Rob Kepley and I headed out Saturday for The Black Wall at Mt. Evans, CO for a day of alpine climbing.  Our goal was to ascend the three pitch splitter crack Cary Granite and then pick off an easier climb like Cannonball Corner.

The Black Wall, Mt. Evans, CO

Arriving at the top of the wall around 7 AM we racked up and rappelled into the depths to begin our ascent back to the rim.  I combined the first two pitches as one and then Rob grappled with the .11c crux pitch.  The crux pitch was surreal – an easy looking traverse to a hand crack followed by a burly series of hand sized pulls out the lip of a 3′ roof crack.  The easy looking slab traverse turned out to be a real enigma as even following it took me about ten tries or so to decipher – and I dared to think it looked easy when I was belaying.  The last pitch was an entirely forgettable .9 romp up some semi-wide pseudo choss.

Rob Keplye after the dicey ballet traverse

After topping out around 1 PM we ate lunch and then languished soaking up the rare environment of our alpine setting while thunder storms all around us announced their coming and going.  Given the activity level in the sky and the constant build of thunderheads due West of our position we decided it best to call of our planned second climb and retreat to civilization.  As we drove out around 4P PM it started raining confirming our decision.  Can’t wait to get back to the high country again!

Rob just after the explosive all burl roof crux