Black Magic

The Black Wall on Mt. Evans is one of my favorite alpine climbing venues in Colorado, and a few weeks ago I got back up there after several years' absence. This high-altitude crag tops out at 13,200 feet and has very good granite. Yet, despite one of the shortest approaches to an alpine cliff in the state—a one-hour drive from Denver and then an hour's hike from the Summit Lake parking area at 12,830 feet—the Black Wall isn't very popular. Could be the fact that there are no easy routes up here—the classic of the cliff, Good Evans, is a five-pitch 5.11a. Or it could be the severe weather. For some reason, Mt. Evans seems to attract more storms—and fiercer ones—than the popular peaks farther north. In any case, I've never seen another party climbing when I've been up there.

Ten years ago, I put up two new routes on the cliffs left of the Black Wall's main face in a single August week. By far the better of the two was Captain Calamari, which I climbed with Greg Crouch. It takes the sunny, sharp-edged outside corner line in the foreground of the photo above. (The prominent prow behind it is Roofer Madness, a possibly unrepeated eight-pitch 5.11c put up by Greg Cameron and George Lowe.) Greg and I climbed five good pitches before the second sleet storm of the day drove us into an ugly corner to escape. Someday I need to go back and finish the line, continuing up the prow. This could be the easiest line in the area, at 5.9+, but the key pitch is long and run-out, with a potentially dangerous crux just above the belay, so it's still not that easy.

Earlier this month, Dave Goldstein and I climbed Cannonball Corner, the huge right-facing corner system to the right of Good Evans. It was a pretty good line, marred by a lot of big loose flakes and very wet climbing in the last 75 feet. The main Black Wall is steep! From the fifth belay, you look straight down more than 600 feet to the snow and talus at the base. All in all, we thought it was a good route, but probably not one that bears repeating. The best part of the day was the clear, stable weather—a first in my experience on Evans—which allowed us to hike around after the climb and scope new routes. There's plenty still to do!