Why can't I find the good bouldering in CO?

I promise this isn't a troll - it's a serious question, that's been driving me nuts. No matter what I do, I can't seem to find a place that gets me excited to boulder outdoors, and I've been living in CO for half a year now.

My problem is that I spend a lot of effort and time getting somewhere to boulder, and there ends up only being a handful of climbs in that location - the guidebooks end up being pretty vague, and I find a couple of warmups, and maybe one or two problems that are challenging but doable for me.

It seems like this is true of everywhere I've gone - get to one spot, see three problems, only one of which is appealing, climb that, then spend tons of time getting to the next spot, whether by driving or hiking. I spend all my time looking for boulders that actually interest me, and almost no time actually climbing.

Maybe I'm spoiled - few people think of the southeast as bouldering mecca, but I'm used to LRC, Rocktown, Boat Rock, and HP40 - places where you've got hundreds of boulder problems close together, and can walk around jumping on anything and everything for hours at a time. Climb V5? Great - there are 50 V5s. By comparison, everything in Colorado seems so spread out and difficult to locate that it barely seems worth the effort for a climber of moderate problems such as myself.

WTF am I doing wrong here? I've tried Sanitas, RMNP, Boulder Canyon, Eldo, and who knows what else - the only place I've found where I actually found more than one or two problems that interested me, before I got pissed off at the long hikes and spread out climbing, was at Three Sisters, and that's hardly one of the "big name" destinations.

Everything I heard before moving here was that Colorado is a world class bouldering destination. While that might be true for a V15 climber looking to project insane stuff up in chaos canyon, it's just not feeling like the case to me. I never thought I'd miss the rednecks and PBR cans of Alabama, but I'm starting to.

I know there has to be good bouldering to be had here - what can I do to actually enjoy it???

Carter Lake has alot of great bouldering in close proximity...Horsetooth is ok too (I like carter better). I just got back from Redcliff which has alot of really nice granite bouldering with small walks in between with LOTS in the 3-5 range. The Dragon's Den and the Lion's Den in the Lyons/Estes area are pretty decent as well.

Camp Dick I haven't been to yet but I hear ok things. Next boudering visit on my list when my tendonitis will let me is the Splatte.

vedauwoo probably has the best bouldering in colorado. i hear you though, i have a hard time getting psyched about bouldering around here. it's pretty tough to find the ideal boulder problem, much less field full of about 100 of them. for me it's usually the landings, but i also have a hard time finding the optimal difficulty (ie not too easy, not too hard).

kind of reminds me of a story about 3 bears, a mama bear, a papa bear, and a baby bear.....

slim wrote:kind of reminds me of a story about 3 bears, a mama bear, a papa bear, and a baby bear.....

Sounds like someone wants to eat Goldilocks.

Try Durango. Three areas within 5 minutes of town (Turtle Lake, Boxcar, and Sailing Hawks). Good stuff in all the grades. The guide book for the area is good to. Durango Bouldering

Camp dick is good, but the boulders are certainly not close.

I really enjoy 3 sisters too. I think for what your looking for it's the best place for sure.

I have to say the bouldering at 3 Sisters is quite good & the approaches are minimal and flat, so I'm not sure which areas you were talking about there?? But I would encourage you to check out Mt Evans and Chaos (again?) Both are the epitome of excellent boulder problems in beautiful settings & if you have the time to explore a little there's some good moderate problems around! (that's my 2 cents! ;)

Firstly, Vedauwoo is in WY. The Lion's Den is Awesome and as the gentleman said the Kluttergarden in Red Cliff is good too. It all comes down to where you live in CO. I lived in Lyons for a while and spent a lot of time @ the Lion's Den. Now I am in Avon so I go out to Wolcott and Red Cliff a bit. It's there bro, where ever you are you can find a place to get your fix. Be patient and keep exploring.

slim wrote:vedauwoo probably has the best bouldering in colorado. i hear you though, i have a hard time getting psyched about bouldering around here. it's pretty tough to find the ideal boulder problem, much less field full of about 100 of them. for me it's usually the landings, but i also have a hard time finding the optimal difficulty (ie not too easy, not too hard). kind of reminds me of a story about 3 bears, a mama bear, a papa bear, and a baby bear.....

Vedawoo Colorado??? Well since we are expanding the search, Big Bend Utah is prettykiller for the winter months.

This is why gyms are so popular around Boulder. That said, if you want to remedy the situation somewhat, here are a few suggestions:

1. You should probably aim higher grade-wise. Locals tend to focus on projecting outside and training and laps inside. Spend time outside at one specific area and don't hop around.

2. There is far more moderate bouldering in RMNP than the hype would lead you to believe. All you have to do is explore and climb what looks good.

3. The area with the highest density of problems around Boulder, while not everyone's first choice, is probably Flagstaff Mountain. You can get a lot of climbing done there in one visit. Carter works also. Further north, the 420s in the Poudre have a pretty good density of problems. South, people seem to think Castlewood is worth a trip.

4. A new and better guidebook is in the works from Sharp End

SOUTH CO BLDRING RULES! Check out the following:

Palmer Park Boulders
Ute Pass Boulders
Newland Creek Boulders

Carter Lake has more of what I think you are looking for. Though most of it gets to be a little HBish in my book.

When I first started bouldering in the area I found that I was clueless about an area until someone who know the problems gave me a tour. I really like Flagstaff and Morrison quite a bit.

Prod.

vedauwoo is a LEETLE bit closer to the front range than durango or gunnison. kind of tongue in cheek, similar to indian creek being the best colorado crag.

as far as eating goldilocks, well, can't put one by you, can we Calirado ;)

Kbird wrote:I have to say the bouldering at 3 Sisters is quite good & the approaches are minimal and flat, so I'm not sure which areas you were talking about there??

I guess I phrased it poorly - what I was trying to say was that 3 sisters was the "best" area I've been to, as far as fitting my tastes in variety of problems and keeping me interested in climbing.

Peter Beal wrote: 4. A new and better guidebook is in the works from Sharp End

That's great to hear - I lived by the Dr. Topo guidebooks in the southeast, and usually had a stack of various comp guides available too. I don't want to make any judgements, but I've found the falcon bouldering colorado guidebook to be tough to follow sometimes. Another alternative in guidebooks is always a good thing to have!

To everyone else - thanks for all the tips. I will have to check out some of those other places. I was cracking up at the "vedauwoo is the best bouldering in CO" comment.

Duh...forgot about Morrison. Thanks Prod.

There are zones in Castlewood where there's enough bouldering to stay put, get on several problems (including warm-ups) and get a full-on session. Still more areas where you several spots less than 100 meter's apart. As for the sea of boulders you are used to, remember our mountains have not eroded into piles of rubble yet like where you are from. Come back in a couple 100 million years or so.
Andy Librande's Map

Here's something else to consider:
Click on Destinations, then the Colorado page. Scroll down to where all of Colorado's classic routes are listed, and #1 on the list, Colorado's best route, is at CWC. I am not kidding.

JamesD wrote: Maybe I'm spoiled - few people think of the southeast as bouldering mecca, but I'm used to LRC, Rocktown, Boat Rock, and HP40 -

This is your problem right here. You are spoiled! The SE is soooo good, that any normal rock looks like choss in comparison, then throw in the fact that anything in chosslorado looks like choss compared to normal rock, and you have choss-squared. Look on the bright side -- in CO you can climb more than 3 months out of the year. Yeah, the rock isn't so good and you have to hike a long way between problems, but it's better than sitting under your A/C and still sweating your balls off while you watch reruns of the Dukes of Hazard.

Newlin Creek.

Mike Lane wrote:As for the sea of boulders you are used to, remember our mountains have not eroded into piles of rubble yet like where you are from. Come back in a couple 100 million years or so.

Do you have any idea what you're talking about?

This is the correct response:

Mike Anderson wrote: The SE is soooo good, that any normal rock looks like choss in comparison, then throw in the fact that anything in chosslorado looks like choss compared to normal rock, and you have choss-squared. Look on the bright side -- in CO you can climb more than 3 months out of the year. Yeah, the rock isn't so good and you have to hike a long way between problems, but it's better than sitting under your A/C and still sweating your balls off while you watch reruns of the Dukes of Hazard.

Hey JamesD-

I spent way too long trying to find areas when I was first starting out, a lot of it is because the guidebooks for Colorado bouldering are decent at listing problems but horrible for listing directions. Also my favorite guidebook, Colorado Bouldering 2, is no longer in print but if you can try to find a copy of that one.

Also a lot of the easy-moderate stuff is not documented in many of the guidebooks so it seems like a lot of areas are spread out, but in reality there are abundant amounts of climbs on boulders everywhere.

Three Sisters is a prime example, I think there are only 5-15 problems listed in any guidebook (if that) and if it wasn't for the work of Luke Childers and company no one would know about the other ~265+ problems in the park.

So yeah unfortunately the glaciers spread our boulders far apart but try to enjoy the natural settings as you hike from area to area.

A few other places to potentially check out:
- Millennium Boulder/Matthew Winters Park (once the heat cools down

- Fountaine Bleau Area at Castlewood (once the heat cools down)

- Lots of other places ppl have already listed.

Mike Anderson wrote: This is your problem right here. You are spoiled! The SE is soooo good, that any normal rock looks like choss in comparison, then throw in the fact that anything in chosslorado looks like choss compared to normal rock, and you have choss-squared. Look on the bright side -- in CO you can climb more than 3 months out of the year. Yeah, the rock isn't so good and you have to hike a long way between problems, but it's better than sitting under your A/C and still sweating your balls off while you watch reruns of the Dukes of Hazard.

This is correct. Plus, next time you fly back to the Southeast to climb on your native sandstone, you can tell everyone you are from Colorado! This is why most folks move there in the first place.