RRC Archives

Making my first climbing trip west in a couple of weeks; Colorado. I have been "warned" about the much harder climbing, grade for grade at Eldorado specifically. Anyone have an opinion about relative difficulty there as compared to the Red (River Gorge)?

in my experience, the red river gorge seems to take more into consideration the pump factor of a climb instead of the single hardest move when it comes to grading.

go to Eldo- have fun- screw the numbers and enjoy the sunshine- work out a system to communicate before you find out you can't hear your partner(s)

The rule I've developed when I hit any new to me climbing area is drop your grade expectations and target the climbs with kickass ratings, maybe go for grades you'd cruise at home. After the first 10 pitches of the killer (but maybe easy or maybe sandbag) routes then you'll know what to expect and can alter the plan accordingly.

It's different in Eldo, a bit higher altitude so hangovers kinda suck, but it's still climbing. You'll have a freakin blast if you just look for the striking lines and bag as many pitches and as you can.

i just went to the gunks and was warned about the sandbagging - so i just started on something that i knew would be very do-able for me. i picked classic routes that were about 5 grades below what i normally climb in the red. that way i could get a feel for the rock and make my own decision about how hard i wanted to climb there. i would use the same approach if i were going to eldo or anywhere else for that matter.

Good advice. I liked it best at Seneca just a couple numbers lower than I climb at the Red. I still have 2 or 3 of your double slings just waiting for you. Hope you have a great trip to Coolorado.

charlie wrote:The rule I've developed when I hit any new to me climbing area is drop your grade expectations and target the climbs with kickass ratings...(..)

agreed

I didn't find eldo grades to be sandbagged even a little. It is a lot of face climbing with a few crack moves thrown in here and there, at least on the stuff we did. Maybe a hard move here or there, but over all not so bad. Well, at least up to mid 10's that I did. Dave hung tr's on a couple 11's that felt tough.

Bastelle is good
Really liked blind faith
wind tower is good intro
yellow spurr is hella cool
Where ever we went with dave (west world or something?) had several really cool routes that I have no idea what the names were, but there was a 9 that was as at least as steep as some of the RRG sport lines, but with bigger holds.

What I have done in boulder canyon all felt soft for the grade, but only been there a couple times. 5.9 finger crack is good, it is next to a 5.10 sport arete that is rad, and there is a mid 11 sport route around the corner that was maybe the best route on granite that I have done.

thanks much for the info everyone; will be staying in Estes Park, gonna try to hit Eldo and Lumpy ridge, do some hiking and maybe Long's peak?! Maybe check out the Spot in honor of Odub

Josephine wrote:i picked classic routes that were about 5 grades below what i normally climb in the red.

There are classic 4th class routes in the gunks?