Making Eldorado Canyon Climbing "Safer"

I'm curious what specific actions, thought processes, or other suggestions you have for reducing your risk exposure when climbing in Eldo.

I've never really cared for the thinking that I should risk cracking my head because some guy decades ago felt comfortable with that risk. They had 1) limited/ outdated resources, 2) little concept of how much climbing popularity would rise, and 3) mindsets that diverge from the mainstream. We've somehow embraced deadly accidents at a workday crag, mobilizing volunteer rescuers, and expending major resources all for the sake of some guy's ancient pride.

Until that mindset changes (that first ascensionists "own" the rock and, more importantly, dictate the risk), then I don't think these conversations can be fruitful. In Eldo, be prepared to pull hard moves with oft-crappy gear at or below your feet and deck potential mitigated only by some wonky tricam placement or off brand cam in a greasy flare. Expect to yank out the ancient piton as you fall, your accident being the belated call to action for replacement. For these reasons, Eldo is rarely a great place for most climbers to push one's grade. 

Note my thoughts are not specific to the Wind Ridge accident. There ARE plenty of bomber anchor placements there outside the boulder, as well as good gear to be placed from a non-strenuous stance in the party trick move.

Probably banning all climbing in the canyon.

Ryan has a point. It is just such a slippery slope. How safe is safe before we replace skill and challenge with a Via Ferrante 

Since Eldo cracks often require more discretion than plugging a cam into a textbook parallel crack, additional beta *may* help. The mentor system of the past is fading away, and I suspect that the majority of newer climbers are learning via online resources alone. For easy routes with notorious/devious protection puzzles, the 'old way' is to button yer lip and let the climber figure out that surprise - that's half the joy of Eldo, after all, right? Without a mentor, that may lead to more tragedies like this.

Here's a suggested action that I want to take: I will photograph three different simple gear anchors at the beginning of P3 of Wind Ridge and add them to the comments section for that route. The top of Reggae is another classically strange Eldo anchor that a beginner might not figure out without being shown. I know what a lot of climbers will say: this is spoon-feeding of the worst kind. Whatever.

Thoughtful discussions of anchor setups like the ones Dale Remsberg has been doing regularly on FB can be helpful for climbers who don't-know-what-they-don't-know.

No, this is not "spoon feeding of the worst kind". This is an excellent adaptation of the mentor system of the past to the 21st century. Anyone who wants to can ignore the photos and figure out that surprise. Having built a few anchors in both of those spots I'd like to see how you build anchors there, and compare your efforts with mine.

The recent accident on Wind Tower is tragic and I'm sorry for all those involved. Obviously these climbers made some serious errors in risk calculation and weren't adequately prepared. Wind Ridge can be climbed safely. It might be more difficult than clipping two bomber bolts but it can be climbed safely. Even if you pitch off the move out of the big hueco. It is a tragedy what happened but I don't think it warrants bolting routes that can be climbed safely with greater skill. In this case a knowledge of how to build safe anchors and place pro.

I'm also no purist. I love sport climbing and I love bolted anchors. But  I don't think this accident means we should go out and make every trade route that has tricky anchors bolted anchors. Wind ridge doesn't need any bolts in my opinion. Despite the accident the route is a great place to learn to climb multi pitch trad routes. Where do you draw the line? I'd love to see a bolt go in where the pin is that protects the chimmney move on the Naked Edge. But the easier pitches are arguably more dangerous. Do you bolt the 5.8 pitch? I mean its pretty runout in places. So is the slippery slab on the start of the 5.10 pitch. But I think no, you should not bolt those pitches. But I'm ok with a bolt on the chimmney pitch. But do we start throwing in bolts on all the old heady test pieces? 

There are times when climbing when you really just shouldn't fall. Even on sport routes. You need to learn when those times are and if you're feeling sketchy you need to learn when and how to back off. It is an under appreciated and often unknown skill. Especially to novice climbers.

I'd like to add that bolts don't necessarily mean that you won't have an accident. My worst accident in 30 years of climbing was when two bolts failed and I nearly decked from 50 feet. Plenty of people make mistakes while sport climbing. Climbing is a mine field of accidents waiting to happen. You need to be prepared. Climbing outside is very different than climbing in a gym.

I wrote this piece about safety that was recently published by Evening Sends. It think its timely and worth a read. https://eveningsends.com/urgent-psa-climbing-is-dangerous/

Ryan Marsterswrote:

For these reasons, Eldo is rarely a great place for most climbers to push one's grade. 

Here's one suggestion for mitigating risk in Eldorado.

I would add that the acceptance of falling as a routine and common aspect of (sport) climbing is a dangerous mindset to have in traditional climbing areas like Eldo.

Ryan Marsterswrote:

There ARE plenty of bomber anchor placements there outside the boulder, as well as good gear to be placed from a non-strenuous stance in the party trick move.

Two more suggestions: 

1. Become proficient in placing gear and building anchors before venturing on to climbs requiring these skills.

2. Don't skip protection placements when they are available.

Placing good gear requires considerable practice, as does developing an "eye" for gear placements and natural gear opportunities.

Ha! Great job parsing out the rant. Agree with the summary. 

Steve Levinwrote:

I would add that the acceptance of falling as a routine and common aspect of (sport) climbing is a dangerous mindset to have in traditional climbing areas like Eldo.

I agree.  You've hit the nail on the head.

My opinion is that nothing should be done to mitigate risk in traditional areas.    

With the huge increase in the number of climbers, you have to expect, and accept, that some of them will not have the proper training, skills and mindset that's required to survive even an easy traditional climb. Anything that you do to lower their risk subtracts from their right to choose -- also known as Freedom.

Ryan Marsterswrote:

I've never really cared for the thinking...

I certainly can relate to Ryan's comments, but I don't really think the wishes of any specific first ascensionist comes into play. And the popularity of climbing is irrelevant. There are still many climbers who are attracted to Eldo not necessarily to pull hard moves, but for the whole gestalt of difficult, complex trad climbing. It's not for the feint of heart and it's certainly not for the gym climber who climbs 12a after one year. I agree with Ryan that "Eldo is rarely a great place for most climbers to push one's grade", but only if you're talking about "grades" in the sense of the difficulty of the moves: the actual pulling part is only the half of it in trad climbing. In that sense, Eldo is, in fact, a great place to push one's technical skills and expand one's head game. However, it requires patience (see above: 12a gym climber) and preferably a mentor who is more skilled than you. If your interest lies in pulling hard and pushing your limits, and be safe about it, there is no shortage of really great well-bolted sport climbs in the Boulder area. 

Having said that, I think there is room for discussion about putting bolts in places where sometimes ancient fixed gear is absolutely critical and adding a safe belay station here and there. I don't think that would diminish substantially from the Eldo climbing experience and, in any case, those kinds of (re)placements are few and far between, relatively speaking.

Edit to add: Agree completely with Steve about this misplaced notion of falling being routine (I would argue even in sport climbing) and chummer's comments that basically *all* types of climbing present some level of danger. A climbing skill that requires a lot of experience is being able to evaluate the dangers presented by a particular climb and being able to deal with it or not. Essentially knowing what you know and, importantly, what you don't know. The latter is something that is broadly lacking in society today...

In the case of a death or severe injury maybe a bolt should always be added to honor the victim(s). It would be cool to inscribe "In Memory of..." and this would remind people to be more cautious at that spot. Hopefully this would prevent future accidents at the same place.

Not directly related to bolts... but more my thoughts on observed climbing attitudes. Eldo is becoming a weekly visit for me and I care deeply for the protection of this place and the well-being of the community. 

I began trad leading in Eldo this year in January. I have climbed 100+ routes this season. I think I've topped out the Wind Tower 7 times this year? I have been climbing for ~5 years, but do not have the same experience as many contributing to this discussion. When I began, I immediately adopted the "leader shall never fall" attitude, and climb far below my physical limit there. I'm often asked "You haven't fallen on your gear yet ?!?!" to much surprise. I think this mentality is what leads to accidents - "if you aren't pushing, you aren't climbing." I don't understand this way of thinking, it's hazardous and egoist. I view trad gear and traditional climbing as a way to enable mountain adventures, not as a way to test physical limits. I trust my ability before I trust my gear, meaning that I know I could solo this climb if there wasn't any gear, but I'm climbing it with the gear to protect me in case something happens. I've done research to know the engineering/ physics behind gear placement and climbing forces. As you should before you place and trust gear! Know the science, and trust that. Don't whip on your gear to build trust while testing your luck. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I don't get it. The gear is there to save your life in the event of a fall, especially in a place like Eldo where the gear can be marginal at times. 

Another potential issue I am pondering is the discrepancy between gym grades and Eldo/ Front Range grades, and how this affects climber's experiences and safety. Obviously, we all generally accept that Eldo grading is stiff - or at least historically accurate - and the nearby gyms are featherbagged to hell. With the seemingly rapid introduction of new climbers, surprisingly trad climbers, I'm imagining a potential danger to eager, uninitiated climbers new to the outdoors. Wind Ridge, is labeled 5.7. Someone might climb one 5.10 route at the rock gym, which might translate in outdoor difficulty to an eldo 5.3-5.5 IMO. They see the 5.7 grade and say "shit, this is gonna be so easy" and they jump right in, unaware of the technical climbing and systems ahead of them. NEVER will you see a 5.7 gym route include any movement similar to entering and exiting the P3 Hueco. I have sat at the "Breezy" belay and watched seemingly experienced climbers get stumped by this move on two separate occasions. I am NOT saying this is what happened in this accident, but I can imagine situations like this becoming more and more common as new people begin outdoor climbing. 

So, we reach an impasse where soft gym grades are used as a marketing tactic to increase membership by the perception of greater climbing ability potentially lead to sketchy situations in the outdoors. You come outside and the skills, the style, it all changes. Again, I'm no expert but something doesn't feel right about this. 

Some things that I champion to improve saftey - even as a new climber - are...

1. Do not rush things. Climbing is for life, and there is absolutely no rush to advance grades at a pace that introduces unnecessary risk. Every day you come home from rock climbing is a success.

2. Seek mentorship, you are never as experienced as you think, and can always have your skills validated by a seasoned guide/ friend. 

3. Research. Obsession. Commitment. Focus. Preparation. None of these can be forgotten when playing a high stake game like rock climbing. Casual class 4 cruising can still result in death with a lapse in any of these items. 

4. Leave the ego at home. You climb for yourself, no one else.

It has been awhile, but if memory serves me right, there is a few gear placements at this spot.  Or did we lose some of them when that rock on the outside edge has been gone..?

The accident is very tragic!  I am very saddened by this.  I think it may have been prevented, even with just that one cordlette loop in place.  With such a piece of single protection, we all know things can lift up / off.  The mistake may have been the belayer standing up, spotting, vs being seated.  Self anchored low, with legs braced.

The adding bolts is most certainly a slippery slope.

Gregger Manwrote:

Since Eldo cracks often require more discretion than plugging a cam into a textbook parallel crack, additional beta *may* help. The mentor system of the past is fading away, and I suspect that the majority of newer climbers are learning via online resources alone. For easy routes with notorious/devious protection puzzles, the 'old way' is to button yer lip and let the climber figure out that surprise - that's half the joy of Eldo, after all, right? Without a mentor, that may lead to more tragedies like this.

Here's a suggested action that I want to take: I will photograph three different simple gear anchors at the beginning of P3 of Wind Ridge and add them to the comments section for that route. The top of Reggae is another classically strange Eldo anchor that a beginner might not figure out without being shown. I know what a lot of climbers will say: this is spoon-feeding of the worst kind. Whatever.

Thoughtful discussions of anchor setups like the ones Dale Remsberg has been doing regularly on FB can be helpful for climbers who don't-know-what-they-don't-know.

I think this is an excellent idea, and I am going to start trying to snap anchor photos when I am on multipitch trad routes. IG channels like Dale's and AlpineSavvy are wonderful for both obtaining new knowledge, and applying 'textbook' knowledge in the real world. I am pretty sure he has at least one Wind Ridge example image already, actually.

Doug Simpsonwrote:

Not directly related to bolts... but more my thoughts on observed climbing attitudes. Eldo is becoming a weekly visit for me and I care deeply for the protection of this place and the well-being of the community. 

I began trad leading in Eldo this year in January. I have climbed 100+ routes this season. I think I've topped out the Wind Tower 7 times this year? I have been climbing for ~5 years, but do not have the same experience as many contributing to this discussion. When I began, I immediately adopted the "leader shall never fall" attitude, and climb far below my physical limit there. I'm often asked "You haven't fallen on your gear yet ?!?!" to much surprise. I think this mentality is what leads to accidents - "if you aren't pushing, you aren't climbing." 

It's not about pushing vs. not pushing - it's about knowing when it's safe to push. There are spots on The Naked Edge (for example) where whipping repeatedly is perfectly safe, and other spots where it's a pretty bad idea. I would say this is true on most trad routes 5.10 and harder.

I don't understand this way of thinking, it's hazardous and egoist. I view trad gear and traditional climbing as a way to enable mountain adventures, not as a way to test physical limits.

It can be both. Harder climbing, both sport and trad, is (IMO) performance art, and executing well at a high level is satisfying.

 I trust my ability before I trust my gear, meaning that I know I could solo this climb if there wasn't any gear, but I'm climbing it with the gear to protect me in case something happens. I've done research to know the engineering/ physics behind gear placement and climbing forces. As you should before you place and trust gear! Know the science, and trust that. Don't whip on your gear to build trust while testing your luck. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I don't get it. The gear is there to save your life in the event of a fall, especially in a place like Eldo where the gear can be marginal at times. 

Your climbing ability is absolutely the most important piece of protection you own, but never climbing anything where you might fall doesn't make any sense (to me. YMMV). I do agree that building a good base of climbing skill that allows you to only fall on gear in situations where you are in control of the gear quality, fall length, etc, is a fundamental part of building the trad climbing skillset. Learn to hangout, to downclimb, and to make mandatory, tenuous moves in high-consequence situations. Also learn evaluate when gear is bomber, marginal, or garbage, and when it is appropriate to back up gear/build life nests.

Another potential issue I am pondering is the discrepancy between gym grades and Eldo/ Front Range grades, and how this affects climber's experiences and safety. Obviously, we all generally accept that Eldo grading is stiff - or at least historically accurate - and the nearby gyms are featherbagged to hell. With the seemingly rapid introduction of new climbers, surprisingly trad climbers, I'm imagining a potential danger to eager, uninitiated climbers new to the outdoors. Wind Ridge, is labeled 5.7. Someone might climb one 5.10 route at the rock gym, which might translate in outdoor difficulty to an eldo 5.3-5.5 IMO. They see the 5.7 grade and say "shit, this is gonna be so easy" and they jump right in, unaware of the technical climbing and systems ahead of them. NEVER will you see a 5.7 gym route include any movement similar to entering and exiting the P3 Hueco. I have sat at the "Breezy" belay and watched seemingly experienced climbers get stumped by this move on two separate occasions. I am NOT saying this is what happened in this accident, but I can imagine situations like this becoming more and more common as new people begin outdoor climbing. 

So, we reach an impasse where soft gym grades are used as a marketing tactic to increase membership by the perception of greater climbing ability potentially lead to sketchy situations in the outdoors. You come outside and the skills, the style, it all changes. Again, I'm no expert but something doesn't feel right about this. 

It seems to me that there are only two remedies for this. One is education via outreach, and the other is self-education on thet part of new climbers. Gyms aren't going to change.

Some things that I champion to improve saftey - even as a new climber - are...

1. Do not rush things. Climbing is for life, and there is absolutely no rush to advance grades at a pace that introduces unnecessary risk. Every day you come home from rock climbing is a success.

2. Seek mentorship, you are never as experienced as you think, and can always have your skills validated by a seasoned guide/ friend. 

3. Research. Obsession. Commitment. Focus. Preparation. None of these can be forgotten when playing a high stake game like rock climbing. Casual class 4 cruising can still result in death with a lapse in any of these items. 

4. Leave the ego at home. You climb for yourself, no one else.

I think the above is a pretty solid list of considerations for a new climber - thanks for the thoughtful post!

Mountain Rocketmanwrote:

In the case of a death or severe injury maybe a bolt should always be added to honor the victim(s). It would be cool to inscribe "In Memory of..." and this would remind people to be more cautious at that spot. Hopefully this would prevent future accidents at the same place.

I think that's inappropriate at best, ridiculous and absurd at worst. 

You folks that wanna place bolts on a 5.6 trade route that's been climbed literally tens of  thousands of times successfully since it was established should consider approaching ACE:

 http://aceeldo.org/about-us/ 

and make a formal request to bolt up Wind Ridge. 

Why would a pair of bolts (or just one) at the belay station after P2 be a bad thing?  Honestly curious... 

I am a new trad leader who led Wind Ridge for the first time a few months ago..   I followed a mentor twice on this route. Led it the next day and then again the following weekend. I have only done the walkoff, after combining P1 & P2.  If I had done P3 I could definitely see myself not thinking about the upward pull in this scenario.  I have had a solid mentor taking me out a lot in Eldo.  Very safety conscious (both me and mentor)  and I could still see myself overlooking the upward pull...  I also try to "place" a lot of natural pro when i find it and am usually pretty wary of upward pull...  

I don't see why a bolt would be a bad thing.  Belaying off that boulder sucks... this route sees a ton of traffic from newbies.  Often newbies guiding newbies, like when i took my wife up this route a month or two ago.  

Steve Levinwrote:

I'm curious what specific actions, thought processes, or other suggestions you have for reducing your risk exposure when climbing in Eldo.

If I were to post all of my thoughts on this complex matter, I'd have a list so long that I'd never get around to typing it all out.
So in this case I'll start with a negative definition.
What I DON'T suggest is retro-bolting everything, or anything.

In a day and age where people who don't know any better and don't have the mentorship to teach them the ways around these situations there's a certain amount of responsibility the community needs to take for avoidable problems. There's little reason for beginner routes to be unsafe for the people who will be climbing them. 

Even the gunks has bolted anchors on most of the beginner trade routes.