American Choss Classics

What are your "favorite" American Choss Classics? Formations, Towers, Prominent Features, or "classic" routes on them?

My list in-progress:

Ship Rock, NM
Lizard Head, CO
Curecanti Needle, CO
Crawford Needle, CO
Titan, Fisher Towers, UT (or, for that matter, anything in the Fishers)
Tooth Rock, AZ
Agathla, AZ
Southern Arete, Painted Wall, CO
Mudwall, Glenwood Canyon, CO
International Buttress, Glenwood Canyon, CO
Anything in Eldo ;)

Whitney Gilman Ridge

Sedona, AZ

Steins Pillar, Turkey Monster, & St. Peters Dome. Every route on each of those is a classic (though I've only done 1/each). All are in Orygun.

Seneca.

Do you want to know about routes N of the 49th parallel? There's this area called the Canadian Rockies I could tell you about.

Steve- you're missing the Graceland of American choss.....North Cascades! The list is endless.
But while we're talking Rocky Mtn states, I'll add N Buttress of Capitol Pk to the queue.
And Rifle.

Mount St. Nick in glacier park. 5.9 800 foot choss climbing to an amazing summit waaaay out in nowhere. The super classic that gets done maybe once a summer.

That I have done:

Baboquivari Peak, AZ--by any route, but quintessentially "Humungous Woosey"
Elephant Head, AZ--Rocktology (extra points for lichen & birdshit)
Elephant Dome, AZ--Elephantiasis
Leviathan Dome, AZ (questionable...most of the rock is pretty good)
Southern Arete, Black Canyon, CO

Still want to do: Shiprock; the Titan (and other Fishers); Valley of the Gods (Utah); the International in Glenwood Canyon; another Painted Wall route; Rosy Arete (Black Canyon); Weaver's Needle (AZ)

Opinions on places cited where I've climbed:

Chossy: NW Buttress Capitol, Lizard Head
Not too bad: Fisher Towers, Shiprock
Not bad at all: Whitney Gilman, Weaver's Needle

Not mentioned, not classic but super chossy things I've climbed: Rotwand (Eldo), Twin Peaks on Halfmoon Pass quadrangle in Saguache County, CO.
Turret Ridge ( 75.98.172.74/PeakStats/Clim…) on Courthouse Mountain quad in Hinsdale County, CO is rumored to be looser and scarier than anything else I've mentioned.

In my experience, almost anything that has not received much climbing traffic is going to be chossy. The test of truly chossy rock is that it remains chossy despite repeated ascents. Examples: routes in the Fishers tend to clean up; Lizard Head's standard route climbs cleaner than its historical reputation would lead one to expect; climbs on Eldo's Rotwand seem to crumble afresh with each climber's passage.

Flakes of Wrath, Rumbling Bald, NC

I'll keep doing that one even though those flakes are so sketchy.

Charles Vernon wrote:That I have done: Baboquivari Peak, AZ--by any route, but quintessentially "Humungous Woosey" Elephant Head, AZ--Rocktology (extra points for lichen & birdshit) Elephant Dome, AZ--Elephantiasis

I'm 0 for 3 on Babo ... car troubles, weathered out, and rope-solo motivation loss. Need to get back down there.
Did Crater Genetics on Elephant Dome in '02 and enjoyed the Mendoza experience. Love to go back.
Putting Elephant Head in the Santa Ritas back on my list. Looks choss-a-licious. Thanks for reminding me.

Notch Peak would fit the bill of being both chossy and classic.

Steve Levin wrote: I'm 0 for 3 on Babo ... car troubles, weathered out, and rope-solo motivation loss. Need to get back down there. Did Crater Genetics on Elephant Dome in '02 and enjoyed the Mendoza experience. Love to go back. Putting Elephant Head in the Santa Ritas back on my list. Looks choss-a-licious. Thanks for reminding me.

Do Humungous Woosey. I will confidently assert that it is the "Southern Arete" of southern Arizona.

pinnacles, baby! mountainproject.com/v/pinna…

nothing quite like climbing on knobby prehistoric mud cobblestones!

jeeter wrote:If you want to open this up to the "other" america I have a few suggestions from down south that might give you bad dreams.

Absolutely.
Whitesides?

Steve Levin wrote: Absolutely. Whitesides?

Nothing like climbing on mica potato chips! I always seem to get flakes of that place in my hair, eyes, etc...

shotgunnelson wrote:Mount St. Nick in glacier park. 5.9 800 foot choss climbing to an amazing summit waaaay out in nowhere. The super classic that gets done maybe once a summer.

The dirt couloir (would have been great fun full of ice) leading to the start of the climbing has to be one of the sketchiest/luckiest ascents of my life.

Exactly. By the time you actually get to the part you rope up for you, you have been on sketch dirt/scree you fall you die terrain that the run outs and old raps off of boulders don't seem too bad. That being said there is always the north face of siyeh. For all you choss chasers it is one of the most prized summits. 4000 feet r/x climbing that's only been done by seven or eight people.

Agathla wins the award as a choss classic. I wouldn't recommend this climb for anyone. Leading it is scary, but following it is probably completely insane. It's 1,000 feet of loose basalt and tuff breccia boulders, all stacked on top of each other, and few are attached by anything other than pressure and good luck.

Most things in Oregon.