Why do people like climbing sandstone?

Alexander Stathis wrote: Glad I could help! Curling does look fun!

It's quite hard, surprisingly. Fun though.

jmmlol wrote: It's quite hard, surprisingly. Fun though.

It is fun. It is difficult. And frankly, wearing a Teflon sole on ice makes me terrified for my groin muscles.

Alexander Stathis wrote: It is my humble opinion that the New River Gorge is the best rock climbing in North America (I've never climbed on many of the other continents).

Come on now... Even as an opinion you may want to qualify this nonsense a bit, maybe best sandstone mostly sport climbing in N America? You don't even need to leave the continent: alpine granite in Yos / the Sierras / Squamish / the Bugs, limestone monsters in Potrero, sandstone trad on the Colorado Plateau, etc.

WTH does curling have to do with climbing on sandstone? STFU

jmmlol wrote:Depends on where you are. All rock can be good or bad, but limestone will always look like a 5 year old's paper mache art project.

I lol'd.

n00b wrote: It is fun. It is difficult. And frankly, wearing a Teflon sole on ice makes me terrified for my groin muscles.

I think we used some weird rubber slippers and Teflon sliders (like for furniture)that were easily removed for those exact reasons. I couldn't throw a stone without eating it.

And sweeping for 100 feet is so tiring. I had no idea...

Boissal wrote: Come on now... Even as an opinion you may want to qualify this nonsense a bit, maybe best sandstone mostly sport climbing in N America? You don't even need to leave the continent: alpine granite in Yos / the Sierras / Squamish / the Bugs, limestone monsters in Potrero, sandstone trad on the Colorado Plateau, etc.

I would have to counter and say the NRG's neighbor the RRG is the best single pitch sport destination in N-America and have to go with Red Rocks Nevada as the best overall destination with world class sport, bouldering and big wall trad in every aspect as possibly the best destination.

grog m aka Greg McKee wrote:WTH does curling have to do with climbing on sandstone? STFU

If you can't see the connection you're beyond help.

Why? Because it's there, fool.

There are a lot more rock types than limestone, sandstone, and granite that you'll have to climb on to see if they are your thing. As with all rock types, think of a batch of cookies in an oven. Sometimes you have the right proportions of component rock ingredients cooked for the right time, and in other cases you have a drunken chef that forgot the baking powder. All rock types have wide variations. Granite can be like much of what is on Pikes Peak, with large feldspar crystals that cleave with ease when you add water over time. Or it can be mostly mica and quartz, which I think yields some of the best, pure granite.

Then there's the metamophic rocks, the refried beans of geology. Some of the best granite-derived rock we have in Colorado is called meta-sedimentary rock. That's not quite sandstone and not quite granite. You erode granite peaks over many years and get depositions of granite sands, with varying layers of mica, quartz, and feldspar sands. Now fold that, mix it up, and heat it with local volcanic activity. What you end up with is partial melting of the sands and differing cooling rates that yield all sorts of chicken heads, bands of black mica, big crystal inclusions, and all sorts of other stuff in there. It can be some cool, featured rock if you find a nice outcropping of it. There's a lot of it out highway 24 towards Buena Vista. What makes this differ from gneiss, if there is a difference, I have no idea. My Roadside Geology of Colorado book doesn't get into that detail.

So don't poo poo any rock type, just make your decisions on the quality of the areas you climb in.

nothing better than bouldering on dakota sandstone

Sir Mix-A-Lot has a good piece of wisdom about why sandstone is best:
"Cause I'm long, and I'm strong, and I'm down to get the friction on"

Nickc Diaz wrote:It seems that the consensus is that CO has shitty rock. If one of you all knowing, infallible rock Gods could tell me what states are known for having the best quality climbing rock that would be wonderful.

Cirque of the Towers for the win!

https://www.mountainproject.com/v/does-anyone-actually-enjoy-limestone-climbing/111718860__1

BCarver wrote:I took it for granted at the time and cursed it's lack of friction, but hot damn that Devil's Lake quartzite is bulletproof as hell.

Yep. Never felt safer on passive pro than at the Lake, although cams...well, they're there. Nothing beats cranking on a hold that's been loose for 100 years, though!

Also lol how much people are complaining about Alex's opinion.

The best climbing in the US is in Florida.

Nick Drake wrote:The best climbing in the US is in Florida.

And the best surfing is in Colorado.

Photo Credit: Trevor Klatko

BCarver wrote:I took it for granted at the time and cursed it's lack of friction, but hot damn that Devil's Lake quartzite is bulletproof as hell.

I like how this thread has a large contingent of Devil's Lake Quartzite fans. I'm with you all, 100%

TravisK wrote: I like how this thread has a large contingent of Devil's Lake Quartzite fans. I'm with you all, 100%

It's also happy hour.......just saying