In my opinion, the finest beginner's lead climb in the state. Excellent pro and easy but airy climbing.
The traverse to the belay ledge is 4th class but exposed; good idea to rope up on it. From the roomy belay ledge, the crack goes straight up - no rope drag and no route finding. The start is the most intimidating part, but is easier than it looks.
Holds are generously placed in and around the crack, and always where you need them. A few easy jams and manteling moves. It feels harder than 5.2 - it's steep, and the wind blowing through the canyon gives the climb some exciting exposure. Beautifully solid rock and wonderful, wonderful pro. I placed my entire set of stoppers and several hexes into the crack.
The cable at the top is a good place to set up a rappel or toprope anchor; however, you can go to the top of Whale's Tail. Beware! A single 50m rope from the cable won't reach the belay ledge on rappel and you'll have to do an exposed downclimb. Use a single 60m rope, or two ropes.
From the cable, you can also choose to traverse to the bolts over the dihedral, and set up a toprope there as well. Spend a couple of hours trying out the crack, face, and dihedral on toprope.
If you are learning to lead, you must make this one of your first! Beautiful.
Protection
Large cable threaded around boulders at the top. You can sink your whole rack into the crack if you like - passive pro is best, lots of stoppers and hexes. If you like an anchor on the big belay ledge, a long runner to sling a boulder, and a couple of large hexes will make a bombproof one.
Great climb, it was my first trad lead. you can avoid the ledge scramble on the descent by dragging an extra rope and rappelling over the westernly roof to the talus below.
This is a great date climb to introduce your non-climbing significant other to the fun that Eldo has to offer. It is not very intimidating, and your partner's success will give you a strong argument when you suggest going to Yosemite for a month or two.
This is a great climb for being so easy-- steep, somewhat exposed, and full of friendly holds where ever you look. Be careful pulling the rope down after rapping since the crack system will gobble it up.
This is a great climb to take up a first-timer. I led my significant other up the pitch and she thoroughly enjoyed being on rock instead of pulling plastic at the gym.
I led this today. Still a great beginner's lead. Several pigeons are living in the crack, and just jump out at you as you approach. The fixed wire at the belay is getting quite frayed. It has cut up the old webbing, which was pretty stiff and sundried anyway (good for tomatoes, BAD for webbing). I removed the dangerous slings, and backed up the wire with a new sling. Careful poking your fingertips on the frayed wire while inspecting it and the sling. If anyone knows [how] to make [another] wire anchor, and has the equipment to do so, it would be a great thing to do for this well used route (you will accumulate much good karma).
Ah ha, Alan, so you must be AK; I think I've seen your slings on other raps in the area. I almost cut your new webbing off since it was marked "2002," but came to my senses after a closer look. The quicklink/rapring are showing some rope wear; anyone who has a spare quicklink might want to bring it up and put it in.
Easy climb felt like a 5.4..there was a "fixed" stopper yesterday and it looked like it would come out with a pound of a hammer...my hex and cleaning tool couldn't get it out...guess I need to hit the gym.
By William McGehee From: Choctaw, OK May 24, 2004 rating: 5.3
Though the start appears very intimidating, a little coaching will have your green-leader up to the cable in no time. This crack will eat up smaller nuts, so please don't give your newbie a #4 to haul up there. Also, small nuts actually DO get eaten up here, so place as many as you can PLEASE! I like new gear, especially bootyed gear! A little secret I'll share for y'all: bring along the blue and black aliens. In case you come across a 'fixed nut,' you can place the alien next to it, sling it and stand on it and 10:1 the nut will move. Just a little hint...~Wm
Hmmm.... Can anyone actually tell the difference between a 5.2 and a 5.4? I'm not much of a climber - 5.8 usually feels pretty stiff for me; 5.10 is out of the question - but I've never been able to tell the difference. I like Gerry Roach's scale: 5.0-2; 5.3-4; 5.5; etc. Let's face it: even if you are climbing in approach shoes or hiking boots, there are simply not five gradations of difficulty between 4th class and 5.5.
Great climb. Did this on a Thursday (no waiting). Very nice route, I belayed my second at the little alcove about a third of the way up to see if she wanted to lead the rest. As it turns out she did not, however this would be an option to get a beginning leader past the more difficult start and on to the easier top two thirds of the pitch. This crack takes so much great gear I was worried about running out of slings and draws... For those who need practice setting passive gear (nuts and hexes), this route is just the ticket.
Try to lead with only nuts. Seemed like a long route and I might of ran out of draws. Would be a good place to take a newbie, but the sketchy approach is best done in rock shoes. Also, not much room on the belay ledge to hog up while showing a newbie everything.
Great beginner lead. Consistent climbing, good exposure, nice straight line, pretty good rappel anchor. The crack gobbles (and sometimes keeps) good small pro. There is now a large fixed nut and a small fixed cam on this route. Much better than West Dihedral (to the right). Beginners want to crawl into the crack - this makes it much more difficult than stemming outside the crack.-s
I have a permit from Steve M at Eldo to replace the anchor at the top of this climb. He has approved the cable and rings and I hope to install it this week end. It should eliminate any distrust in the anchor as the cable was frayed and useless along with too many slings/rings.
The info on this climb says: One pitch, 160 feet. Just to clarify, one pitch is accurate, one 60 meter rope will do. It's about 90 feet from the belay ledge to the anchors. And the most challenging part of the climb is the approach!
By rickblair From: Denver, Co Sep 30, 2008 rating: 5.3
I am not incredibly brave and I found the approach not too scary, I thought it was over-hyped, my second disagrees. I went to the left and built an anchor south of the tree, the pictures lead me to believe I should finish at the cable, did I do a variation? Hmmmm. This is the steepest, longest, most sustained, airiest pitch I have climbed at this level but I can't argue too much with the rating because the holds are all there, I did it in approach shoes. Feels much more intimidating to me than the 5.4s and 5.5s on Wind Tower. I lead with all passive pro, the crack ate up nuts and hexes, clipped an old piton near the top plus one cam for multi-directional at the start and cams for anchors. The rappel start is very easy, rampy, perfect for a beginner. I recommend stopper knots because if you rap just a little to the SW, the ropes can be 5 feet off the ground.
As many of the previous posts advertise this is a great place to bring beginning climbers. Fun routes with nice diversity (West Crack, Face, Dihedral) and exposure. We did encounter some wasps near the top of the Crack and Face; hanging about in some of the pockets. Approach is more difficult than the climbing but the ledge comfortably held 3, fairly big guys ... plenty of space once you arrive. NOTE: a 50M rope WILL toprope the crack off the cable anchor to the belay ledge with plenty left on the ground. Not sure why, but previous posts stated that a 60M was necessary.
The Whale's Tail
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