LONGMONT, Colorado – Sleeeeeeeep. After two marathon days on the road, and alpine starts from Ohio and Missouri, we finally got to sleep in a bit. Our phone alarms buzzed us awake at 7:00 AM. Today’s destination – Eldorado Canyon, a must-do for any truly discerning climber.
A month ago, I received a suggested tick list for Eldo from none other than Pat Ament, a pioneer climber who in the early 1960’s along with Layton Kor is credited with many First Ascents (FA’s) in the Canyon. By total random chance, Patrick and I met Ament while climbing at the Gunks last summer. He was waist-belaying his partner up “Middle Earth,” a route we waited to get on. We struck up a conversation and have been fb friends since.
Ament told me that Eldo can be intimidating to a first-timer, so I should start slow and then increase my grade if the spirit moves me. The 5.7+ multi-pitch classic Bastille Crack was in my sights. But Bastille Crack was also in the shade, which meant that on a sweltering August day a bevy of climbers were already waiting their turn to get on it by the time we arrived. We opted instead to climb across the Canyon on the Wind Tower Wall. With not much time, we sampled what we could. Wind Ridge, Breezy and the classic Calypso (a Kor/Ament FA) gave us a taste of what Eldo had to offer. I knew immediately we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
Our day concluded in Evergreen, Colorado at the home of Dave and Beckie Covill. Dave was my team leader on Denali last year, and unbeknownst to me had planned quite a little party for Patrick and me. Kenny Gurvin from our Denali team was there, along with state highpoint guidebook author Don Holmes from Castle Rock, and many others.
Perhaps the highlight was listening to Gerry Roach spin mountaineering tales to the delight of the dozen or so gathered on the deck. Roach, a prolific climber and even more prolific mountaineer is the second person on the planet to have climbed the world’s Seven Summits – and also is a former climbing partner of Layton Kor.
The night was capped off with a dip in the Covill hot tub to sooth our travel- and climb-weary bodies.
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