Continental Crag Rock Climbing

Continental Crag is another "wilderness setting" within Eldorado canyon. It is a place where you can go and climb, and count on being alone. In all of my time in Eldo, I have never witnessed another party there. There is a string of crags upward in elevation on the South side, extending up in elevation, from Lower Peanuts Wall, to Upper Peanuts Wall, to Continental Crag. Continental Crag is the highest in the string, and while quite wide, is not terribly tall, as the bottom of the formation is not very good. The upper section, particularly of the Southwest end, however, is quite good. Despite its size and solid rock, perhaps due to the longer approach and lack of development or protection, it does not see much traffic, even on holiday weekends. The setting is a nice, and somewhat unique, perhaps due to the combination of its North by Northwest aspect and its relatively high elevation. From a distance, at almost any angle, the dihedrals and roofs of Continental Crag are obvious. Many went for years without ascents and have only recently been attempted or climbed. Continental Crag faces Northwest and gathers light later in the day. The sun rarely breaches the face in the winter, and snow collects and remains at the base well into the spring months. The climbs mostly involve moderate to hard, (but well protected) crack climbing, such as Paradise Lost (5.8), Plate Tectonics (5.9), Continental Drift (5.10d) or Primal Scream (5.11d). There is now some harder face climbing established between horizontals, such as Rift Of Consciousness, (a 5.11, S). None of these has or should be bolted, as they were lead from the ground up on trad gear. There is a fair amount of wide crack to be had, so if you hike all of the way up there, take a few larger pieces (up to #5 Camalot or a few big bros). Some recent development has resulted in some other new routes, such as Welcome to Eldo (5.10, OW)

Descent: To descend after climbing, S/SW (up the ridge and to the climber's right) to a fixed rap, or walk left down the ridge to below, in the notch between Upper Peanuts Wall and Continental Crag. This walk-off requires some easy scrambling, but like the crag in and of itself, is not a place for inexperienced climbers.