Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: July 8, 2018 (Sun);  Partner: George Foster
- Date: June 23, 2021 (Wed);  Partner: Lynn Anderson

On my July 2018 climbing road trip to Colorado, I climbed two routes on the Black Wall: Good Evans (at the beginning of my trip with George Foster) and Road Warrior (three weeks later at the end of my trip with Will Starks). Good Evans is perhaps the most popular route on the Black Wall. Apparently 8 other parties (9 total including George and me) also decided that the summer Sunday was a good one for climbing on Black Wall. And we all arrived in somewhat of a mad rush at the same time (~7:15 am) at the top of the rappel route. All of us were there to climb either Good Evans or Cary Granite. In the end, 3 parties climbed Cary Granite, 3 climbed Good Evans, and 3 changed their plans and headed to the right side of the wall (to climb routes such as Emerald Highway, Rainbow Highway, and Cannonball Corner). This resulted in a 6-party back-up on Pitch 1, since Cary Granite and Good Evans share the same first pitch. George and I were the 5th party in line, and we ended up having to wait a total of 2 hours to get started and about 1 hour more on the route itself. Apart from the waiting, the actual climbing on the 400-foot route went relatively quick. We were a bit worried when some dark clouds began to build above us but fortunately the "50% afternoon thundershowers" decided not to materialize and we was spared the intense experience of being caught in a Colorado thundershower.

I climbed Good Evans a second time in June 2021. Lynn and I had planned to climb Rainbow Highway but the snowpatch at the top was still obscuring the rappel anchors and there was some snow at the base we didn't wish to traverse, so we decided to climb Good Evans (this was Lynn's first trip to Black Wall so she had not yet climbed it). This climb was just as fun the second time. It was nice to climb on a weekday this time, since we had the entire wall to ourselves, which made the climb even more enjoyable.

Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: July 27, 2018 (Fri);  Partner: Will Starks

When climbing Good Evans with George, I was quite intrigued by the 250-foot vertical 6-inch wide splitter on the wall just right of Good Evans. This is Road Warrior. I made a mental note to climb this route if the opportunity ever arose. Three weeks later, I was back with Will Starks, big bros and big cams in tow. It was a Friday, and we had the wall to ourselves. The climb was pure fun. Road Warrior is the longest continual offwidth I have climbed, and quite memorable. Climbing a 250-foot vertical offwidth at 12,000 feet is a great workout. I admit to a bit of cam-pulling when the offwidth got a bit featureless near the top of Pitch 2, but Pitch 3 was featured enough I could burl my way up it despite my poor offwidth technique. Will did an impressive job leading these two offwidth pitches. 

Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: June 15, 2021 (Tue);  Partner: Michael Underwood
- Date: September 7, 2022 (Wed);  Partner: Nate Beckwith

This is an excellent line just left of Good Evans, climbing into the obvious splitter that leads steeply up through a couple of roofs and to the top of the wall.

The first time I climbed this route was in June 2021, with Michael Underwood. Thanks Michael for leading the crux pitches. When temperatures are above 100 in the lowlands, climbing at 13,000 ft is the way to go! It was nice to climb this route on a Tuesday and avoid the weekend crowds.

Michael has climbed this route multiple times. He has some excellent beta which I include in my pitch-by-pitch description below (in particular, the beta about the belay at the bolt location at the top of Pitch 3 and linking Pitches 4&5 are particularly on point). He has also dialed down the rack. Here's what Michael says about the rack: "I've been happy with doubles from #0.3 - #4 BD, a single #5, and singles of the green and red BD C3 (the two sizes down from the 0.3). About 10 alpine draws and some small/medium stoppers complete the kit. As much as it's somewhat debated in this comment thread, I would strongly discourage climbing the route without bringing at least one #5 cam for the otherwise unprotected wide climbing."

I climbed Cary Granite a second time in September 2022 with Nate Beckwith. Nate had never climbed on the Black Wall, so why not just climb the best route on the wall? This climb was even more fun the second time, since I was climbing stronger this year than the last. Thanks Nate for being psyched for the midweek morning outing. Gotta squeeze in the alpine since the days of summer weather are fleeting!

Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: July 7, 2021 (Wed);  Partner: Lynn Anderson
- Date: September 9, 2022 (Fri);   Partner: toprope solo

Located on the far right side of the Black Wall, this route is one of the longer routes up the wall. The route features a wide variety of corners, laybacks, splitter cracks, knobby face, and more, all up great alpine rock. The route is fairly sustained at 5.9 and each pitch has some 5.10 to 5.10+ climbing on it.

Lynn and I had actually attempted to climb Rainbow Highway a couple of weeks previous to our successful ascent, but the top rappel anchor had been buried behind a mound of snow; so we had climbed Good Evans instead, and made plans to return for Rainbow Highway. We returned two weeks later. Lynn and I thought this was a superb route, despite the fact that about a third of the route was a tad wet (mainly on Pitches 1, 4, and 7). We maximized our climbing on dry rock by traversing left at Pitch 4 and and climbing the steep 5.12 fingercrack of Sinners on Sunday for a pitch. Someday I will return to climb this superb route again (including the awesome-looking Pitch 4 corner) when it is completely dry. It's certainly worth climbing again.

I climbed Rainbow Highway a second time in September 2022. It was a Friday and I had the day off work, and I wanted to squeeze in at least one more Black Wall day before the summer was over. I didn't have a partner, but I got the crazy idea to go rope solo Rainbow Highway. When Lynn and I had climbed the route the previous July, it had a few sections that were wet (including the Pitch 4 corner which we bypassed), so I had always wanted to return and climb the route when it was dry. I brought 4 ropes (two 60 m and two 70 m, totaling 860 feet and 33 lbs of rope—my pack was quite stuffed and heavy!), and fixed them on the way down at the anchors at the tops of Pitches 7, 6, 4, and 2. This made for four rope solo pitches with lengths of about 170 feet (P1+P2), 220 feet (P3+P4), 220 feet (P5+P6), and 120 feet (P7), for a total of 730 vertical feet of climbing (note that two 70 m ropes are required to be able to reach the P4 and P2 anchors). I had to place a few directional slings on bolts (namely, at the top of the P4 corner and on the diagonal traverse on P2), but otherwise the route is mostly straight up. One of the things I had worried about was pulling up the rope, but fortunately there were nice ledges at all of the fixed anchors, so I was able to pile the rope on the ledges, and never have to pull the weight of more than a single rope. It took me 40 minutes to rap down to the base and set my 4 fixed ropes, and it took me 1 hour 42 minutes to climb up the 7 pitches, with just short stops at all of the fixed anchors. This was a surprisingly fun way to climb Rainbow Highway and much better than just doing autobelays at the climbing gym. Now that I know it takes just over 2 hours to fix the ropes and climb back up cleaning the ropes as I go, next time I will climb the route twice, taking advantage of being able to climb the route in one continuous 7-pitch push without worrying about pulling up the ropes.

Dates I've climbed this route:
- Date: August 18, 2021 (Wed);  Partner: Will Starks

Will and I had planned on climbing Cannonball Corner on the Black Wall, but when we got to the top and scoped it out, it looked pretty darn wet for the first and last pitches of the route. This route suffers from seepage, so we had expected to deal with some wetness, but this was a bit too wet. So we decided to climb a route on The Aprons. These slabs of granite had always intrigued me as we hiked to the Black Wall. We pulled up mountainproject to see if we could find a route that sounded interesting. The routes on the Aprons are fairly moderate and nothing stood out as distinct from any other, so we decided on the Second Apron Left Side. The route is a choose-your-own-adventure romp, mostly 5.6-5.7 with a couple of moves of 5.8+. Once we topped out on the Second Apron, we scrambled to the summit of Mt. Evans, which at 14,265 feet is one of those sought-after fourteeners. Although it was a bit disappointing to have to re-route from our original climbing objective for the day to something far less challenging, it was a fun day out gaining altitude fitness and tagging a fourteener by climbing up to it.

Note: My camera was acting up and most of my photos are blurry. Sorry!

Dates I've cragged at Lincoln Lake Slabs:
- Date: September 8, 2022 (Thu);  Partner: toprope solo

I had the afternoon free and decided to check out Lincoln Lake Slabs. I toprope soloed four routes (Columbine Crack (5.10), Unknown (5.8) to right of Columbine Crack, Jabba (5.11a/b), and Sport Dike (5.10)). I thought the rock and the climbing was excellent and I hope to come back someday with a partner.