Eldorado Canyon

Ever since I've moved to colorado, I've climbed at Eldo more than any other crag, despite the fact that it's an hour away from Estes and Fort Collins. So why take the drive? Well, mostly because everyone I meet is from Boulder and wants to climb here. Eldo is max fifteen minutes from the city center of Boulder, CO, the most climbing-est city in the world. Once I saw a guy in the Boulder Home Depot wearing a harness with a full rack, helmet, and pack. Yeah. Unfortunately Boulder has diverged from her cool, dirtbag roots and gotten real expensive over the year, quite unfriendly to van dwellers too. Living here is pretty pricey, but it might be worth it considering how close you are to great climbing. Boulder Canyon, North Table Mountain, Clear Creek, and Eldo of course.

Eldo is mostly known for its sandbagged trad routes, which are stiff compared to the rest of colorado. It's also known for decking gumbies, short approaches, long confusing descents, wannabe alex honnalds, afternoon hail storms, tourists that will take your pictures from the road, etc. Due to its proximity to Denver and Boulder, you definetly see some shenanigans on the rocks, but that's all part of the fun. I would say the routes here are equal in grading and quality to Seneca Rocks, with the huge benefit that there's like three boba shops twelve minutes away for that after climb snack. Pretty sweet!

notable routes

bastille 5.7

Around my first climbing anniversary, I ended up driving to Boulder to take my SPI course. Me and the other student of this class, a very uptight and generally unpleasent guy named victor, decided to try bastille. Meaning, I would lead every pitch of bastille, and victor would criticize and re-do all of my trad anchors, complain that my nuts are hard to take out, and ask to take me off belay to pee. The cool thing about bastille is how close it is to the parking lot, like a two minute walk. But it's the most crowded climb in the area, and only the first pitch is kinda cool. We were going so slow, a free-solist climbed Calypso, ran across the canyon, and then solo'd past us. For the first time, I saw the appeal of solo-ing lol. During the fifth pitch, the afternoon thunderstorm rolled in and it ended up hailing and raining on us. I would chalk up my hands, and the chalk would just wash off. Luckily, Bastille is pretty easy and I made it out alive with a funny gumby story. Do I reccomend this climb? It's hard to say, the climbing's not the most interesting. But you really can't beat that approach!

the yellow spur 5.9+

A classic that reminds me of a lot of Pleasant Overhangs and Gunsight at Seneca. But a lot more run out. The first three pitches are pretty by the books, but the fourth has an amazing roof traverse, the fifth has a pin ladder with thin technical arete moves as well as an optional sporty face climb, and the sixth pitch is just super-runout summit ridge fun. A super chill time that goes by pretty quickly, linking pitches might be the best bet. It's shady in the mourning, great belay spots, honeslty I don't have much complaints other than the descent. It's kinda wandery and bushwacky to find the rappell anchors, and honestly the descent took just as long as the climb, if not longer. Still a fun time if you got a good lead head!

the naked edge 5.11

I got dragged up this one during a Hinge date. Typical Boulder. But yeah, it's fucking sick. Tiny finger cracks to technical stemmy dihedrals. A lot of dihedrals. There's also a hand crack in there somewhere. The cruxes are hard and require a lot of problem solving and funky body positioning. I still don't have the lead in me for this one, but I know a lot of climbers in Boulder will just rep it weekly. There's bolted anchors, so you can go really light on gear, and I've never spent more than a few hours on this one. I hope to give it a good send burn by the end of 2026, but we'll see!

notes

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