Worst climbing crag in America.

All you guys hating on North Table haven’t climbed there more than once. I think most people get tired of walking uphill on the 15 minute approach and start climbing where the trail meets the cliff.  Yeah, that part sucks...cause that’s where all you lazy ass “climbers” climb creating some of the most polished rock I’ve ever touched (which, by the way, is great for working on footwork and core tension ya fairies!)  Two of the best single pitch cracks I’ve ever climbed are at North Table. I challenge anyone to climb Silver Bullet or Bone Crusher and hate ‘em. It can be 20 degrees in Golden and for some reason that dark basalt will be 50.  It DOES smell like shit though sometimes, I’ll give you the that. 

Don Ferris III wrote: All you guys hating on North Table haven’t climbed there more than once. I think most people get tired of walking uphill on the 15 minute approach and start climbing where the trail meets the cliff.  Yeah, that part sucks...cause that’s where all you lazy ass “climbers” climb creating some of the most polished rock I’ve ever touched (which, by the way, is great for working on footwork and core tension ya fairies!)  Two of the best single pitch cracks I’ve ever climbed are at North Table. I challenge anyone to climb Silver Bullet or Bone Crusher and hate ‘em. It can be 20 degrees in Golden and for some reason that dark basalt will be 50.  It DOES smell like shit though sometimes, I’ll give you the that. 

I agree that those cracks are pretty good. Cool area to visit if you're into geology/mineralogy too.

nbrown wrote:

mineralogy

That word is surprisingly hard to say.

Adam Block wrote:

OH we one-upped it with Red Rock Canyon Open Space! All the terror, tourists and ever changing holds with no history or adventure. 

Hey man, some of us like dissolving slopers and sandstone slab whippers.

I once went down to Take-Out Beach area in Moab to get a few easy sport laps on our last day of a trip. I had to turn around and walk away. Never touched the stone. There were multiple groups of kids blasting music, tons of non-climbing teenagers lurking about on phones and complaining, a large group of school kids top rope gang-banging most of the routes. Dogs running everywhere. On my way up i had to help two girls who seem to have never seen rock before figure out how to navigate the class 4 access to the cliff on the right side. All while drones buzzed overhead, overlooking the Take-Out Beach area where an endless stream of cars are pulling in and out of the parking. People yelling from every direction. Car horns blaring.

I understand that areas like this are vital to diverting the flow of these sorts of groups away from better crags. So, it's my least favorite, but i still appreciate that it's there. The same way i appreciate Avalon and Sport Park in BoCan.

Don Ferris III wrote: All you guys hating on North Table haven’t climbed there more than once. I think most people get tired of walking uphill on the 15 minute approach and start climbing where the trail meets the cliff.  Yeah, that part sucks...cause that’s where all you lazy ass “climbers” climb creating some of the most polished rock I’ve ever touched (which, by the way, is great for working on footwork and core tension ya fairies!)  Two of the best single pitch cracks I’ve ever climbed are at North Table. I challenge anyone to climb Silver Bullet or Bone Crusher and hate ‘em. It can be 20 degrees in Golden and for some reason that dark basalt will be 50.  It DOES smell like shit though sometimes, I’ll give you the that. 

Yeah dude. Worst crag ever except for the beloved crack dumpster. Two of my fave cracks anywhere

Birdsboro Quarry PA

Matt Pennock wrote: Ive seen em all, even bad places in Asia and South America. the inner city Rocky Butte in PDX i live next to is the worst. Trash, needles, condoms, broken glass, foolhardy russian kids messing with your ropes and throwin sh-t off while you’re climbing (top access crag and high-schooler hangout), and homeless people pitching tents near the base, piles of human feces. Graffiti everywhere, chopped bolts...sewage runoff, a homemade 5:13a route with chipped holds, and a bullet hole bluff with a classic climb using bullet holes. Oh and its next to the freeway so all the noise hits it head on, cant hear your partner very well. Access Fund gave up on protecting it. We endearingly call it Rocky Butt. Lots of fun routes though!

From MP: "There are reports of lots of broken glass here, including on some of the climbing holds."

Yikes.

Whipps Ledges, OH

Funny. A partner and I are literally having a North Table vs anything else discussion for this week. I hate N Table more than anything. There are plenty of sunny crags in CCC that I’d rather hike an hour too

Rifle, unless you actually climb hard (I assume)

TJ B wrote: Funny. A partner and I are literally having a North Table vs anything else discussion for this week. I hate N Table more than anything. There are plenty of sunny crags in CCC that I’d rather hike an hour too

North Table is a terrible sport crag for the most part, but there are at least a few fun routes there.

H Lue wrote:

You shut your whore mouth. 

Just talkin' 'bout Shaft.

I'm in MN, so anything is a blessing, but Red Wing, Barns Bluff is a falling down piece of polished shit.  It is an old quarry, so all of the solid rock is gone. Every hold is polished to glass smooth, and the wall weeps with water and dirt for a couple of days after a rain.  A while back someone bolted the best crack there (still total crap) and the bolts got chopped....I laughed my ass off that there were ethics wars going on at a quarry...that had been dynamited.

Anyway, the place is a total shit-show of gumbies and dogs.

Revive the choss catalog!

I would probably say Unexpected Wall in southern Indiana because it is a bolted road cut out that had belay stances right next to a busy road. I have not climbed there so I don't know if I can speak to it.

Out of the places I have climbed, Mad River Gorge takes the cake on worst crags in America.

Thomas Worshamwrote:

I would probably say Unexpected Wall in southern Indiana because it is a bolted road cut out that had belay stances right next to a busy road. I have not climbed there so I don't know if I can speak to it.

Out of the places I have climbed, Mad River Gorge takes the cake on worst crags in America.

Context matters. In those rock-deprived regions of the Midwest, such outcrops are slices of paradise!!!

The worst climbing crag is almost certainly one of the many craglets with ~3 terrible bolted routes that some bored local developer decided (mistakenly) were worth the hardware cost. Just because it's rock and kind of steep doesn't mean you need to bolt it. Oh great, an awkward 30' tall route that's 5.4 to 5 feet of 5.11, just what I wanted. I can name spots in almost every state I've lived that qualify, but, New England, I'm looking at you.

On the other hand, some of these craglets are actually awesome so you take the good with the bad.

There's a short urban wall of limestone, in northern Vermont. There's a large pile of garbage at the bottom. I went there about 30 years ago and top roped a  route that I thought was so bad that we named it no deposit no return. For some stupid reason I returned about 20 years later to find that somebody had cleaned off some of the choss and bolted it. Somebody had a habit of bolting garbage routes whenever he broke up with a girlfriend.

Anything in Maryland.