Cottonwoods Route Advice and/or Partners 7/14-7/21

Jason Albino wrote:BBy "IME in SLC", did you mean here?: imeutah.com/contact/ If so, thanks for the tip!

That's the one.

As mentioned above, most crags in the Uintas will involve a 1.5 to 1.75 hours drive + hike. I usually run out of juice before I run out of time on day trips there.

Jason Albino wrote:(*** How would you rank the following areas if you had to?) Pentapitch, Hellgate, Crescent Crack Buttress, Coffin Buttress, Perhaps Area, Gateway Buttress, Coal Pit Buttress, Challenge Butreess, Devil's Castle (or Lone Peak if we can swing it)

Hellgate is great but isn't really LCC. Think of a mix of bomber and chossy limestone with new super well bolted sport lines and stout old-school spicy lines. Kind of a single-pitch appetizer for Devil's Castle. You can get a lot of climbing done in a short time there but it gets crowded if you go to Melting Mud. The Towers have some high quality sport lines that would get many stars in AF (example: Medussa, Deja Vu). Might as well got to AF though as you'll have many more options.

For the rest, in July, without knowing much of what you prefer and what grades you're chasing, I'd say hit Lone as a priority if you can swing it. For granite, Pentapitch and Coalpit have high quality long shaddy lines (4+ pitches), the Coffin and Perhaps area great single to 2-pitch lines. Crescent to Final Link to Coffin is the only way to make Crescent Crack worth a shit.
For quartzite, Challenge is uber popular and has some classic lines but it's packed and greasy. Better options exist in BCC for sure (depending on what grade and style you're looking for) and if that's the only thing you've scoped there I'd almost recommend ignoring the quartzite altogether.
I am no AF or Maple expert so I won't comment on those two.

Thanks Boissol!

I'm all about quality climbs at any grade, as opposed to being a grade-chaser first.

Assuming the quality is equal I definitely prefer trad multis up to 5.9/5.10a first, followed by sport routes, followed by trad singles.

(has a weird - and entirely unfounded- suspicion OP is secretly writing a comprehensive how-to guide as he is posting for advice in all areas on MP)

Unfounded :).

I have separately for all the areas that we are visiting across our road trip in the hope that folks will only take the time to read about/offer their thoughts on the areas they care about most!

Outside Corner is a three pitch 5.7 in BCC. Its fun and is in the shade early and late. Also know that LCC trad routes are old school ratings and can be pretty stiff. A good place to start/see what that is like is Becky's Corner-two pitch 5.7. If that is easy then step a few feet over and do Sweet Jane (5.7) (or the Tarzan start 5.10a), Tingey's Terror (5.7), and Tingey's Torture (5.8) if you want to keep going. They are all stacked one on top of the other. A dam long climb if you do all of the pitches. If Beckey's was way easy for you then you don't even have to move to start Satan's Corner a 2-pitch 5.8. That's probably the toughest 5.8 in LCC and will give you an real good idea of the grading.

Basically start out at the Gates parking lot as there are 80 or so climbs within 15 minutes.

Thanks for that, sounds like a plan for a starting day!

This thread is turning out to be useful for me and I live here. I highly recommend the Horns of Satan on Devil's Castle, great temps and setting. People make the trip just to hang out in Albion Basin why not do a great mixed multi-pitch while you're there?

Don't forget The Green Monster down in Rock Canyon, a great sustained handcrack definitely worth the drive (and it's only like 40 mins from LCC).