Shirttail Peak

Original plan was to try Rewritten, a classic 5.7 5-pitch route on in Eldorado State Park. Unfortunately, the park was blanketed in clouds as we drove north from Golden and it was snowing lightly while we hiked in. We briefly considered turning tail and heading to the South Platte or elsewhere, but Pete had never been to Eldorado and I was determined to show him around.

Given the colder temps, snow and more wind than expected I didn’t really want to jump on a committing multi-pich route like Rewritten. Instead, we hiked past the Regarden Wall, and started climbing along side the West Ridge. Of course nothing was in the sun yet, so we just kept climbing. Reaching the end of the West Ridge I figured we could have a casual stroll up the Mountaineer’s Route (5.5) to the summit of Shirttail Peak while we waited for the weather to warm up.

Climbing in gloves and approach shoes (so I could keep my socks on) I led the first (5.4) pitch placing just a few pieces of gear. Rope drag still reared it’s ugly head by the time I reached the belay and threw on an extra jacket. Pete arrived just as the wind picked up again.

The crux seemed to come on pitch 2, as I worked up a little bulge that I over-protected (I was still climbing in gloves), then tried to hurry up the slightly awkward gully above. At least a nice belay ledge presented itself. Pete struggled a bit with the bulge and made empty threats to pull on gear.

Eventually he arrived and sucked down a couple calories while describing the baseball-sized rock that hit his shin and now had blood-stained his shoes. Motivated to get us up into the sun I took off from the ledge past the awkward (guidebook’s words) bulge then ran out all but 5 feet of our 60 meter rope to a sunny belay (10 or more feet shy of the notch the guidebook claims is reached in 110 feet).

For the first time I found myself stripping off layers rather than wishing for more while belaying Pete up. I also got to watch a few climbers on Gambit (5.8) climb to the summit via that neighboring route.

After scrambling to the notch and coiling the rope we scrambled (4th class) to the summit.

Unfortunately, I’d forgotten the page of the guidebook that described the descent, and I thought there was a walk-off to the north. Some scouting failed to produce said delusion, so we did 2 rappels and a bit of scrambling back to the base.

Walking back down the West Ridge I ran into Jenn and Meg, who’d just finished Positively Forth Street, Jenn’s 5.9 project. We chatted but didn’t stay to do any other climbing as Pete wanted to ice his now swollen shin.

After his first trip to Eldo, I’m not sure Pete will be too excited to come back.

This post edited while enjoying Crabtree Brewing’s Braggot Imperial Stout – so don’t trust a word I wrote.