The climbing was relentless, gear placements awkward, and the whole thing was strenuous from the ground up. All in all, an excellent climb.
