Longest Free routes in North America

There have to be some climbing scholars out there that can help with this...

What are top 3-5 longest free climbs in North America?

Freerider is 3300 Ft at 26 pitches
Resolution Arete on Mt Wilson has to clock in close to that
The Scenic Cruise/ cruise has to be up there.
There has to be something in Zion or El Potrero Chico that I'm missing.

Scenic Cruise isn't even close to that long. The longest stuff in the Black is on the Painted Wall and is around 2000' or so.

Time Wave Zero in El Potrero Chico is certainly worthy of a mention, its over 2000' I'd venture to say.

don't you have to pay an entrance fee for most of these?

Mark Nelson wrote:don't you have to pay an entrance fee for most of these?

Well how about the Pacific Crest Trail, then?

does north america include AK? Canada? Greenland? if so, i think you need to look for routes longer than resolution arete or anything in the black, although both of those routes are long indeed.
-edit, also el gigante mexico

There's a 40-something-pitch free route on Glacier Point in the Valley. And it goes at a relatively modest 5.11.something. I don't know much about it, but I remember some photos and a topo when it got done, 6 to 12 years ago. Looked like a grand adventure.

Monster Truck and Scariest Ride in the Park at El Potrero clock in at 50 and 40 pitches, both 5.9x trad.

The full north ridge of Mt. Stuart in Washington is 30 pitches and has AMAZING rock and a walkoff decent!

Dougald MacDonald wrote:There's a 40-something-pitch free route on Glacier Point in the Valley. And it goes at a relatively modest 5.11.something. I don't know much about it, but I remember some photos and a topo when it got done, 6 to 12 years ago. Looked like a grand adventure.

"galactic hitchhiker" I believe.

Subsequent ascents have foundthe climb to be nowhere near 40 actual pitchs.....the FA was doing some very short ones....apparently.

If you want the "longest route" in the Black canyon look at The Southern Arete of the Painted wall.

josh

FC John wrote:Freerider is 3300 Ft at 26 pitches

I thought that the Nose was 2900 feet, is Freerider longer?, Do the downclimb and traverses count as to length of climb.

Things are very different if you are talking about elevation gain as opposed to distance traveled on the rock.

The El Cap girdle traverse is something ridiculous at 70+ pitches, but does that really count since it does not go up? The same argument could be made for the ridge traverses though they probably gain more but at the same time have loads of 3rd and 4th class and are not continuously 5th class climbing.

Obviously nothing in Red Rocks, Zion or the Black is going to be long enough to make the list. Don't know anything about those 40 and 50 pitch routes in Potrero. I think the biggest walls as far as elevation gain are in Greenland but not too many have FREE routes on them, but some do.

Galactic Hitchhiker, is it still even open? with all the rock fall issues at Glacier Point.

Needless to say some ground rules need to be set before really being able to determine the longest routes.

on Mount Robie Reid in BC, Canada. The book ?? says the face it's on is 1700m (over 5500 feet) and describes the route in 37 pitches. The overall grade is 5.10a, A1+, so not entirely free, but close, and primarily 5.7 to 5.9 but hard to protect. The aid section appears to be a short portion of one pitch. The gear list says 15 pins, but that may be due to the difficult-to-protect nature of the route, or the aid, it's not clear in the description.

The descent is epic, and likely requires either hitchhiking with a pleasure boater on Alouette Lake, or arranging a boat to pick you up, since you don't end up where you started.

I would be very curious to know how many repeats this routes has seen.

JacobD wrote:The full north ridge of Mt. Stuart in Washington is 30 pitches and has AMAZING rock and a walkoff decent!

The north ridge of stuart is ~ 3000ft. The north buttress of Johannesburg starts at 3800ft and tops out at 8200ft. Mostly low fifth though with some 5.8. There are quite a few routes in the cascades longer than 3000ft but all have lots of scrambling or low fifth. There as been some stuff done in the picketts that might be more sustained and is longer. And thats not counting any of the stuff north of the boarder.

Not sure if it competes but Mongo ridge in the PNW was put up a couple years ago and has I belive over 4K of vertical rise. The FA was put up solo and I believe has not been repeated. The Soloist Wayne Wallace also put up the traverse of the pickets which is super long with Colin Haley a few years ago. I don't have the pitch counts but they are definately commiting.

FC John wrote:There has to be something in Zion or El Potrero Chico that I'm missing.

Tricks of the Trade in Zion is about 1900 feet according to what I've seen. The stuff on the Western Temple like Gettin' Mo Western is probably a little longer than that and I think that's probably the longest stuff in Zion. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think Timbertop Mesa is taller and the ridge traverses that have been done add up a little different, so...

Well, free is free. Time Wave Zero clocks in at 25 pitches I'm pretty sure, which is already one shy of Freerider at 26. It seems like the 40 pitch range is what we are looking at.

TWZ is not the longest route even in Potrero, though it is certainly the longest well-travelled trade route. There are a few others at Potrero that are much longer, that follow chossy ridges, such as the 40+ pitch 5.9 x, "Scariest Ride in the Park."

Also, I do not have direct knowledge of it, but I recall a 20 or so pitch 5.10 bolted route going up in the Cascades a few years back called "infinite bliss" or something like that.

People keep saying Freerider is 26 pitches. I guess you can link pitches to get whatever pitch count you want, but I remember it being more like 35 or 36 pitches. Its definately longer than the Salathe, thanks to lots of traversing around cruxes.

Monomaniac wrote:People keep saying Freerider is 26 pitches. I guess you can link pitches to get whatever pitch count you want, but I remember it being more like 35 or 36 pitches. Its definately longer than the Salathe, thanks to lots of traversing around cruxes.

I gathered that Freerider goes at 26 from this topo.

imglarge.mountainproject.co…

Is anything in the Bugs' 30+ pitches?

Infinite bliss is only 1700ft or so

Waynes Mongo Ridge on Fury in the picketts is 4000ft and 10a

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP09/climbing-note-combatant