This is a reasonably good route for advanced climbers who are very confident at the grade. It does wander a bit, but since it has a little bit of everything along the way, technique-wise, this feels good. Protection is lacking in some areas, particularly after the traverse, and a fall from near the top would be quite bad. Luckily that is not really the crux. It is Eldo PG-13, or maybe R.

Start off in the right-facing corner, and head on up moderate terrain on so-so (at best) gear to get established in the corner. Easy moves cruise up to the bulge and into a right-traversing crack and flake. Place good gear, and head out to the right on the flake, which is more or less a hand traverse but very positive. The crux comes at the end of this traverse, perhaps (if wise) after placing another piece of gear. Do not scrimp on gear here, as this is the last opportunity for good gear for a little while.

Go through an interesting crux and up onto the right hand side of the rib of rock, just left of the arete, and climb slab and face with a short, vertical section to the top. A very long cordalette was key to getting a solid and easy belay anchor.

Mountains Out of Molehills

Heva

Rush Buick

Brother Jug

Yellow Brick Road

Shallow Grave

Not Ready (For Prime Time)

The Larch

The Hangman

Low Profile

You'll Poke Your Eye Out

Dead On Arrival

Nobody's Home

Bold Finger

Short One

Last of a Dying Breed

Hooker

Death Card (aka Ace of Spades)

Tombstone

Time Under Tension

Leapfrog

Plinth

Skip 'n' Go Naked

Heart of Gold

Central Park

Die Heeda Rule

Hopscotch

Cracker Jack

Prime Time Climb

Uninspiring Wall

Grubble Gully

The Comeback Arete

Dead Left

Devo

January Playmate

Stay Hungry

Werner Brothers' Roof

Molehill Direct

The Crab

The Slide

Crystal Gaze

Inflorescence

January Rush

Stranglehold

Little Hawk

Resisting Arete

Bowling Alley

Peters Out - Roof Variation

I've Been Sick

Body Lice

Tekneek?

Pepe le Peu

Grim Reaper

The Squeamish

Roof's Way

Stop!

Uncle Ernie

Peter's Out

Gluttony

Siberian Khatru

Anthurium

Rupee Dog Route

Russian Arete

Walk About

Nails to Nowhere

Cinch Crack

Self Abuse

Lips Like Sugar

Emergency Brake

This is a variation of

Mountains Out of Molehills

that indeed deserves its own name. Although the first 10 meters of climbing are precisely the same, what you will remember of the route will not be the same, as its crux and nature is completely different.

As for

MOOMH

, you will start off in the right-facing corner and head on up moderate terrain on so-so (at best) gear to get established in the corner. Easy moves cruise up to the bulge and into a right-traversing crack and flake. Place good gear and head out to the right on the traverse for 2 moves.

A left-leaning undercling flake now appears above you.

Place gear here from a good stance, and place whatever you can (smoke em' if you got 'em) before heading up and back left into the flake for a somewhat sustained crux of 5.9- climbing. There are more opportunities on that flake for gear, but it is suspect. The holds all felt good to climb on but suspect for holding gear.

Go through a very interesting and fun crux and up onto the left hand side of the rib of rock, just right of the left side arete, eventually climbing lower angle rock on the face to the top.

A very long cordalette was key to getting a solid and easy belay anchor, as for

MOOMH

.

Start at the base of a gully on the right side of Uninspiring Wall. Climb through a dark band over thin crystal covered rock, moving up past a small right facing corner. Step right onto a small clean slab and turn the small roof above directly to more thin face moves above.

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20.

The route starts near the upper section of the ridge. Pass by the [prominent] roof (described in the rock section) and continue up the gully past some chossy cliffs. The upper section will be apparent when some reasonable looking routes start appearing. As the gully steepens, the trail turns from grass/dirt to more talus and scree. Before the very top of the ridge, the trail turns to rock slabs. Before this section, about 50-60m down the hill, look for a bolted arete and a right-facing dihedral. Rush Buick takes the dihedral.

Whew...If you manage to locate the route, you'll have some fun. There are two cruxes on the route--the first is negotiating the first bulge, then 10m later, another bulge. Some fun liebacking/stemming gets you through these sections up to an easy ramp. Take the ramp up 15m to a belay on the right with a bunch of slings. Rap 100' to the ground from here.

I hesitated giving this route two stars, but it was just long enough with an excellent crack. Maybe 1.75 stars. ;-)

This is your essential 1-move wonder, and rated like a gym climb for that move.

In the vicinity of

Die Heeda Rule

and

Tombstone

, this jug-fest lies waiting the eager 5.10 climber of any sort, Gym-rat, sport-boy, or crusted trad.  The gear is straightforward, and the holds inspire confidence.  Get ready to heel hook, heel-toe cam, and go for the big holds.

This route begins as for

Die Heeda Rule

, but at the top of the big flake, moves up and right onto the "jug-fest" face rather than left into the dihedral.

Yellow Brick Road is a poor climb with little redeem, let alone would I recommend it. Having just done this route and finding it undesirable, I was curious to see what was said about it here on

MP.com

, but when I came on line to read what had been said, I was initially surprised to find nothing. Having first written up routes on M.P. on Hawk Eagle about 20 years ago, I was expecting that someone would have written this one up by now. Then it dawned on me, but for me, everyone has had the sense not to climb this thing once they looked up at it. Levin calls it a "junky pitch," but I feel that is an understatement. If the loose or poor rock was insufficient to deserve a worse description, the thorny bushes growing out of the crack for 3/4 the length of this climb certainly earn this thing a mention in the 'worst of Eldo' list. As a lifetime choss jockey and obscure tour denizen, I feel fairly uniquely qualified to bestow that honor, and I hereby do so. There, I hope I have been clear.

If you still want to climb this thing, head left just past

Self Abuse

and up onto the flat shelf at the base, just left of that route. Take a minute, and inspect down and to your right the climbs

January Rush

,

January Playmate

, and

Self Abuse

. Those are good routes that deserve your attention, & it is not too late to go climb them instead.

No? OK, now just above those lies this left-facing corner with loose rock and thorny bushes along its length. Work your way up and right for 50' or so to a fixed anchor, and belay. Rap off of the fixed stoppers and cord, cleaning your gear on the way down. Or worse, yet, belay your partner up, obligating them to suffer the route as well.

Rap off from the fixed anchor, 50' or so to the ground.

Near Dan Hare's route- Resisting Arete which says "Begin w/

Bowling Alley

and climb part way up, move left at a bolt and up the Arete." (We couldn't find the bolt?!)  Shallow Grave begins in

Bowling Alley

but immediately moves left and up hanging, shallow dihedral/crack capped by a dangerous looking, but seemingly solid, block.  From the top of the block step left at the arete and wander up pocketed and sparsely protected 5.8 to tree at top.

This is a variation that avoids the top crux of

Prime Time Climb

but still goes up some good rock with interesting movement. If you find yourself up at the crux of

P.T.C.

and don't have it in you, or just want to do something new and different, duck right under the roof and slipper crack and into a left-facing corner & slot. The climbing on the right hand finish is 5.9 instead of 5.10 and protects just as well.

Start a few feet right of

Central Park

.  Climb cracks straight up to a small block roof.  Pull over the roof and follow cracks to an inset capped by a large roof.  Climb to the right of the roof and squeeze through a notch to easier ground.

Two options to get down:

1. Go west up the ridge to a tree that is slung with a rap ring and rap back down.

2. Walk of the back side and wrap around to the top of the ridge and back down to the start.

Climb

Plinth

for approximately 5 feet.  Plug in your big cam (#4 or #4.5 Camalot) and head up left on the angling crack system.  Place a 0.5 tri-cam (key piece) and maybe a few other nuts, before committing to the hard-to-reverse moves of the crack system.  Get a bomber nut in and breathe easier.  Climb hard moves up around the hanging arete with good gear.  Follow the crack system onto easier ground and go to the anchors of

Tombstone's

tree belay.

Climb the small right facing corners stacked three high in the middle of the face. The crux is a delicate few moves off the ground using crystals and small pockets.

Start at the base of the square overhang and head up  the middle underneath, then pull the great jug out left and gain the ledge shared by the little tree.  The crux of the climb could be negotiating the tree without injury, hence the name of the route.  Pass the tree and start up the finger crack behind and to the right using the crack and small face holds on the left with some bigger ones around the arete and to the right.  There is a pretty big and solid block at the top that can be used to build an anchor.  Descend via the "downclimb gully" to the left of the route.

This was apparently an aid climb from the 1960s, we did it free in 1973, ground-up and onsight with nuts for protection. There was one old, fixed, soft-iron piton at the start of the main roof, about 40 feet above the ground.

Climb the large, obvious, right-facing dihedral for 20 feet to a short bulge (5.9) and an easy slab. Just above the slab lies the crux, liebacking

Tagger

-esguely left around the big roof to easy ground.

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20.

This route is about 30 feet downhill from

Rush Buick

. It's the obvious, right-leaning, thin cracks and shallow, right-facing corners. It starts right behind a somewhat annoying tree that will try to pull you off the initial hard moves.

This is a challenging route that is much harder than it looks. The angling crack and holds makes it insecure. There are few comfortable rests. You should be good at gear placements. Gear is OK, but not always obvious, and rarely bomber.

For me the crux was the first 15 feet, perhaps because of the barely adequate gear and the nearness of the ground, but also because the tree nearly pulled me off.

The rest of the climb continues hard, and you'll find yourself wishing for just one horizontal hold or good jam.

There's a big surprise at the top (say no more). Rossiter's comment, "...and see if anybody's home" IS meaninful.

Find Hawk Eagle Ridge by following the directions under the 'Rock' category. Walk up past the initial buttress, passing DOA and

Cinch Crack

. The rock becomes short and non-descript for a hundred yards or so, before returning to a single-pitch height of more vertical stone up the hill.

As you reach this tall area, you will see a series of 2 diamond shaped south faces that form right-facing dihedrals. After passing the second of these, you will be under and a massive overhang, where the trail runs parallel to a large, fallen, rotten tree.

Looking up from this point into the massive overhang/roof you will see a hand-to-fist splitter crack which runs through it, opening to a bomb-bay slot at the top. This is

TOMBSTONE

, a reference point for the other area climbs.  To the left of

Tombstone

a short way up hill, but before the chimney is a finger-crack and flake climb that goes up through an awkward bulge to the top.  The difficulty is brief, and the climb is not terribly aesthetic.  It is also not entirely clean of moss, as there is some seeping in the area.

Climb the hard moves up 20' to easy moves and top out, or TR this line after climbing a better route nearby (there are plenty).

Short One is a short climb with little merit but nothing so bad as to earn the bomb.

Start off on the very low angle toe of rock, walking/climbing up and right on the light colored rock toward the darker layer on the upper half, intersecting it to the left of a junky overlap, near to the

Tekneek

corner. The crux is getting past the poor rock adhering the two layers. Climb up and right from there to the right of a tree up top, or cut hard to the left over to the tree and anchor above

Tekneek

and

Skip 'n' Go Naked

.

This route begins as for "

The Hangman

". It climbs the runout and scary crux of that route but then diverges out directly above (rather than left into the easier climbing of

The Hangman

) into the obvious, blank face above. Climb the unprotected, perfect edges on the face on the more than vertical headwall culminating with a big move to a mega-jug at the lip.

This route was put up as a headpoint, and keeping with the spirit of Eldo, no bolts or fixed gear were implemented. It was climbed after toprope rehearsal. The rock is clean and nearly perfect. A slip from the finishing jug will result in a groundfall.

This is a so-so climb overall. Really it is 40' of easy scrambling past some loose rock to a brief but fun crux, also avoiding loose rock.

From the right-most end of Hawk Eagle Ridge, start up past a few huge slabbly blocks of rock onto a left-rising ramp system.  Traverse delicately left on 5.5-ish terrain past the occasional gear placement and past a narrowing of the ramp/slab.

Once you find yourself under a large broken roof on a good ledge, look up for a short section of hand-jam sized crack.  Place gear below the jam, work up into the jam, avoiding the loose footholds, and pull over the roof (crux) onto jugs.  Some of the options for footholds are very loose, and best avoided.  Pull through the notch on the jugs to the top, and improvise a gear belay over the ridge.

To ....

The climbing is big fun, and in my opinion this would easily be a three star PG-13 route if the detached flake were 100% solid. It's not going anywhere, but I wouldnt trust it for gear. To me, this makes it a little more serious than PG-13 and not quite worth three stars. Like Lemmy said, "...you know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools, but that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live forever...."

Begin up technical face to the right of the tree starting

Stay Hungry

.  A 5.10 move or two off the ground leads to fun, unprotected 5.8 slab for 25 to the right-angling system that provides finger-sized gear and the broken band below the roof.  From a stance at the band, find very good Loweball protection in a pod/slot to begin climbing out the overhanging dihedral.  Climb crimpers to steep jugs and up a detached flake to an open hand jug (#3 Camalot) and up to a stance above the blocks and below a delicate dihedral with a small crack.  Intricate slot/arête/face climbing takes you to the top.  It feels Jalapeño spicy, but it could be more like Habanero?

Find Hawk Eagle Ridge by following the directions under the 'Rock' category. Walk up past the initial buttress, passing DOA and Cinch Crack. The rock becomes short and [non-descript] for a hundred yards or so, before returning to a single-pitch height of more vertical stone up the hill.

As you reach this tall area, you will see a series of 2 diamond shaped [south] faces that form right-facing dihedrals. After passing the second of these, you will be under and a massive overhang, where the trail runs parallel to a large, fallen, [rotten] tree.

Looking up from this point into the massive overhang/roof you will see a hand-to-fist splitter crack which runs through it, opening to a bomb-bay slot at the top. This is Tombstone, a reference point for the other area climbs.

The climb goes quickly from a gymnastically overhanging handcrack to a weird off-squeeze for a few moves.  After that, it is a treat for anyone, big holds, big moves, and reasonable gear.  The crux can be done from a nearly up-side-down position.

This is a line between Crack Face Route &

Plinth

on Hawk Eagle Ridge.  This may be utilized to set up a TR on

Plinth

&

Tombstone

; however, it might be better to ascend

Bowling Alley

chimney slightly uphill instead.  The real crux may be how many negative stars to assign this.

Just to the right of the face with

Plinth

, find a vegetated, perhaps bushy, crack.  Note: There is a healthy patch of poison ivy at the base which requires careful navigation to avoid.  Ascend (or perhaps, better, don't ascend) this crack utilizing a key foothold on a hod [a la

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

] of flexing plant & dirt matter about 20 feet up.  Enticing?  When you get to the groove angling to the top of

Plinth

/

Tombstone

, head up past a rappel tree.  Questionable hods and gear keeps your attention.  85 feet in all.

Time Under Tension offers fantastic movement in an interesting roof, requiring very committing moves with zero room for error. Start by climbing up the dirty and slabby open book as for

The Crab

(poorly protected by an Alien) until reaching a scary, huge block that appears to be loose, although surprisingly solid. Place a piece on top of this block, then fire into the 20 foot roof, with a crux in the beginning and fairly sustained movement to a terrifying move to a huge hueco above the lip. Mantel over, then traverse left until you can place a #3 Camalot in the flake system-35 feet above your last placement. Tread lightly to anchors around a tree. It is easy enough to hang a TR from the sling on the tree, and it is recommended as holds are hard to find.

Overcome a tough roof move left of the

Body Lice

slot (crux). Follow positive features straight up the slab finishing just left of a bush hanging off the top of the wall.

The route is just down below the area favorites

Tombstone

,

Die Heeda Rule

, and

Brother Jug

.  Locate

Tombstone

, then head slightly back down the hill (20 feet) to see this clean, diamond-shaped face just around the first arete to the right.  Climb up and right, on a line of least resistance, then left to the center of the face and then up and left to a sloping ramp.  Pull onto the ramp and make some moves to a vertical face then to the right and up a corner. There was a bolt somewhere on the route, but it didn't help much with the nerves.

The route will go "direct."  I next TR'd it by starting up and left from the ground directly to the center of the diamond-shaped face, then straight up through the ramp and directly to the top. This was hard 5.11 and very insecure.  I would NOT lead this variation.

Short and to the point, this route ascends the small, south-facing wall capping the uphill end of the main Uninspiring Wall. Though protection is lacking, fun moves over good rock make it a climb worth doing for those that have ticked off most everything else.

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20.

If this route were anywhere else in the Canyon (other than the Rotwand) it would be incredibly popular. Unfortunately it is 2/3 of the way up Hawk Eagle Ridge, an area which has fallen desperately out of vogue despite being home to some forgotten Eldo classics, such as DOA (5.11);

Cinch Crack

(5.12); Jupiter (5.9);

Tombstone

(5.11-); and

Die Heeda Rule

(5.11). If one were to brave the steep hike up the eroded and vegetated trail, which seems imaginary at times, a stellar climb awaits.

If you want to onsight this route, don't read any further.

The route has three difficult sections of decreasing techinical difficulty, but increasing endurance. The first 3 bolts protect the most technically dificult, crimpy climbing of the route.

The business is at the second bolt and involves stemming the left foot up as high as possible on some good foot holds on a diagonalling ramp/crack system and reaching a small, sharp, good hold below the third bolt. There are several options on how to get your left hand on the elusive hold just below the third bolt. Once there, hit the curving ledge and stay right of the third bolt, stemming to the crack, and cruise to a good rest by a double bolt anchor.

The second difficult section is above the aforementioned anchor. Some tricky climbing involving toe points, heel hooks, and other inobvious tricks gets you to opposing laybacks and finally a bucket. (Well, its really sort of a finger bucket, but welcome none the less.) Having overcome this, there's a bit of interesting climbing to what appears to be a long runout to a bolt in a flake. Fortunately, the climbing is substantially easier than the 2 sections just described. Again a long rest is possible before embarking on the finale.

The last difficult section involves several inobvious holds. After clipping the second to last bolt off good holds, heel hook with the right foot up and left for a great inobvious hold beneath a small roof with the left hand. From there it's a long move right to an OK edge, from which some feet arranging is necessary to get a very small left facing corner (L of the bolt) with the left hand. More feet juggling to gain height and get in balance, a right hand pop to the obvious diagonal ledge and you're at the anchors. If you have a 50 meter rope, you're in trouble. If you have a 60m you'll just make it.

All in all an admirable route that tests the face climbing skills that Eldo is famous for without the fear factor that Eldo is also famous for.

One last note: Do it on a cool day.

Climb past two trees in right angling cracks to a manky roof. Climb through the roof on the left aiming for the top to the left of a small tower.

Find Hawk Eagle Ridge by following the directions under the 'Rock' category. Walk up past the initial buttress, passing DOA and

Cinch Crack

. The rock becomes short and nondescript for a hundred yards or so, before returning to a single-pitch height of more vertical stone up the hill.

As you reach this tall area, you will see a series of 2 diamond shaped South faces that form right-facing dihedrals. After passing the second of these, you will be under and a massive overhang, where the trail runs parallel to a large, fallen, rotten tree.

Looking up from this point into the massive overhang/roof you will see a hand-to-fist splitter crack which runs through it, opening to a bomb-bay slot at the top. This is

TOMBSTONE

, a reference point for the other area climbs. Die Heeda Rule is up and left of

TOMBSTONE

by about 40 feet.

Die Heeda Rule is a flake and finger crack which becomes a left-facing dihedral about 15' off of the ground. This shares a start with

Brother Jug

, but runs left into the steep, clean dihedral in a thin crack instead of up and right onto the face. An even better variation (harder, and further above protection) pulls the prow of the roof to the right of the dihedral itself (5.11+)

Hopscotch is a short boulder problem to an easy slab. With a spotter or two, this is a reasonable lead (solo), since the crux is perhaps only 6' up.

Get hands up onto the obvious starting holds, and then work up on little feet into a mantle or slap the arete to the right. I did it both ways, and both felt 5.9 or so. Beware that YMMV, and there is no gear at that point. A spotter is more important than a belayer.

I did install a sling anchor on the tree above, in case anybody decides to TR it.

This is a face climb next to a faint prow on the Uninspiring Wall area. A thin crack climbs to 15 or so feet and offers a zipper piece placement (probably your smallest cam). Continue climbing the runout face on frictiony rock with tiny face holds. Turn left under a blocky top (crux) and head towards a tree that makes for a good, quick anchor.

Descend by walking off back from the tree down a sloping, bushy ledge to the trail along the base of the wall (see picture).

The climb is so-so with a good section near the top. The climb starts with an easier wide crack that gets thiner and harder. A good stance comes just before the overhanging jamming crux. This route has some merit in its proximity to GOOD routes like

Die Heeda Rule

(which is just 6-8 feet right of PTC). The area favorites

Brother Jug

and

Tombstone

are just down and right from there as well.

Prime Time Climb has a hard and definite crux that will work most people a little on their thin-off-size jamming. The actual difficulty is hand size-dependent. The problem for smaller folks will be reach, then problem for large folks will be hand-size. If you get to the crux and are 'not ready for prime time', you can bail off out to the right and do the 5.9 variation by that name.

There are some fixed anchors to rap on Hawk Eagle, but if you go, take some long webbing and add a few or replace some. The nearest set to this climb are just down the hill above

Bowling Alley

.

Approach this route from the Wind Tower trail.  Where the East Slabs Descent trail intersects, take that (to the NW/left).  You gotta commit to a pretty boulder-y section under the overhang of lower-Hawk Eagle, but there are good holds for the 4 moves it takes to pull up onto a short slab.  Above, cut right from the East Slabs trail to the vague, overgrown 'trail' that goes along the base of HE Ridge.

As the ridge becomes vertical, find a large, left-facing dihedral/ramp below a large tree. Look 20 yards up from that.  Uninspiring Wall climbs a left-facing layback section to a face, and into a small roof.  Pull that, then the climb ends with a short slab and a mantle onto the ridge-top.

For now, no real staging area exists for Uninspiring Wall.  The base is very sloping, with loose soil and vegetation.  There's a place in the beginning layback for 2 small nuts to use for a belay anchor, if you so desire.

It's short, fun, and a great way to introduce climbers to roofs.Passive gear is a good idea, as some of the rock is a bit 'crunchy'.

Felt like the crux was right at the start. Great climb. Difficulty might depend on climber's height. Felt like a good Eldo 5.6 at my height (5'11"). Loose rock and sand fill the cracks on this route.

Climb

Devo

, 5.8, until the corner meets the roof. Place gear in the corner, find a jug in the roof, and pop out the roof to a sloper. Heel hook up and over following a runout east face to a second, higher roof, staying left of

Roof's Way

up there.

This unlikely climb is in a unique position and has plenty of thought-provoking qualities. The climbing movement and the gear both require consideration along the length of the climb, but both are very manageable for a climber of experience.  This route could be trouble, however, for a less experienced trad leader.  My partner and I were both very happy to have done this climb, finding it interesting and rewarding.

The climb as described here is undocumented.  We thought maybe we were doing Workingman's Dead, but after discussing that with the FA party of that route, we now understand that what was a Left hand branch of 'Dead On Arrival' that crosses an alternate finish of Those Fertile Years which was not documented in the Levine Book, then extends into some undocumented territory.  As for when this may have been first done, we are not 100% sure, as the area has multiple features which might be confused for each other.

While the ascent we did stays in the lowest roof system of the buttress and crossed the route Those Fertile Years.  Clarification is still underway and a picture will eventually be posted.

Start under the long, left-facing corner.  Make funky moves into the bombay slot and start umphing.  Romp up the corner, negotiate the dead tree, and hang a right at the rotten band.  Traverse right along the band under the roof, stand on the pedestal, pull over the short overlap, make fun moves on scary rock to the left, and pull through the second roof at the small tree (crux).  Make a belay here.

This would be a super route with some more traffic (yep, typical Eldo), but that's not why you walked all the way up here, now is it? You want adventure :D

This climb starts off as a really nice crack climb, from fists to tight hands.  The crack leans to the left avoiding a roof, after which you can traverse right and finish up on rotten rock.  A better option is to traverse left across the slab below the huge roof and join the crux for

Self Abuse

.  With the use of slings this could all be done in one pitch without too much rope drag, and if it wasn't for a small section of bad rock, this would probably be one of the better pitches of crack climbing in Eldorado.

I consider this route quite high quality, it would be popular and reknown at any other crag in the park.  Maybe not three of four stars on a global scale, but for H.E.R.'s scrappy lines seems worthy of 3?Approaching the top of H.E.R. - only 30m. from the car for a gimp - Stay Hungry is the obvious right-facing dihedral system just left of Ace of Spades and

Inflorescence

and 1st left of

Self Abuse

. The mid-level severely overhanging right-facing corner (2x as big as Self Abuse) is obvious.  Climb intricate thin fingers to the 'sustained' roof crack and up the headwall to a "horn" on a left-facing corner slot crack, this cuts off nice climbing above but is about 75' off the deck.  I consider this route similar in quality and difficulty to

Sidewall

on the West Ridge but more sustained and only Jalepeno spicy.  Although

Sidewall

p2 is ultra-classic, overall S.H. feels similar yet a bit better protected in the first half.

Start at a broken area left of

Central Park

. Climb a right-leaning finger crack through a slab to the base of a roof. Overcome the roof (crux) and finish the face above on easier ground.

Ascend the obvious corner on the right side of a large slab from a good belay platform. Follow cracks and ledges with good gear opportunities (cleaning may be necessary) up to a roof with a small chock-stone. Note the fragile nature of the rock over your head. I gave this a bomb rating as I suspect this roof could fail easily crushing climber and belayer! Make a committing move out left and find a jug to haul on just within reach. A large pine tree is an option for anchor or a top rope can be set using boulders to climb the poorly protected slab routes next door.

This is the first little, low angle dihedral to the right of the Uninspiring Wall.  The next corner to the right is the descent gully.  I downclimbed this after doing the climbs to the left thinking it looked easier than the other gully.  Cleaner, I guess?

I didn't see much opportunity for gear, but there might be some.  The moves were fun. It might be a fun top rope for little kids?  If you can get them up the chockstone on the trail, they can climb this.

This obscure route runs up the slabby, licheny wall on the downhill side of

Pepe le Peu

and then moves left and joins that line through its roof finish. The rock in the roof section is not great. There are a few large crystals on the lower wall, some solid and useful and some not.

This route is just to the left of the small dihedral between

Stay Hungry

and Yellow Brick Road. It is listed in the guidebook as a toprope route.  It ascends past 5 bolts.  The slab is 5.11b, and the overhang is 5.11d.  Do not go on beyond to the bolts 20' above.

Climb the well-protected 5.7 crack to the top of a corner and swing out to climber's right over a small arete. Move up and left to an ascending hand traverse. The traverse is the crux and feels a lot trickier than it looks. Then ascend a slightly rotten corner system to ledges where you can move left to an anchor of slings around a block wedged in a crack.

At the left side of the

Cinch Crack

roof, start in the open dihedral.  Work up to the rotten band, and traverse right under the roof on easy holds and low-angle smears.  Now get ready!  Find some marginal gear below the roof, and pull over on buckets or high step over the roof.  Continue up and left around the next roof to a comfy belay.

It is quite a bit scary, mainly because the gear is suspect at the crux.

Climb the small, obvious roof crack on the small band of cliff hidden behind 2 trees. Exit the roof via a V7/8 boulder problem consisting of drop knees, compression, and slopers. Toe in hard, and squeeze your core for 6 moves of power. Essentially this route is bouldering on a rope - short and stout!

Again, the route is just down below the area favorites

Die Heeda Rule

and

Brother Jug

, but above

Tombstone

. Locate "The

Bowling Alley

", a 60' tall flared chimney with a huge "ball" stuck in the top. Climb up this chimney only as far as necessary to pull onto the wall to the left and make your way to the arete. The route felt harder than the 10b/c it was given, but that may have been due to the amount of dirt and lichen on it, which made it feel insecure.

Pull left to the arete and climb up to the top.  There is a fixed rap in the vicinity, but a new one could be of use.

This route will improve with cleaning or traffic, but is no reason in and of itself to make the area a destination.  Do the good routes first!

Find Hawk Eagle Ridge by following the directions under the 'Rock' category. Walk up past the initial buttress, passing DOA and

Cinch Crack

. The rock becomes short and non-descript for a hundred yards or so, before returning to a single-pitch height of more vertical stone up the hill.

As you reach this tall area, you will see a series of 2 diamond-shaped, south faces that form right-facing dihedrals. After passing the second of these, you will be under and a massive overhang, where the trail runs parallel to a large, fallen, rotten tree.

Looking up from this point into the massive overhang/roof you will see a hand-to-fist splitter crack which runs through it, opening to a bomb-bay slot at the top. This is

TOMBSTONE

, a reference point for the other area climbs.  To the left of

Tombstone

a short way up hill, there is a large dihedral/ chimney with a massive boulder stuck in it.  This rock appears to be safely wedged.  Climb the chimney/dihedral up and around the bouder to the top.   This climb is a good way up to set TRs for the area favorites,

Tombstone

, Brother Jug,

Die Heeda Rule

, and others if you don't feel like leading them.

This and the

Werner Brothers Roof

together make the jaunt up to the top of H.E.R. worth taking.  While the

Werner Brothers Roof

is a better route overall, this is a reasonably good climb with a technical crux that is improbable, gymnastic, and surprisingly good. The route is 5.10, but the subgrade may be according to height.

Start up as for the normal route "

Peters Out

" but as that climb approaches the roof and goes left around the arete, go just right under the roof to the obvious crack. Pull the crux (no spoilers here) and re-establish yourself in the crack over the roof.  Head up and toward the arete again before a jutting tower above forces you out diagonally right for a few more fun and exciting moves.

To descend, rap to the North from a station a few feet up in a large pine tree.

Like most of the climbs in this area, the cracks are filled with dirt and pine needles and the wall is covered with lichen.  The route starts at a small, square, incut roof and climbs through the right side of the large roof continuing to the saddle above.  Gear is ok, but you may want a nut tool to excavate in places.

Start by pulling through a broken area in the roof left of

The Crab

. Move up a V slot to a short roof with positive edge over the lip. Utilize the right-angling features on the slab above (crux) finishing just left of

The Crab

roof.

A really cool move at the crux does something to make up for the otherwise unremarkable climbing and some poor rock.

Climb up easy moves to a left-leaning, overhanging (seriously overhanging), wide crack with an edge to it. Wind up and head out and left on huge holds though what climbs much like a roof. This cool 5.9 crux makes the route worth doing, but it would otherwise be completely unremarkable and maybe 5.6. The route may be harder for very short people, as the span to the good hold is a bit of a reach and the intermediate holds would not be very good.

Continue to climb up to the ledge and then over the top or traverse to the left to the anchor on

Skip 'n' Go Naked

.

Climb past two trees using a hand crack which narrows to fingers and gets covered in lichen. Climb up to a steep headwall of rotten rock. Climb through the weakness in the headwall, pro is questionable through here. The final moves involve turning a roof using manky jugs. Large pine for anchor.

Climb the seam and overhang just right of

Tombstone

. A short, difficult crux over mediocre gear at about 20 feet leads to easier climbing with groundfall potential.

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20.

The Squeamish is a spectacular but dangerous route that rates somewhere between a bomb and one star. A bomb for the major loose rock above the crux, but one star for the good and sustained climbing to that point. I'll give it one star as a toprope.

We forgot the guidebook, so we decided to try this obvious line just right of

Nobody's Home

. I figured it was at least 10 and probably S, since I was familiar with the easier and better protected routes in the area. I ended up bailing (via a rescue from our partners' rope as they rapped from the

Nobody's Home

anchor) from about halfway up at the fixed pin after making a good effort. We ended up TR'ing it after leading

Nobody's Home

.

Rossiter calls this 10b/c S, but it felt harder, and it is, I think, worse than S. The fixed pin in the orange corner flexes like rubber. I was afraid to yank down on it. There is only marginal backup. I got a tiny brass in a good placement a few feet below the pin and an almost parallel-sided brass placement near the pin. Not only is the gear at the crux bad, but the approach is S-ish on sustained climbing. And the rock above the crux, as you approach and clear the roofs, is very loose, with the potential of pulling off big blocks. This is way more serious than, say,

X-M

, South Face of T1,

Metamorphosis

(S is on 5.8 climbing), or

Backtalk

(runout on 9 but above a good bolt and on good rock), which are all of a similar grade and rated S. The Squeamish is runout on the crux climbing above bad gear with a potential 40 foot fall if/when the pin and the bad backup fails. And after that you get some gear only to encounter some really bad rock.

When I read Rossiter's "clip stick and tape" recommendation I thought, "there's nothing to stick clip, and there's no cracks that require tape." But after thinking about it, I suspect that the FA party stick-placed a nut above the fixed pin. That might make this route S rather than VS.

There was chalk on the climb, so I suspect that this is occasionally TR'd from the

Nobody's Home

threaded rappel anchor (which is what we did). Rappeling from that anchor brings you directly to the crux dihedral, so it's easy to TR. We were climbing with double ropes, so we could make the TR a bit safer by running one rope through a directional further right, thus providing a more straight up top rope as the climber wanders right, then left and then back right.

Getting there: See

Rush Buick

and

Die Heeda Rule

for directions to get to the vicinity of this climb. A little right of

Rush Buick

is the shallow, right-facing, right-leaning dihedral of

Nobody's Home

. Right of that is another shallow right facing corner that ends, and above that is a large right facing orange corner. This is The Squeamish. Just right of this is a large, left-facing, easy, grungy corner that can be climbed to avoid the first part of The Squeamish (or downclimbed for a rest).

The route: climb the initial right-facing corner which is, as for

Nobody's Home

, much harder than it looks at about 5.9. The gear is good, but it's hard to hang out at a couple of spots. When the corner ends, get a piece in the flake above and move right to a right-facing corner. Get gear in the corner. After getting this gear in, I descended and unclipped the right rope from all the gear on the left so that it ran straight to this point. The section from the right-facing corner traversing left into the orange corner is .10 something. Step left of the right-facing corner and climb a vague groove to a small flake bucket. You can get a good nut here. Reach let to another flake, which also takes a good nut, although this flake is thumpy. You can, instead, climb straight up to this point, but the gear would be worse. Step left and reach up to an angled block which is disturbingly thumpy and step up to a stance at the fixed pin. To retreat from here is pretty serious without a rope from above. There is a tiny nut at your knees that would take body weight. My plan, before the rescue rope magically appeared from above, was to downclimb with one rope through this nut (I didn't trust the pin at all) with the other rope through the lead gear, cleaning as I downclimbed.

The crux: Thin laybacks and some smears get you a jug. Some more tenuous footwork gains a stance below an overhang. Move right around a corner to a jug and a good rest. The rock above this is very loose, so be careful, and have the belayer move left out of the way. Another medium hard move, scary because of the loose rock, gets you good holds at the roof. The roof is easy with big holds. Angle left above this to the cave and anchor above

Nobody's Home

.

Roof's Way is a worthwhile route near the top of Hawk Eagle Ridge. It wanders quite a bit but has fun climbing and thought provoking protection (or not) with great exposure at the top.  Roof's Way begins just around a blunt corner maybe 50' left of

Stay Hungry

, ascend the trail to where it stops at a tree and to continue up you have to scramble slabs.  Head up the slabs for ~75' to a slightly precarious (steep slab) belay area below a roof system.  Roofs way starts here and climbs up through no less than 5 roofs or overhanging bulges in two short pitches or since you walk off the top, no reason not to link them togheter, but you'll want to use well placed runners to avoid rope drag.  According to SL, this was Layton Kor's last recorded FA in Eldo.  And for more historical fun, the J. Lowe-C. Fowler variation (.10R) climbs straight up the left-facing corner at the start then moves right to merge.

Look for a body length, left-facing corner 10' off the ground that marks the start.  Climb over a bulge to get onto the face then move right below the left-facing corner (.9R), looking for gear but not finding any you'll be pleased to find an original Kor KB in the roof as you move right to the break through this next roof.  Above, wander back left though another roof to a steep slab above, in the crack near the tree is the orignal belay. From the tree climb moderate, very nice, unprotected face (5.6) up and left heading toward the obvious crack system on the right side of the final roof.  Climb out this final roof (.10) using a flake and magic chicken head on the left with wonderful exposure and exciting movement.

Stop! is a chunky looking climb that thankfully climbs a little better than it looks. The description in the guidebook by the first ascensionist describes the start of the climb: "If you must, climb a rotten groove...."

I suppose they must have cleaned it out a little and we a little more, because it's not so bad, really.

That groove is actually kind of an awkward overhanging rounded slot and does not protect particularly well, but the moves are good. Do beware to wear sleeves and something on your shoulders (but nothing expensive).

Work your way out the awkward slot, facing left into the corner, then up over the bulge and left, then quickly back right into better rock and easier moves. Head up to the top of the wall with better gear and belay. There is a downclimb just North of the climb in the corner.

Start in a wide slot behind a pine tree. It has an assortment of cracks for protection. Climb over a small roof, and continue up broken cracks past another pine tree. The top gets a little dirty. This is called 5.5, but it felt more like 5.7 at the little roof capping the slot.

At the very top corner of Hawk-Eagle Ridge, climb the Northwest arete to the top of the rock. The view from here is nice and is probably more worth the bother of doing the route than the experience of climbing itself. Although there is nothing really wrong with the climbing here, it's ho-hum.

Climb

Stay Hungry

up a surprisingly tricky finger crack until you reach the obvious roof. Continue climbing straight out the roof in the corner/scoop type roof system. Nest a few small pieces halfway through the roof, then proceed to enter the crux. Smear your feet, and grab crimps, slopers, and underclings to square up your body before making a large gymnastic style move to a big horn jug behind you. Mantel over the lip, and scramble to the top of the wall.

Climb the right-angling feature common to

Cental Park

. At the second tree, head left through a right-facing corner with a quality finger crack. Turn a roof above the short finger crack and follow a lichen covered face directly up to the top.

This is on a heart-shaped wall with a white water streak.  It climbs past 6 bolts and goes to a 2 bolt anchor.  You can rappel from the top of Hawk Eagle Ridge to the anchor if you wish to toprope it.  The face is slightly overhanging.

Start at the base of the Uninspiring Wall route, but climb straight up the face instead of following the flake left. Finishing with lay-backing on nice, right-facing flakes.

We are not sure if this one had been done before....

It has good, spicy arete climbing with some fun, wild walking left above the roof edge at the top.  Good exposure.

Climbs a short chimney to a small roof to the right of a dead tree and follows disjointed cracks to the top of a saddle.  The cracks a pretty dirty and there is a great deal of licken covering the rock in this area.

Nails to Nowhere is the obvious, left-leaning seam eight feet right of the huge boulder blocking the trail at the base of Hawk Eagle.

Start at the base of a tips crack and make a move right to a jug then head up and left along the seam to a jug shelf at the seam's end. Pull over onto the slab above and follow easy but unprotected moves (5.9 X) to a large ledge. Belay on gear, scramble off right.

If this thing were on the ground, it'd make for a great boulder problem, but unfortunately it's about 20 feet high, so you should probably rope up. Cinch Crack is the obvious, overhanging splitter (out a sort of roof/prow) low on Hawk-Eagle Ridge, just before the chimney downclimb that deposits you in the big gully by Wind Tower.

A fixed pin w/ some tat and a fixed Alien can be supplemented with trad pro.  Hard moves and long reaches gain the lip. Head up the crack to a double-bolt anchor (1/4") or better yet, down climb and down aid to get your gear back.

This is Old school 5.12b, meaning hard as hell!

The route lies about 1/2 way up Hawk Eagle Ridge. It is an obvious right-facing dihedral capped by a large roof. The single-pitch line may not be worthy of a trip to the crag alone, but if you want to also do

Die Heeda Rule

(5.11)

Brother Jug

(5.10a), and

Tombstone

(5.11a) among others nearby, it is a worthy day. You will find the climbing at the crux to be powerful and gymnastic, and probably only 5.10a if you have large hands.

This is an awesome route, Lips Like Sugar follows a line of bolts through a large celing just down the hill from

Cinch Crack

. The route is at the lower end of Hawk Eagle Ridge so access to the route is pretty easy. Belay from a ledge about 15ft off the ground. Anchor your belayer, because a large lead fall could send your belayer into space.  To climb the route head up right through 2-bolts and a small roof around 11a. Next run it out for twenty or so feet on some easy slab around 10a or 9+. Angle back left to a bolt below the roof, gain a good rest, and prepair yourself for the meet of the climg. Sustained 12 through 3-bolts on a gigantic roof. The crux involves some really funky moovs on very small crimps, and not much for feet. Overall, a really good route.

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20.

This route is just to the right of

Rush Buick

. It starts below two bolts just to the right of that dihedral. Start with an awkward, but well-protected move to get going. I found the crux to be passing the second bolt. After that bolt began a rising traverse to the right underneath an overhang with gear in somewhat crunchy rock. After traversing for a bit (it's fairly obvious when to stop traversing), head straight up to the anchor atop

Nobody's Home

and belay there. There's a bit of a runout at the end, but the climbing is relatively easy.

Descend by making a 100 foot rappel from the anchor.

Overall, I found the pitch to a be little heads-up so it might not be a great one to test your limits.

This is a nice climb with questionable rock & gear near the top.

Overall, the rock and pro is good on most of the climb.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Hawk-Eagle Ridge