Took a winter romp up the route Ruper (5.8+ YDS, 5b+ French) this weekend. Ruper’s one of the classic climbs in Eldorado Canyon State Park (Eldo). Ruper’s six pitches of beautiful, vertical Colorado rock climbing — just twenty minutes from downtown Boulder.
We had 58 degrees (14.5 C), with cloud cover and moderate wind — in the middle of December!! Winter in Colorado is awesome. We climbed in base layers for the first few pitches, but threw our puffies on for the climbing higher-up.
Not many words here — mostly pictures.
Rock Climbing Ruper
We climbed in a party of 3, using double 60-meter ropes. I led pitches, 2, 4, 5 and 6 — so didn’t have too much opportunity to take action shots.
We climbed pitch 1 in the shade — by the time we reached the belay, the sun was out and things had warmed up a bit.
Kerina following up pitch 1 — thin finger pockets and sidepulls with dicey footwork off the deck.
Stopping for a raspberry snack between Lower Ruper (pitches 1-3) and Upper Ruper (pitches 4-6).
Pitches 4+5 link into one beautiful, rope-stretching pitch of awesome climbing. I overshot the standard belay spot and ended up building a sketchy hanging belay below the crux roof (pictured).
Looking down from the belay. This pitch started on the ground.
Beautiful light on the summit
Looking off to the east, with wind turbines and Denver in the background as shadow falls across the plains.
The weather finally blessed us with clear blue skies as the day finished.
We dropped down this narrow notch to the Chockstone Chimney Rappels. The light was perfect for photos, and I spent a while shooting while my partners “un-fucked the ropes” so we could abseil down to the ground.
Happy faces.
Two raps on the double 60-meters took us to the ground, just as the light was fading and the day started to get cold. Check out the moon in the lower-right. Gorgeous!!
All in all,
a great day! Fun climbing, good protection, great weather, perfect company. And we got to climb one of the most popular routes in Eldo without hardly seeing anyone else.
An utterly classic climb — something to recommend it on every pitch!!
thisisyouth 
Look like a good reward for a cold day of climbing!
Very nice one