The 5.5 Swanson’s Arête climbing route at Eldorado Canyon State Park near Denver, Colorado is a marvelous moderate-level multi-pitch rock climb. Route-finding isn’t straightforward though and you’ll need to climb another route first, just to get to it. The easiest way there is via the 5.6 West Chimney route, which is the path shown in the Photo-Guide.
A time-saving Photo-Guide is much more than a guidebook, with detailed photos to help several steps along the way:
- On-approach: detailed directions and gps coordinates
- On-climb: route-finding clarification including photos of some belay areas and anchors
- On-descent: photos and descriptions to get you down safely
The Photo-Guide will save you so much time, allowing you to climb efficiently and safely. For a long climb such as this, that could be measured in hours. This could be the difference between an amazing day, start to finish, and a day that started well but ended with uncertainty, nerves and darkness. (Even with the MyNextClimb Photo-Guide, I always recommend a headlamp on multi-pitch climbs, no matter what time of day you start.)
For those of you who crave the adventure that uncertainty brings, don’t worry. These guides don’t offer unnecessary beta. The climbing will still be pure and your own. It’s just the trail-finding, route-finding, and anchor-finding that will go smoothly and quickly. Thus, allowing you to enjoy more pure-climbing that day.
Sample Photo-Guide – Swanson’s Arête route, Eldorado Canyon State Park, Colorado
Each photo includes all the information you need.
The Photo-Guide is intended to be brought with you on the climb:
– Printed out, in a lightweight easy-to-read flip booklet
OR
– Downloaded, onto your phone as a photo album you can easily swipe through.
Option 1: Photo-Guide flipbook
Place your printed photos in a handy, lightweight plastic flipbook.
Photo-Guide flipbook: Easy to stash in your pocket for convenient access to the information you need throughout your climbing day.
Photo-Guide flipbook: Here is an example of some descent information for the climb, which is very tricky to find for the first-time on Swanson’s Arête.
Photo-Guide flipbook: You’ll see everything you need to find the rappel anchors.
Option 2: Photo-Guide downloaded album
Download your photos and store on your device as a photo album.
Photo-Guide download: Easy to use on your approach to the climb. For those of you that bring a device on the climb and are willing to use it at belay stations, the downloaded option works really well. Swiping from photo to photo is smooth and you can easily zoom-in on photos if needed.
Photo-Guide download: Above are examples of the photos you’ll use on your approach to the climb.