Hey y'all, just thought I would share a story with you all as it was a great learning experience for me.

It all started yesterday morning at the intersection of 170 & 93 where I met my friend Dave to go do the Yellow Spur in Eldorado Canyon SP. We met up at about 9am and headed into the park. After getting our pass we parked at the lower parking area and sorted out our gear. We brought one pack (with 2 liters and first aid kit).

After reading that there would be some down-climbing involved (on the rap) if we only brought 1 60m rope, we decided to bring two (we don't have a 70m). This would be Dave's first multi-pitch route and I didn't want him to have to down-climb anything that could possibly be exposed or dangerous.

We crossed the bridge and proceeded passed the smaller walls on our way up to the Redgarden Wall to find our climb. The climb up to the start of the Yellow Spur is a hike for sure, took us about 40 minutes from the car to the base of the climb.

We started by scrambling up a short corner to the tree that marks the beginning of the climb. Upon looking at the two options to start (5.9 and 5.10) I opted for the 5.9 start, about 15 feet right of the 5.10 start. Upon reaching the roof on the first pitch, I had wished I did the 5.10 start as it was more direct and would have helped us avoid some rope drag. This cost us some serious time - Dave had some issues getting past the roof. After the first pitch confusion was done, the rest of the climb went smoothly, an awesome climb overall.

Upon reaching the summit, we took some pictures, finished the last of our water, and contemplated our descent. I had copied down the entire descent directions from this lovely website, but it neglected to give directions on getting off the summit. Although a scramble down was possible, it was extremely exposed. We wanted to rap down to the gully but didnt have any bolts and so we wrapped the rope around the summit block wedging it in a notch on the opposite side to secure it. I belayed Dave down to the gully, backing him up with our second rope and then rapped down behind him. Apparently the notch worked better then planned and we could not pull our rope - I had to solo up to the summit, retrieve the rope, and then down climb to the gully.

At this point it was getting late and daylight was fading. We began walking down the gully looking for the "notch" that was described but managed to pass it and continued until we couldn't go any further. We then had to turn around and go back uphill until we eventually found the notch. After finding the notch we found the first set of rap bolts pretty easily. This is the point when we were finally happy to have two ropes - we made the rap all the way to the ledge without having to do any down climbing (and it was a good thing because it was pretty dark by this point).

Now would have been the about the time that I would have put on my headlamp on, but unfortunately I didn't bring one. It hadn't even occurred to me that we would be out until it was dark. Dave didn't have a headlamp either. Luckily I had a lighter in my first-aid kit, barely good enough to give us light, but better then nothing.

We next had to scramble up a ramp and find a fin of rock to climb over to find our next set of bolts to rap from. We were stumbling around - not a good situation considering the exposure. We came to what we believed was the fin of rock described in our descent plans, but one problem, we could NOT find the rap bolts. As it kept getting darker and darker we were getting a little worried thinking about the possibility of spending the night on the wall.

We continued looking around for the bolts but didn't have any luck. We really didn't want to spend the night on the wall with people worrying about us, but we did not know where to rap from. We figured that we were on the correct ledge but just couldn't find the bolts, so we began looking for another option. We found a tree that looked like it might have been rapped off of before, although this was just speculation - there were no slings, cord, or rap rings around the tree. We tied the two ropes together, threw them over the edge and I got on the rope. We decided that I would rap, see if I was down, and if I didn't make it to the ground, I would ascend the ropes back to the ledge and we would spend the night.

I put an autoblock on the rope below my belay device before starting down. About 5 feet down the rope I guess I knocked a football sized rock off the ledge (I didn't feel my feet hit it, perhaps the rope dislodged it). I heard it hit the ground and saw a spark as it smashed into the floor. It didn't give me a great idea of how far we had to go - far was all I could tell. About 50ft down, the rope had managed to get all tangled up. Since I had an autoblock, I was able to go hands-free and untangle the rope. As I continued down the rope into the dark I kept telling myself that this was a bad decision and that I should have stayed on the ledge. The further I got the more I dreaded the idea of having to ascent 200 feet of rope with slings. I could barely make out the contour of the cliff face, but I was free-hanging quite a way from the wall. As I went further down I could almost make out the end of the ropes - to my AMAZEMENT the ends were 2 feet off the ground, I made it down! Holy crap!

I got off the ropes and yelled up to Dave to come down. He rapped down to me. We were thrilled that we were no longer way up on the wall, but we were definitely not on familiar ground yet. There appeared to be a trail on the ledge we were on, but this was not the ground yet. After some thinking, we decided to rap one more time off another tree. Made it to the ground in about 100 feet. After walking down hill for about 50 feet I saw the metal ladder on the trail that led to the base of our climb. I immediately went uphill, found the beginning of our climb, scrambled up to our packs, and brought them down to Dave who had just gotten down to the ground.

We hugged (literally) and discussed how lucky we were to have made it to the ground doing multiple blind rappels in the dark. We shared some food and began the descent to the parking area. This took us about an hour and a half in the dark, being very careful, knowing that we could still get injured on the hike down.

We got back to our car at 10:15pm. We guessed that we started climbing at about 11:30am meaning our entire climb plus the ordeal of getting down took 11 hours and 15 minutes. Upon reaching the car I called my girlfriend who was less then thrilled and had called the police to have them look for our car to see if we were still at the park to help figure out if we might be injured.

Now I'm sure there are lots of people that will read this little story and make up their minds about how stupid and inexperienced we must have been to have this happen. I have been climbing for 6 years and this is the 3rd 'Epic' I've experienced. Looking back at the whole event I have realized quite a few things.

1st: When climbing at a new area, have as much information as you possibly can about the climb, descent, hazards, options if you get injured/lost, etc. I had done a pretty good job of this, I had the entire route description and descent description with us.

2nd: I should have brought a headlamp. Both times previously when I got caught out after dark, I had brought a headlamp and it made the descents a whole lot easier. No matter what you expect, bring a headlamp on multipitch climbs.

3rd: We should have brought more water. I didn't mention it, but we were very thirsty after the first rappel from the summit. We were more then thirsty by the time we got to the ground. Being dehydrated and thirsty could lead to poor decision making.

and 4th: We probably shouldn't have rapped blindly. You might be saying, "but you made it...". True, but if I hadn't reached the ground, we would have been SOL. I was prepared to ascend the ropes, I've done it before and am confident that I could do it again. However it would have been exhausting and dangerous in the dark. We could have easily spent the night out, and then found the bolts in the morning and made a safe and confident rappel. True that our loved ones would have been worried, they were worried at 10 o'clock that night, but waiting would have been safer.

My ultimate reason for posting this is to remind everyone that even with as much experience as I have (6 years climbing rock and ice) the possibility of an EPIC always exists. Proper training can help, and sometimes you might get lucky (as we did in this case), but being prepared is the best thing you can do to have the best outcome in a situation like ours. Please feel free to share a similar story, or comment. It is only in discussing and thinking about our mistakes that we can lean from them and try and avoid them in the future.

well, you didn't die or get hurt, and you ended up at the car with most of your gear. sounds like a successful day to me.

Redgarden descents can be a beyotch. Combine that with the fact that many parties and many pitches can easily lead to being beinighted. The sum is that the descents often pose more problems that the climbing.

Last year, we topped out at dusk and there were two parties waiting at the top "hoping" we would have headlamps and know the way down(we did and my partner knew the descent).

Good reminders for everyone. glad to hear it worked out. I actually just keep a headlamp on my helmet whenever I'm multi-pitching.

Evan

one thing i learned recently about multipitch trad adventures, it's not over until you are back to your car. sometimes, a lot of times, descending is the hardest pitch of the whole climb. glad you made it back okay.

Don't kill yourself trying to get in touch with people who may be worried... My wife knows I will stay put & bivy if it's not safe to proceed, and yes, she will still call search and rescue. So far I haven't spent any unplanned nights out, but I've come pretty close.

I think I will start carrying a headlamp everywhere.

Glad it worked out for you. Last week we climbed Swansons Arete and had a great time. But - much like you it took a long time for us to figure out the descent and find the rap stations. Much longer than i thought it would and I too had what I thought were very good directions for locating the raps. I didn't wind up in the dark, but only because we got an early start. We took the Chockstone Chimney descent (sounds like you did as well) and finding that second set of bolts over the edge of the ridgeline was tricky - it'd be almost impossible in the dark (if you didn't know where they were).

1) headlamp
2) layers (i.e. bivy)
3) while I hate them: cell phone would have lessened the need for you to race home and explain that you are ok
4) did I mention headlamp: to me, more important than food, water and layers: light=movement and movement = safety.

Please dont die out there....it makes us all look bad :)

Its easier to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble.

First off, thanks for sharing this; that takes guts.

It's possible that your route choice of the Yellow Spur for Dave's first multi-pitch trad route was not the best decision. The Yellow Spur is a difficult route and is really not a good place to learn multi-pitch tradecraft. Furthermore, it's one of the all-time classic routes in Eldo and justifiably sees a lot of traffic on the weekend so it can take a long time to top out. Combine that with a setting sun and a lack of neon signs at the rappel anchors and you've got an epic.

Second, I cringed when I read that you slung your rope around a block at the top, rapped, got the rope stuck, soloed, and then solo downclimbed all in dwindling light. Good job keeping it together. A better alternative would have been to start using your gear and setting up proper rappel anchors. Of course this becomes a lot harder when you can't see your placements but I have to assume at this point if you could see well enough to solo, you could see well enough to construct an anchor.

Hope this doesn't sound to preachy. Again, good job bringing you and your partner home.

Two final thoughts.
1. The best way to survive an epic is to avoid it.
2. Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

joe - I agree, from now on a headlamp is going to be standard in my gear for multipitch climbs, such an easy thing to bring and extremely useful. Jeff - I also agree, loved ones can wait, as long as you are safe, you will make it home eventually. Kai - definitely, the climb is only half the journey, making it down is the other half. And Dave - I agree, Yellow Spur was quite an undertaking for Dave as his first multipitch. He was totally confident in terms of the climbing, but obviously not as well versed as I in terms of self rescue, route finding, and descent. It would have been a better idea to start him off on something smaller and less complicated (although he did tell me he had a blast). And as far as the descent from the summit went, there was still plenty of light when I went back up for my rope. The climbing was very easy and I was confident that I could solo it or I wouldn't have. Still not fun though. Thanks for the feedback and comments y'all, I appreciate it! Climb safe.

Guys,

Glad you had an epic and survived it well. It sounds like everything, other the the stuck rope at the first rappel, actually went rather smoothly. Back before there were internet forums and annually updated guidebooks, descent epics were fairly common. The old guidebooks would have descent beta that said something like, "Descend to the East" or "Descend via rappels". That was it. We get pretty comfortable these days because of all the beta out there but good route-finding skills and preparation are as essential as ever.

For gear advice, get a chalkbag that has a little zippered pocket in it and keep a headlamp in it all the time. If it lives there--always-- you'll have it when you need it. If you think you'll remember to put it in before each climb, you won't, and that's when you'll need it (Murphy's Law # 1024a). Get a Petzl eLight. They have a 10-year Lithium battery, weigh next to nothing and can be worn in a number of ways.

Climb Safe,
Mal

It sounds to me like you rappelled down to the Vertigo Ledge at the end. You can of course walk North (uphill as the trails below you go) and it intersects the regular trail.

yo matt! good on ya or doing a cool route, keeping sane, and shepherding your partner...eldo epics are standard...no shame.

malcom's advice is good: one of those tiny headlamps weighs nothing and fits anywhere--i just include mine in my (also tiny) medkit--never without it if you're more than a couple pitches up.

also---if it's at all possible to scope your descent in daylight, it is well worth the time to do--especially in places in red rocks or eldo, where complicated terrain is the norm. when you arrived at the base of the route, you could've spent five minutes walking away from the wall (west) to get a great vantage point on your descent...that might've helped get you around the red ledge and down to the bolts at the top of the chimney beside rewritten/grandmother's/great zot. just a thought. anytime you can see your descent (great for skiing, too) take the time to scope it, pick out landmarks you can find in a whiteout, dark, etc....

right on, man, keep climbing, hope to meet you out there, rob c

Matt:

You and your partner are in excellent company. I believe that the young Briggs and Ament were benighted on the selfsame route. May your climbing careers be as long and successful as theirs.

I just did all of T1.9 today without water. I really, really should know better, but I wanted to push my limits a bit. Go figure, my partner and I were miserable by the time we got back to the car. Lesson re-re-re-re-learned.

Malcolm and Copp - advice noted, it's funny because I have a petzl elight and used it on both of my other after-dark descents, still not sure why I didnt pack it. Everyone else, thanks for the advice, this is great info and a good dialog which hopefully other people will learn from as well.

You're definitely not alone. First time I did that route I took a twenty five footer onto the pin below the crux ladder when I ethically ignored the pin ladder to the right and decided to try my luck on the pro-less face to the left. In my defense I did see a bolt wayyyy up there.

After that, with darkness descending, we decided to bail off with double ropes(three in the party). We bailed off from the belay below the 5.8 traversing roof. Took forever on the first rappel because my partner decided that staying on the ledge wasn't a good idea and kept going down to the pins in the 5.8 dihedral and hang on those. The way the rope was though it felt like it was still weighted, and we were out of communication. After 30 minutes I just went, hauling up a lot of weight every foot to go down. Got reorged on the ledge, took out my headlamp-thank god- and realized rapping off the big horn near the 5.6 dihedral was the best option. I went first, left the headlamp with them so they could sort out the rap(in retrospect we shoulda stacked) and landed in the tree above the first pitch. REALLY cool free hanging rap in the dark though. We consolidated there and got to the ground. lucky as even two ropes wouldn't have reached the ground(about 20' short).

Had a great pizza at old chicago's at ten that night though.

Deal! My people will call your people.

I agree with clakmon.

amen.

Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

There are rather unobtrusive ways to make signs. How about cairns?