Exploring the Poudre Canyon's Electric Ocean

Looking up from the trail at an amazing line on golden colored rock (Mother Hibiscus Discordia 5.11 A1 visible, Prometheus Rising slightly out of view on the right)

This past weekend, the two ends of the weather spectrum could be found a mere sixty miles apart, typical of the Front Range. I looked forward to Friday when I would attempt to climb Alexanders Chimney into Eighth Route on Longs Peak, a classic line extended into another, to make for one long link-up on ice and mixed terrain – exciting! As the weekend drew near, it was obvious that all hell would break loose in that vicinity and lots of snow would be mixed with lots of wind. As the avalanche conditions worsened on what seemed like hourly increments, we decided on a backup plan, which was to venture back into the Black Lake area of Glacier Gorge, which has been notoriously difficult to access this winter because of downed trees.

Fast forward to 3 am Friday morning: 90+ mph winds around Long's, and 85 mph gusts around Black Lake. Potentially unstable snow on the approaches to both as well as on route with several hundred feet of snow climbing on Lambslide (NE aspect) below Alexanders Chimney; or potentially unstable snow beneath and above West Gully (E aspect) in the Black Lake vicinity. Enter option three: Forget wind, snow, cold weather, ice, misery, and welcome the sub tropic conditions found in the Poudre! Having just met with the other members of the board of the NC3 for the first time days prior, I felt motivated to explore our local canyon, in search for any climbable rock large or small.

After stopping at several interesting looking formations lower in the canyon, I found myself beneath Electric Ocean, unknowingly. In the Poudre Canyon Guide, the area is described as a “forgotten crag... with a good concentration of sport lines as well as a few trad routes” All I knew, was there was a visible cairn off the road and that I was curious to where it lead. The path was faint, but the moment I questioned my location, another cairn would appear! After what felt like a very long climb on loose terrain, a giant golden wall appeared overhead with what looked to be a crack running right up the center! (Pictured above) “Certainly that is the reason for this faint climbers trail”  I thought as I moved closer and more and more rock appeared. The trail suddenly branched off left away from the golden wall and so I followed knowing I had all day to get back to the base of this amazing looking line.

Up until this point, I had obviously walked where others had and I wanted to find some virgin stone, the original objective for my Poudre visit. I opted to traverse left across the base of the wall towards what looked to be fourth class terrain and followed a path of least resistance clear to the top of the formation. Alone, with no ropes, climbing fast through loose rock with the occasional easy 5th class move, I felt alive and aware of my immediate surroundings, occasionally stopping to take in the massive void below. While nothing to draw a topo of and post on mountain project, this was my rock and my route and my first ascent adventure. As the upper headwall rolled back into low angle slabs and culminated at a definitive summit, I couldn't believe my eyes. Sure enough, there was a large cairn marking the conclusion of someone's route. Feeling slightly disappointed initially, I then realized how cool in fact this all was! The spirit of adventure and exploration that people have drove someone else to climb upward like me, curiosity driving them with no guaranteed reward. I looked out over the canyon and from that point I could see many more rock outcrops, clear up to Cameron Pass, where the conditions looked similar to what I avoided in RMNP, and my car below, likely a thousand feet or more. I snapped a couple photos, added a stone to the cairn, and headed down a separate, less technical descent. On my way down, I did stumble upon a nice slab wall covered in clean looking cracks, somewhat similar to the Left Book at Lumpy Ridge. Awesome!

Atop Electric Ocean formation looking west toward Cameron Pass

Adding to the Pile

Slab stash!

Feeling satisfied, I descended to my car, totally forgetting to check out the immaculate golden wall that initially intrigued me (turns out this was Mother Hibiscus Discordia, an aid line done by Greg Martin in 1996). Driving back down the canyon, I felt excited with the idea of spending more days in the Poudre, exploring in the trees, and way up high on the ridges for rock to climb!

~ Mike Engelstad