A halfway decent climb that's well protected and has solid 5.10 moves throughout. The crux comes at the end and involves a tricky high-step, but it's very well protected. The route is between the Eiger Sanction (to the left) and Footloose (to the right).
Correction by Drew Allan: Eiffel Tower is the sixth route to the right of the cave area/arete (Bonehead), which is located on the left (East) side of Little Eiger. See "Headline" topo photo. It is the first route you encounter left of Footloose after a swath of stone that doesn't have any routes. The route begins approximately 15' right of Eiger Sanction with an early 90's first bolt a bit off the deck and below a small roof.
Move up some interesting face moves and clip two bolts below the roof. This is old school bolting so be careful. Climb over the roof and angle right along a ramp where there is a solid runout between the third and fourth bolt on moderate climbing. The crux is from the fourth to sixth bolt and offers great, dynamic moves with tricky feet to a right hand horizontal. One more clip leads to the open shut anchor that is protected with a clip link connected bolt. ET is probably harder than ES next door. In fact, I don't think this route gets done as often as it should. Definitely worthwhile. Seven bolts.
Agreed with the 2 star rating this climb gets. I think it is a little more thought provoking than other 10d's many people have done. The steeper slabby climbing involved on the route is very enjoyable. High step not needed if you can figure other beta, but a little more commiting.
It should be mentioned that there is a solid runout between the third and fourth bolt on moderate climbing. The fifth is tricky to clip and has a spinning hanger. I don't think it would be fun to fall from here before clipping the fifth bolt. If a problem ever occurred with the fourth, it will be a long, nasty ride. This route is definitely harder than its neighbor, Eiger Sanction.
There is a slight runout between #4 and 5 but not to fear. It's the easiest section on the whole route. Agree with the rating. Good stuff and thin at the top with the high steps. Great route. Super well bolted. At least 10 bolts plus anchors.
I have always had trouble correlating the route description here to the actual climb. Having just climbed this route again, I now know why. It is because the text written above by Peter is for the WRONG ROUTE. This may have been one of the first routes posted for Little Eiger as the date coincides with the beginning of CB.com. As ac pointed out above, the pictures above are for First Impression not Eiffel Tower. No, Peter's route description is for First Impression. He must have thought the name for the First Impression corner was Eiffel Tower. He refers to ET as between Eiger Sanction and Eiger Direct, which it is not. ET is between ES and Footloose. I think it's clear that he was referring to the FI corner by describing it being left of ED. It seems odd that he would make this mistake as the latest Rolfoson guide was already published, but he did. With that cleared up, here is the route description below:
Eiffel Tower is the sixth route to the right of the cave area/arete (Bonehead), which is located on the left (East) side of Little Eiger. See "Headline" topo photo. It is the first route you encounter left of Footloose after a swath of stone that doesn't have any routes. The route begins approximately 15' right of Eiger Sanction with an early 90's first bolt a bit off the deck and below a small roof.
Move up some interesting face moves and clip two bolts below the roof. This is old school bolting so be careful. Climb over the roof and angle right along a ramp where there is a solid runout between the third and fourth bolt on moderate climbing. The crux is from the fourth to sixth bolt and offers great, dynamic moves with tricky feet to a right hand horizontal. One more clip leads to the open shut anchor that is protected with a clip link connected bolt. ET is probably harder than ES next door. In fact, I don't think this route gets done as often as it should. Definitely worthwhile. Seven bolts.
See also photos posted for this route. If there are other routes in Clear Creek in need of some repair please post them up. This kind of hardware is scary.
RSS Feed
Slideshow
