Beagle's Ear 

There is also a third short pitch (9+) that is worth doing. This reaches the top of the wall, on the right side of the "Beagle's Ear." The best descent from here is to traverse over to the notch between the North and Central Towers for the standard rappel descent (four raps with a single rope, ending on top of the block at the base of Perversion).

Great climb, but maybe easier than 11a if you have big hands? There were two tricky mid 10 stemming and face cruxes and then the true crux--perfect hands to two OK fist jams and then wider pulling through an overhang with poor feet. I placed my big cam below the hand crack thinking a jug was coming and then went into melt down when the jug turned faux as the crack got wider.

I used lots of gear from mid-sized brass to maybe 3/8" nuts (could have used two sets), doubles from blue to red Aliens, and also doubles above that to #3 Camalot or perhaps singles if you back clean judiciously. And a #4 Camalot for the crux. We used a #3 Camalot at the belay at the bottom (optional), I placed another one at the first hand crack and back cleaned it, and I placed it again at the top as part of the belay and as a directional for the second. If you're real solid at 10, a single set from 1/8" to #3 Camalot might suffice.

I belayed at the end of the difficulties, but you can also traverse left and belay at the Zen Effects/Lifestream bolts. Our skinny twin ropes were pretty jammed in a thin crack above the crux, so that was not an option for us.

In response to the question "maybe easier than 11a if you have big hands" the answer is it's not. I check in at 6'7" and have "big" hands and didn't find any advantages on this gem of a route. There seems to be an ubiquitous myth, in Eldorado in particular, that some how big folks have it easy.

Standard Eldo rack will suffice, although for comfort it would be recommended to bring two camalot 2s, one camalot 3 and one camalot 3.5.

Double 60 M ropes will put you comfortably on the ground from the Zen Effects/Lifestream belay.

The 1980 Erickson Rocky Heights guide rates this 5.9(!), and says, "The final pitch, up a dihedral, is the crux (5.9+)." It's odd that Erickson would think P1 is much easier than the current 11a rating but that P2 is the same as the current 9+ rating. Could a chockstone have fallen out of the wide crux?

That's a great question Ivan. My guess would be probably. Either that or grade inflation has come home to roost. There are probably lots of examples in Eldo's history where an "old school" rating didn't hold up for one reason or another (i.e. first pitch of T2 comes to mind).

Specifically, on this route, I remember that in the crux wide section it was too wide to fist jam and the feet too delicate to lie back comfortably with the hands on the edge of the crack. The only alternative was to grope crimpers and slopers on the face and stand on smaller features progressing slowly - pretty pumpy. However, just as the tank was emptying I saw some hand sized rock chocks buried deep in the crack that offered good downward holds. Possibly, there were similar features in days past that were larger and more ample.

A 3.5 Camalot is indeed nice to have for the crux on the 2nd pitch. A wonderful route that protects well.