Locate the route

Continental Drift

.  Just to the right is a good face with some splitter horizontals and reasonable face holds.  Climb up the right hand edge of this face, and on the arete, staying as far right as possible.  If and when necessary, move left to place additional pro in the horizontals.

Work up this face/bulging arete, *climbing on its right side*, so as to effectively take a path through 5 small roofs.  If these are climbed from the left, the route is easier but perhaps 5.11- overall.  If the arete is climbed from the right, this is a contrived powerfest, particularly to the pin.  The last bulge/roof has a great rest under it.  From that rest (a leg hooked around left and knee crooked on a big hold!), you can look up and see the huge move to the gut-busting undercling. From the undercling, you traverse left around the corner, past the pin on

Continental Drift

and continue to the top on that route.

Though contrived for difficulty (as there is easier climbing just around the corner, this is a great route.  The name was inspired by the story of the F.A. thus "Rift Of Consciousness":

Due to some illness and a combination of medications, I was not 'at my best' on the FA. After leading though the final crux and clipping the pin, I headed into 5.8 territory -- but something was NOT right.  I first felt nausea, so I down-climbed to a no-hands rest to puke.  At the rest, however, things got more and more cloudy, and I realized I was ready to faint.  I warned my partners about this and told them keep me on belay and wait.  It was just the effects of illness and medication.  I clipped into a piece -- and passed out.  After 2 minutes of dangling on the overhanging arete, I woke up dazed, gathered myself a little, and then finished the lead. Jo followed without falls on the left-side of the arete.

It is possible that this route was over-rated due to my physical condition on the FA, but it sure felt as hard as area 11s.  Please advise me if anyone else leads this on the right of the arete and wishes to downgrade it. I'm curious....

Rift Of Consciousness

Continental Soldier

Pangaea

Plate Tectonics

Cougar Bait

Continental Drift

Last, But Not Least

Continental Breakfast

On-Slot

Primal Scream

River of Deceit

Whymper

Whatever Pops Up Next

Fuzzy Crack

Welcome to Eldo

Bonsai

On the lower end of Continental Crag and above the sloping band of rock which forms the lower half, a large shelf/ledge sits below 4 massive, vertical dihedrals, each of which is bordered by a huge roof of sorts, on the right-hand side.  The third one up of these (starting from the left) holds the route "Continental Drift".  Start up from the ledge into a series of tiered roofs which progress up and to the right until you are just below the roof out on the right.  To this point, the climbing is no harder than 5.8.

Once at the horizontal band parallel to the roof on the right, which resembles a closed hand with an extended index finger pointing upward and to the Southwest, move out on the band, placing a TCU or a tricam (or two) in the ~1" wide section of crack before pulling up and into a seam out on the center of 'the hand' and clipping the pin there.  This can be accomplished from the left most easily, or for a whopping physical challenge, go around the corner to the right and pull though the bulge - a REAL body-stomping move.  (Don't get a hernia!)  Once at the pin, do some reasonable face climbing straight up to the summit corner.

If the 10d crux is too daunting, continue up the initial dihedral to the top.  The route is less exciting, but the moves are still fun, and the route is well protected.

Can you tie your rope in a knot, can you tie it in a bow(line)?  Can you throw it over your shoulder like a ....  Sorry, I couldn't come up with anything else to go with the Continental theme.

This route ascends the right-facing dihedral 10 feet left of

Continental Breakfast

with a tree growing at the start.  Work up a thin crack past several ledges.  Top out on a loose ledge, and build an anchor on hand size cams.  Walk 40 feet to the right on top of the ridge to rappel from the anchor above

Primal Scream

.

This route cleaned up nicely and climbs better than it looks.  I cleaned the route as much as possible, but some small loose stuff is still scattered all over the top.

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Just up to the right of the route Paradise Lost, or to the left of Continental Drift, there is another dihedral.  In the dihedral, there is a massive crack, ascending up and to the right though an overhang.  The majority of the crack is hand-to-fist sized and takes great cams.  Start up some non-descript rock to reach this obvious hand-to-fist crack, then up the overhanging open-book/crack, stating with underclings and switching to jams as it becomes less steep.  Just after the crack goes vertical, climb the face to the left as an overhanging prow (5.10) or squeeze into the slot on the right and finish past 'the plate' (now removed). Belay from good gear above.

This route was named after a the crag and a shifting plate of rock up high... a death-flake about 6" thick, but 3' X 4' wide at the top.This was lurking in wait for the first clumsy or ignorant ascent. It is VERY tempting to grab it, as it was at the crux. It was not cleaned by the FA party due to the position of our packs, below.

It was, however trundled out by a subsequent party.

Start up Gaper Flake, but on the left side of the detached, leaning flake, and where that route continues up a splitter crack, bust left on a slab/undercling flake and follow a path of least resistance to a cool ledge with a pine tree (awesome views of the lower canyon), 5.6.

P2. Bust out the overhanging crack/corner. It eases fast.

Find a detached, leaning flake. Tackle the steep hand crack/corner to a ledge. Jam the double cracks on the right to underneath an orange roof and exit left. A variation was also climbed by traversing right of the of the double cracks and laybacking a corner, 5.5ish.

Named in keeping with the theme of the cliff but also for its availability as a warm-up, this is probably the best easy route on the cliff. It takes a light rack of cams and nuts and climbs better than it looks.

Start up the poorly protected but easy corner (5.5) to reach the first good gear and good ledges, continuing in the corner for quite some time. Good holds abound and appear just as needed. The grade goes up as you get further up, with a 5.9 crux just as you finish the corner and step up and right into the first of two diagonal cracks. Protect the first one and continue up to the second one, which will diagonal out and right at a 45 degrees with good jams for 4 meters to pop up on to the belay ledge at a fixed anchor as for

Primal Scream

.

On-Slot is the obvious, continuous crack line running up the right side of the Far Right Buttress of Continental Crag. Head up to the bottom of the overhanging offwidth slot, clip a bolt, and work up into the slot (crux). The Rossiter guide calls it 11c, but that seems a bit soft for Eldo (or for Vedauwoo for that matter), and it's a fairly short crux section as well; 11b is probably closer to the grade.

A few feet of squeeze chimney leads to easier fists and wide hands, then into a nice section of steep hands (10a/b). Follow the crack up to a left-leaning, flared offwidth slot (save one med. cam to protect this section). Grovel through the awkward slot, which looks easier than it is (5.10).  Climb up past the bush and belay on a large ledge near the top of the formation.  It's a fairly steep and sustained climb, fun if you like hand and wide cracks!

We descended by 4th-classing down a steep gully to the right (south), which is fairly loose in places, but rumor has it that there's a rap anchor somewhere along the ridge to the north... we didn't see it while traversing the ridge earlier?

This nice line starts just left of the obvious offwidth (

On-Slot

) at the far right end of the crag.  Work up into the left-leaning, curving crack and follow the crack to a horizontal break (5.9+).  Continue up the aesthetic crack system to a small roof.  Suddenly the holds get much smaller.

Set some good pro (small cam and then nuts or RPs), then traverse right (crux) on poor feet and very small holds to the top of On Slot.  Pass the bush near the top and belay at a bolt plus medium cams on a ledge just below the summit ridge. Descend by climbing down into the loose gully immediately to the south back to the base.

It is a nice climb but only a brief bit of hard climbing.  Originally rated 12a, most will find this a very soft rating by Eldo standards and hence an 11d rating seems more realistic.

Climb the first 10 feet or so of

Continental Soldier

(5.6) Place finger-sized cam, and bust out right on crimps to a thin crack. Do bouldery moves up the arete passing a small pine tree and moving left with the seam. Undercling and utilize fingerlocks culminating in a long move right to the arete and a jug. Follow easy slab up and right to obvious splitter. Jam that for added awesomeness or escape straight up looseness.

This was top roped and then led. It cleaned up nicely after a few flakes fell off and lichen blew away.

This is a so-so route with so-so gear and so-so rock. Basically it is a line along the lines of

Primal Scream

and

On Slot

but skipping the good and hard parts.

Starting to the right, on the pillar to the left of

Primal Scream

. Step right from this and up to the cracks of

Primal Scream

, then before the crux cracks of Primal, escape right to

On-Slot

(notably, above the hard climbing of

On Slot

).

Shortly thereafter, climb right around the corner from there to ride the arete (some loose rock) to the top of the wall. Go left at a ledge just before the true summit to reach the belay/rap anchor. A #3 and/or #3.5 Camalot will back up the rap anchor higher up for better belaying position and less drag.

On the far left side of the crag, locate a large pine tree left of

Welcome to Eldo

(5.10a). Begin behind this at a juggy rail leading rightwards to the start of an RP seam. Fire the bouldery start to the seam, and climb straight up to a small ledge, then continue up an enjoyable hand crack.

The good part of this climb is the upper part.  The bad part is all the loose rock, fuzzy moss, and big hike.  The crux is near the top.  Part of the crux is picking a route to the upper section that is fun and not too loose.  Mostly I convinced Steve to do it because we were there and the crack was there, so why not?  I am not sure I would do it again, but that's the way it goes some times.

This route is located on the left side of the prow that is immediately left of "Paradise Lost" which is listed in Rossiter's guidebook.  It is a fairly obvious, large, vertical crack.

Start near the base of "Paradise Lost" and trend left into a very nice 5.8 dihedral, through a rotten band that looks more loose than it turned out to be, and get into a nice stem below the wide crack.  Arrange protection as desired and attempt to climb it without laybacking.  After trying, resort to laybacking.  It's only a few burly moves until you can rest and figure out the awkward top out.  Arrange protection for your second as best as possible and walk down the back slab to a good belay tree.

This climb got its name from the fact that this was Jenny's first climb ever in Eldorado Canyon and involved a slog up to the crag, a first ascent, and seeing Tony pass out and convulse while leading.  Fortunately, in the parking lot she told us that not much could freak her out, and she was right.

This is a more direct start to

Cougar Bait

. Climb right of the arete following a line of weakness up past a small tree, a couple thin moves gain an obvious crack below the bigger pine tree and ledge.

Description

Protection

Routes in Continental Crag