Eldo Rocks

Boulder, CO is a climbing mecca. There is rock everywhere you look. A climber could live a lifetime here and not experience a fraction of the climbing possibilities. There is so much good rock climbing here that often the difficulty lies in answering "where do I climb today?"



Pitch 4, The Money Pitch

Yesterday, I met up with a climbing friend who had moved here from Boston a couple of years ago. We chose Eldorado Canyon for our adventure.  The sun was shining and the temperatures pleasantly hovered in the mid 60s - perfect.  The route we climbed is a classic, first ascended by New England legend George Hurley (among others) in 1967 - "Rewritten".  Cheryl led the alternate fist pitch, an awkward and difficult crack out of a cave-like alcove.  I recalled doing this several years ago and really struggling on it, so I was happy to hand Cheryl the sharp end on this one.  The "money pitch" is pitch 4, considered the crux pitch (although the alternate pitches we did are technically a grade harder).  This tremendous pitch is rich - an exposed hand traverse to a beautiful finger crack and a series of interesting crack and corner systems above.  It has exposure and fun moves and I savored the entire pitch.  Cheryl had the pleasure of taking on the last "exhilarating" exposed arete pitch which is more about exposure than difficulty.  You top out along a knife edge with tremendous drop-offs and views in all directions. Welcome to Eldo!



Rebuffat's Arete



If you have ever climbed the Whitney Gilman route on Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire, Rewritten will feel similar. Lots of loose rock, exposure and a winding, alpine gully descent. I highly recommend this route - but then again, if you visit Boulder to climb you might get distracted by a few of the other climbing opportunities here - there are a few (grin).











Eldo view from on route







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