I had climbed on Eagle Wall a couple of times before—Eagle Dance (5.10c A0, 9-10 pitches) in March 2016 and Levitation 29 (5.11c, 10 pitches)  in April 2024. One line that had always caught my eye was Mountain Beast (5.11a, 8 pitches), which follows a striking feature on the right side of the wall. It turned out to be a very good climb with a few stellar pitches.

I climbed the route with Kyle Knight, who had responded to a Mountain Project partner post I’d made about a month earlier. We’d climbed together a couple weeks prior and had a super fun day, so when I returned to Red Rocks—and he was still around—we decided to get out again. With temperatures dropping and sun becoming essential this time of year, Kyle suggested Mountain Beast. An excellent choice. Even though temps were probably in the low to mid-40s, we were perfectly comfortable in the sun with baselayers and windshirts.

We swung leads, with Kyle starting us off with Pitch 1. We linked Pitches 3 and 4, climbing the route in a total of seven pitches. We thought the route had some standout climbing, particularly Pitch 2 (5.11a) with its thin-face crux, Pitch 5 (5.10b) up steep and beautifully featured rock, and Pitch 6 (5.10a) a fun crack splitting the varnished face. We made good time, climbing the route in 3 hours 21 minutes.

Instead of rapping from the top of Pitch 6, we continued to the true summit of Eagle Wall and hiked out. This descent is gorgeous—polished watercourses, sculpted rock, and a peaceful wash—and it adds a lot of pleasant hiking to the day, if you are feeling into that sort of thing for the day.

This page includes a route overlay, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos from our climb. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to climb with Kyle again some day—maybe in Washington, where we both spend part of our year.