Granite

Granite seems to come in lots of different textures due to grain size and structure, so if anybody has any pics i'd like to see. Would be nice to see if we can come to a conclusion as to what makes for horrible granite to climb on.

To start it off i'd like to compare to samples of granite from my local area, Number 1 is incredibly sharp and goes through skin like nothing I've ever touched, number two on the other hand is relatively gentle on the skin and far more pleasant to climb on, why is this? I'm not sure number 1 is on moorland relatively high up number 2 is sea cliff granite and is heavily worn both have lots of mega crystals but number 2 has a far greater density of them.

1.

Ocean granite is usually pretty shitty. Sharp, big quartz crystals. I did find a nice sea boulder that had Yosemite-esq smoothness once though.

And really any high traffic granite turns to glass. Ex: Midnight Lightning.

Don’t take it for granite.

The stuff comes in all shapes and sizes.....
the worst is the stuff that is like pressed together gravel..... you know 80% of the stuff in Indian Cove.

Or the rot you find just emerging from the dirt, like at the base of the Needles or Whitney portal.

There is some great sandstone near Boulder that is much better than some bad granite near Colorado Springs.

The best sandstone is better than the worst granite. Or, as former Moab local Linus Platt said, "It's all choss; some of it is five-star..., but it's all choss!"

Jim Turner wrote:bad granite near Colorado Springs.

I generally find sandstone climbing more enjoyable, but granite can be excellent. Limestone is the worst.

Josh Cameron wrote: The worst granite is better than the best sandstone. That's science.

Talk to us after you've done runout 5.10 friction on crumbly granite with a surface resembling loose kitty litter.

Compare the bullet hard Nuttall sandstone in the NRG with some of the 'granite' in Little Cottonwood Canyon or Bell's Canyon (SLC, UT)

Maybe too zoomed in for your purpose but I like this image. I took it in the bugaboos. Very nice granite

Squamish granite is the best stuff I’ve been on.

Larger crystals = deeper magma pool that cooled slower allowing large crystals to form.
Smaller crystals = shallow magma that cools more quickly.
True granite = quartz+ plagioclase +feldspar+ biotite mica
We call lots of things called granite that are not technically granite depending on their mineral constituents.  Most of what we call granite is intrusive igneous rock, but many metamorphic rocks may share similar crystallization to the untrained eye.  Gneiss, pegmatite, and monzanite being examples.
Weathering, duration of exposure, mineral composition, fracture, and faulting play a huge role in weather the rock is high quality or kitty litter.
much of the 'splitter splitter' was glacially exposed and relatively recent in geologic terms.
Mica tends to break down into clay, so rocks that are high in micas will tend to be more crumbly.  Plagioclase, quartz, and feldspar are far more durable.  Feldspar are the cool pink crystals that make Tuolumne meadows such a fun place to climb.