I've been trying to hook up with my friend Jay who lives over in Aspen the past couple months it seems but our schedules always conflict. We finally made it work and met over at Mt Evans for a trip over to the black wall. My last trip here was with Joe and we climbed a route called 'Carrie Granite". This trip I would be climbing a route called "Espresso" on the far right side of the wall.
I had heard that it was kinda dirty and often wet at the top but sometimes routes like this turn out to be quite the adventure. Adventure climbing is what it's all about.
I rolled into Idaho Springs shortly after 6am looking for a coffee house to help wake me up. I drove thru town and found nothing. I decided to take one last look down an empty street and saw an "open" sign glowing in a store front window. Score! It was a local coffee house. Once I had my double latte, I headed up to the parking area to meet Jay.
Jay rolled in minutes after I arrived and we were in the car headed up to summit lake in no time. It was a gorgeous morning and temps were actually quite mild considering the elevation of the area. Fifteen minutes later we were at the lake and started loading our packs. We walked over and around the cirque to the top of the black wall in about 45 minutes. Man, I love this approach! Gravy...
We simul-rapped in to speed things up and were at the bottom soon after arriving. The last little bit is easy downclimbing in a tight chimney but not too bad. We reached the base of our route and decided Jay would tackle the crux pitch and I would get the 10+ pitch above that. I started up the first pitch which was easy 5.10 with varied climbing. I set the belay and brought Jay up. Next up was the 11- crux, which was a layback crack that arches left near the top. It didn't look too bad from below but Jay later found out that it was really continuous with hardly a rest it's entire length. Jay made an impressive onsight of it with an occasional "ahhh!" when a hard move was encountered. I followed and cast off on the 3rd pitch after reaching the belay.
This pitch was long but not near as hard as the previous and had the occasional rest. At one point I was pulling large bushes out of the rock just so I could see the crack and place gear. After climbing almost an entire rope length I set a belay at the top of the pillar like formation. The next couple pitches were kinda junky and the last pitch, which I led, was completely wet and loose. This last pitch took quite a while to get up because of the loose, wet rock all around. I was so glad to finally top out and be done with it!
It had actually rained some while we were climbing, but since weather moves in from the west and we were on an east facing wall it never got to us. We stayed dry the entire day
Jay coming down the loose ledges
Me racking up for the first pitch.
Me on pitch 1.
Jay on the crux pitch
Jay nearing the belay on pitch 3
rain showers we never felt
Me on last pitch. It was wet and really spooky
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