PRINT: Rock Climb January Rush, Eldorado Canyon SP

January Rush

5.8+ PG13, Trad, 90 ft (27 m),

Avg: 1.6 from 5 votes
FA: Duncan Ferguson, solo
Colorado > Boulder > Eldorado Canyon SP > Hawk-Eagle Ridge

Access Issue: COVID-19 Notice & Seasonal Closures Details

Per Dustin Bergman, CO State Parks Officer #770, ECSP:

Eldorado Canyon SP is STRONGLY DISCOURAGING CLIMBING at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climbing is NOT ADVISED. Social distancing is challenging in Eldorado Canyon SP with climbing. The park office is closed. Warnings (& possible evictions from the SP) may be issued for violations of the social distancing requirement for a minimum of 6 feet between people not in the same household. In addition, touching surfaces contacted by others, which occurs on climbing routes and between climbing partners sharing equipment & rope(s), is a risk.

Rescues related to this sport are highly technical, require a large number of rescue personnel and equipment, and they generally result in an ambulance ride to the hospital. Please respect the statewide state-at-home order.

Seasonal Raptor Closures
Check Park site for current closures:
cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/…

For more information visit:
cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/…

Double check prior to venturing there. Thanks!

Access Issue: Turkey Vulture nesting closure 7/3/20! Details

Attention: CLOSURE - the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has placed a closure for a confirmed turkey vulture nesting as of 7/3/20. This applies to Heart of Gold, Rush Buick, Emergency Brake, The Squeamish, and Nobody's Home.

As of 9/13/19, the turkey vulture closure was lifted. The nest is empty.

Attention: the Eldorado Canyon SP staff has informed us that Heart of Gold, Rush Buick, Emergency Brake, Nobody's Home, and The Squeamish are closed until further notice for turkey vulture nesting. Please respect this closure. This notice came out Aug. 22, 2019.

Description

Climb the well-protected 5.7 crack to the top of a corner and swing out to climber's right over a small arete. Move up and left to an ascending hand traverse. The traverse is the crux and feels a lot trickier than it looks. Then ascend a slightly rotten corner system to ledges where you can move left to an anchor of slings around a block wedged in a crack.

Location

This route begins in the finger crack to the right of January Playmate (obvious hand crack) and just around the corner from Heart of Gold (bolted face).

Protection

Recommend two three-inch cams for the traverse, one for the start and one for the finish.

I don't like the anchor on this one. The block is wedged into the crack but clearly detached. I backed it up with three cams (0.75, 0.5 and 0.3) for the belay. For the descent, we scrambled up and right about 50 feet to a tree with slings. From there, by rappelling to the east (climber's right, not straight down) you can rappel to the bolts on Rush Buick.

A 60m rope does not reach the ground from the tree.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Ivan Rezucha
Fort Collins, CO

5.9+ PG13

I was gripped following the hand traverse. The handholds are slanting and slick, and there are basically no foot holds. If the second falls off he would end up below the roof. If the leader falls off he would swing right and below the roof, but might be able to get back on.

The post for January Playmate mentions descent bolts out left. We didn't see any, and the Steve Levin Eldo guide doesn't mentions the flake with slings but no bolts. Mar 17, 2010

Phil Lauffen
Innsbruck, AT

5.9-

Those moves on the arete moving left are way cool. Very exciting definitely on both ends of the rope.

We ended up topping out on a spire and doing a ~20m rap to the anchors on Rush Buick from a small tree with a bunch of slings on it. Mildly sketchy IMO.

This is Eldo adventure climbing. Feb 14, 2011