BETA PHOTO: The Black Wall from the Mt Evans Tollroad. Road Wa...
Description
The Black Wall is the premier multi-pitch alpine rock climbing venue at Mt. Evans. This is where the long, committing routes are. The reason is simple, situated at a very high altitude, between 12,000 and 13,000', the easiest way to reach the routes is to rappel in. The Black Wall offers a fine selection of multi-pitch trad routes that face east. The easiest route would appear to weigh-in at 5.10. Good Evans is the classic line on the Black Wall. Check out the Road Warrior for some sick off-width action. From the parking area at the lake, head north. Most of the routes are accessed by hiking up and over the big hill to the north of the lake. Just past the col on the other side of the hill, start looking for rappel anchors on the top of the cliff. These may be hard to find, but they are there. They are at the top of a route named the Rappel Route. What else? You will probably want to take 2 200' ropes for the rappels. Mt. Evans can through some gnarly weather your way, no matter what season it is. Be prepared to be committed on the routes on the Black Wall. Beta seems hard to find for this wall. Use Front Range Crags by Peter Hubbel - out of print unfortunately - as a reference. Additional topo information may be available on the Internet.Definitely go check out this awesome wall.
Getting There
From the parking lot at the lake, head north. Hike up and over the hill in front of you. At the col on the other side of the hill, start looking for anchors on the top of the cliff. Peter Hubbel suggests that you can descend from the col at the lake and walk beneath the cliffs to access climbs.
This is a really fun gem. I just heard about it this year. The crux is the steep roll before everything starts to funnel down into the choke (going down). It's probly at least 15 feet wide at the choke, and once through there is a group of rocks that split the line in the middle. I took the skinny line on lookers left at the bottom. Steepness, this line clocks in at 50*, and the roll over at the top is usually near vertical if not a overhangin...[more]
By Julian Smith From: Colorado Springs, CO Feb 24, 2002
I may have been incorrect about additional information being available on the Internet. It appears that Rock and Ice issue number 63 has some information and some good topos on the Black Wall.
I had heard this area described as yosemite quality granite. I wrote this off until I laid eyes on the vertical splitter crack systems. As of the 4th of July, the entire wall is dry.
The second rap was sure CLOSE with two 60M's to the ledge. Careful!
By J. Thompson From: denver, co Aug 26, 2004 Gear Alert
I beefed and cleaned up the anchors on the rappel route on 8-26-04.
I replaced the old button head bolt on top with a brand new ASCA bolt(was able to use the same hole) and added camo chains. On the "half way" anchor I pulled off a bunch of old tat, pulled one of the old pins, added a bolt, and put in camo chains. The next party down might want to bring one more quicklink to connect the 2 remaining pins- I left them connected with a booty biner- sorry I was one Quicklink short!
J. Thompson- a little confused here, there are 2 sets of rap anchors from the rim- if you walk past the first (older) set, you come to newer bolts...did you replace the first set? 2nd set is faster, more direct, etc.
Richard Aschert and I improved and set the second rappel station. I really dislikes the first one and thought the second was better and put you closer to "Good Evans".
Two 60-meter ropes and two rappels makes it to a ledge almost even with the route. Knot your rope and be careful of loose stuff.
After 2 recon mission's up there, and with direct reference to Hubbel's guide, this site, and with info from other people. I replaced the anchors on the "rap route". Both anchors are bomber and have chains.I actually found 3(or was it 4?) sets of bolts on the summit. I replaced the ones that had been most described as the standard rappel route.
I'm alittle disappointed that it took my time and effort for people to speak up and say there was a "better way".In any case the Original standard RR is bomber and has fixed chains.
We rapped the D'Antonio route, which was very clean and direct. Watch your ends at the bottom!
With all respect to J. Thompson's efforts, I have a suggestion:
The next person up there-- bring some pliers and move the chains to the D'A anchors. This would give us the clean raps and the nice new gear on the same route.
I have used both rap routes and found the one Bob installed to be more usefull. The rap is cleaner, without the potential for ropes being stuck. It also sets you at the base of the most popular routes and serves as a belay for the bolted route there. Whether there are chains there or not doesn't matter. It's no problem to leave some slings and retrieve them when you finish your route.
I just wanted to let everyone know that the Black Wall and all climbing in the Upper Chicago Lakes basin (including bouldering) is affected by a voluntary seasonal wildlife closure from May 1st - June 30th. All climbing opens to use on July 1st.
Bighorn sheep and mountain goats use the area for lambing and kidding during this time and are extremely sensitive to any contact with humans.
The voluntary closure arose from Forest Plan Standard 102, which designates that it shall “restrict new developments, including new facilities, roads, and trails, and concentrations of humans, within a one-mile sight distance of bighorn sheep lambing and mountain goat kidding areas if they would adversely impact lambing or kidding.”
Climbing is considered to be a concentration of humans and therefore falls under the closure.
The newly created trail from the Upper Chicago lake to Summit Lake has been recognized as a source of potential disturbance as well and is closed during the lambing and kidding period in order to avoid negatively impacting reproduction patterns.
Here is a map of the area affected by the closure:
If you have any further questions regarding access to the Black Wall or other Evans areas, you can send me an e-mail at horsetoothhang@yahoo.com
The area that the lambing occurs is pretty obvious from the Summit Lake Col; you can easily see the mass impact of people to the animals. Probably won't matter much this year as we have a friggin' ton of snow up there now.
I apologize for not responding quicker. The affected bouldering is Area D and anything near the Black Wall. Area C is outside of the closure area. All the lower areas are unaffected.
Mark is right though...there is so much snow this year that bouldering up there is pretty much shot anyway.
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