Fort Collins Trad

I'm wondering if there are any trad lines near Fort Collins beyond the little top ropes near the reservoir. Specifically, is there any climbing to do on Horsetooth rock, Arthur's rock, or any of the other outcrops you can see up on the ridge?

Someone please tell me that multipitch trad can be found closer to Fort Collins than Gray Rock.

Thanks,
Galen

Nope. Arthurs may have single pitches if you really wanted to find something....but most of it is highball bouldering (still relatively unestablished). The closest routes to multipitch are going to be in the big thompson canyon, and most of those aren't much longer than one pitch.

Da fort is well known for its bouldering.

Edit: oh, on second thought, the backside (west) of horsetooth rock has quite a few possible lines (i don't think anything has really been established). but the issue here is that the drive to the dirt road on the back side is about an hour drive to a world of access issues. All the land below the backside of horsetooth is private, no parking anywhere, unless you have a friend that lives there. Then the hike from the road to rock would be about 30 min-1 hour (depending on your speed).

FC is a vacuum when it comes to trad. I lived in FC for about 4 years but always drove south to Boulder and west to Lumpy to climb. I'm not much into bouldering. I finally decided to move south to be closer to the climbing and I'm also about the same distance from Estes.

My brother and I messed around behind Horsetooth once. Just once. It wasn't worth a return visit, although I suspect there could be some good rock if you poke around. You could put together one rope-stretcher of a pitch, I suppose.

Some fun route names we came up with while walking back to the car were ones like Choss Boss, Choss King, Choss Your Cookies, etc. If that's any indication of the rock quality we encountered. :-)

Jeff's suggestion of Combat Rock is good. There's a good concentration of routes there (over 20 in all grades). But Jeff, is there a access issue with Cedar Park Slab? I've always wanted to do Dags in Beanland.

Multi pitch trad climbs closer than Greyrock are in short supply. As Vill noted, there are some decent trad lines in the Big Thompson, but they are scattered for the most part with the exception of Combat Rock.

Arthur's has limited opportunities regarding trad climbing. I'm reasonably certain that climbing is now permitted on the actual Arthur's rock buttress (I believe it was closed at some point after the death mentioned earlier), although I have also seen a nest and would strongly recommend maintaining a healthy distance until raptor nesting season is over to avoid conflicts with the park service. I believe most established lines are aid lines. Bolting is prohibited at this time to my knowledge.

The bouldering is well established and there are very few lines left to be done, even highballs. There are a few trad problems, but they aren't spectacular. The Northern Colorado Climber's Coalition has begun dialogue with the rangers at Arthur's in order to learn the official status of climbing. I will have more to report soon. In the past, the climbing community and rangers had a somewhat antagonistic relationship, so progress may be slow. If we make good progress and the park service is amicable, we (the NCCC) may publish an online guide for the area, but that won't likely be until later this year at the earliest.

The Poudre Canyon has a variety of decent trad lines, but they are scattered and generally only one pitch in length. East of Eden in the narrows is a great line and right off the road. A variety of longer lines can also be found near it, including some longer trad lines. Some of them are a bit obscure.

Red Feather Lakes has good trad lines at a few areas, but is probably farther from Fort Collins than Greyrock. Most of them are single pitch as well.

I'm not sure of the status of the guidebook by Luebben and Harper, but we will have a selection of Poudre and vicinity routes listed on the NCCC website in the near future. The site will be nococlimbing.org and will come up in the next week or so.

Arthur's Rock and Lory (in general) are open to traditional rock climbing. At this time there is no bolting or leaving of fixed hardware.
Lots of bouldering in the park.
To keep relations healthy be sure to stay on the established trail systems, leave the raptors be (as you all have noted), and don't leave behind any tat. Also, keep your dog on a leash and be considerate of other park user's (don't cuss or grunt too loud).

Keep us posted NCCC!

Luis Barandiaran wrote:But Jeff, is there a access issue with Cedar Park Slab? I've always wanted to do Dags in Beanland.

Luis, Dags is a fun and mellow route. You can easily catch it along with Whetstone in an afternoon's climbing. There is private land all around the approach, so there are access issues. As the Cedar Park Slab description says, ask for permission or tread lightly and be respectful.

I have found the best approach is from the road up to the Monestary. On the drive up towards the Monestary, about when you are at eye level with Cedar Park Slab, on that road you'll notice a Y intersection at which you normally keep left to go to the Monestary. Park off the right side of the road. There is no formal parking spot, just a real narrow shoulder. Find your own route to the slab. You'll pass by one house which we stay as far away from as possible to not disturb anyone (if I remember correctly, you can stay at least a few hundred feet away from it on what feels like an old road. It's been a long time since I've been there). You drop down into a gulley and back up to get to the slab.

Thanks, Joell. After my last post, I revisited my copy of Rossiter and looked up some old forum posts. I think what I was thinking of is Eagle Rock and Crossier Dome. Those definitely have access issues and should be considered closed. But thanks for the approach beta. We all need to stay up to date with any access issues and always be mindful of property owners.