Lumpy Ridge is the Best Worst Trad Climbing Area in the U.S.

That's a paraphrase of the title of this article I read this morning:

outdoorresearch.com/blog/st…

It's probably the best essay I have read about our mixed feelings about places we climb and how it can change once we get out into the larger world of better rock. I know my feelings about Lumpy's quality have changed a lot over the years. What about those of you who have gone there?

I love this line:

"In the beginning of your climbing career, you have only a tiny handful of experiences, but they are so profound that they feel like the holy testament. So you come from a markedly unobjective point of view. Of course, after years and years of climbing, you’ve amassed so many experiences under your belt that you come to think you know everything. Suddenly, you think that you are the holy testament."

I've only been once, being new to the area, and I thought it was great. In my very limited experience of it, the climb required more thought that my home crag of Red River Gorge. I remember looking up at the climb and thinking that it looked really hard, and then getting to the top and thinking it wasn't bad at all. It took thought and skill, not so much strength.

Like they said in the article, the best climber is the one that is having fun. If you're into a thinking game instead of a jug pull, then you'll love it (at least the route I did).

Have to agree, thanks for sharing

IMO best granite climbing east of Yosemite. Ya I'm partial, that's where I learned cracks. Yup you'll have to fight for 5.10. That place will get you in shape. Miss those days. Thanks for the time machine. Ye ye

I think the article really gets at something I've seen again and again because I live and climb at an area that's mostly frequented by out-of-staters (and was even illustrated by a rock & ice or climbing article about mathematically perfect road trips composed primarily of shitty after-work crags): we tend to think that because an area has a lot of climbers, it must have good climbing. This is demonstrably untrue when it comes to a lot of front range crags, but it's also untrue when it comes to Yosemite. So we get this ass-backwards reasoning that Lumpy can't be good because it isn't crowded, and few people travel to get there.

Meanwhile Wyoming is just sort of hanging out 2 hours north.

It's not that Lumpy is mediocre. Quite the opposite. It's that it doesn't have the in-your-face, culture-defining history (for good or ill) that Yosemite has.

Lumpy is one of a few Front Range crags that pass muster as worthy of a trip from out of state. We should not overlook that because it's a front range crag. Nor should we artificially elevate Big Thompson or Golden Cliffs or Castlewood or a bunch of others just because of their geographic proximity.

As someone who currently lives in Estes Park and who learned to climb in California...I can honestly say that Lumpy Ridge is one of the worst best climbing areas I've ever been to. Since the parking area is 5 minutes away, it's the greatest thing ever. But compared to Sierra granite...what a choss pile. :-)

It certainly has some of the scariest, shallowest, flaringest cracks out there. That J on J Crack? I think I got a finger tip halfway in there. No worries about falling and losing fingers, however.

^^too soon!

What the front range does offer is a diverse range of decent climbing for 3/4 of the year within an hour of a place one can find a professional job.

I have loved my time at Lumpy--despite bailing in lightning, getting ropes stuck, climbing the wrong route, and generally feeling turned around and sandbagged. It's got it all!!!

Seriously--for some out of towner perspective, Lumpy is not as well known as eldo and boulder canyon, and when I tell others I'm going there they either respond "where?" or "why?"

Not sure why it gets a bad rap, but I think "power climbs" tend to get more glam and glory than tricky techy routes anyway.

It sure beats Bayou Mountain.

Thanks Stitch, great article. I don't know or care how Lumpy compares. I think it is awesome. Like this author, I have had multiple people who have spent a lot of time in Yosemite tell me the South Platte is as good quality. Again, whatever, I love it. Another place that gets disrespected is the Flatirons, what ever, I can go there after work in the summer, climb a 5 pitch route, after a half hour beautiful hike, after a 40 minute drive, no one around. I can forget I sit in front of a computer at a desk for a living.

Rick Blair wrote:Thanks Stitch, great article. I don't know or care how Lumpy compares. I think it is awesome. Like this author, I have had multiple people who have spent a lot of time in Yosemite tell me the South Platte is as good quality. Again, whatever, I love it. Another place that gets disrespected is the Flatirons, what ever, I can go there after work in the summer, climb a 5 pitch route, after a half hour beautiful hike, after a 40 minute drive, no one around. I can forget I sit in front of a computer at a desk for a living.

+1 for the Flatiron/computer-forgetting comment - I finally did the Slab this past weekend which is a short hike from my place. I'm definitely going to visit those pitches after work more often.

"Maybe Lumpy Ridge—like everywhere, and everything—is only, and precisely, exactly what you make of it. And maybe, just maybe, that is the greatest lesson that climbing has to teach us at all."

Lumpy approaches have made me more weight conscious, only carry the bare minimum for the anticipated routes.......I've even looked into pack goats

Oh, I love the Flatirons and The Slab specifically. I used to climb routes there several times a year when I lived in Denver. I still climb the First once a year about.

I visited Sundance Buttress at Lumpy for the first time a few weeks ago and we did a little route called Cajun Capers, which was pretty fun and easy. I definitely want to go back and get on Kor's Flake now that I have seen it. It's nothing like I imagined, it's better.

Every time I drive to Lumpy, I keep driving to the park.. :)

Brian Scoggins wrote: Lumpy is one of a few Front Range crags that pass muster as worthy of a trip from out of state.

Sorry Brian I beg to differ. When you live in the southeast almost all of the Front Range crags are worth a trip from out of state in the summer. Sure Squamish or the Sierras are good summer destinations too but it's only a three and half hour direct flight from Raleigh to Colorado to escape the sweatbox.

Cor wrote:Every time I drive to Lumpy, I keep driving to the park.. :)

^^ LOL

First time plugging gear at Lumpy last weekend, and did that very link-up; Fantastic stuff!

Jacqueline Niles wrote:First time plugging gear at Lumpy last weekend, and did that very link-up; Fantastic stuff!

Oh Jackie, can't believe you were missing some of the Best Worst! :D

Hahahah- Ive been distracted!....Theres too much to climb!