Chossiest routes ever?
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What's the chossiest route that you've ever climbed and did you like it? Stories please! Anything from dirty, loose, 5.13 sport limestone to alpine kitty litter! |
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The climbs in Cheyenne Canyon in Colorado Springs are uniquely shitty and chossy. The decomposing granite is some of the worst you have ever seen. The first fifty feet of pitch three of Army Route is so full of loose kitty litter, that the routes is scoured out by climbers passing over the rock. You can pull pieces off with your fingers. It's like a trough of Legos that you can pop off with the right pressure. But at least it's not covered in bird shit. For that you need to visit Garden of the Gods. |
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This was the worst... |
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Anything on Camelback Mountain in Phoenix is a top contender; it takes a large population of climbers with little alternatives to resort to bolting such blatant choss. Nearly anywhere else in the US, people wouldn't even consider climbing it. |
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Zion? If it aint choss its sand |
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Never climbed it, but have heard this is pretty damn chossy..... |
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Maybe not the chossiest routes ever, but there was a great thread on "American choss classics" some years ago: |
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The Bird. Period. |
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Climbed Dolphin Head at Moores Wall in NC today. So much dirt and lichen on it that there wasn't a hold you didn't have to brush off with your hand before you stepped and bomber cracks were too sandy to place gear. Lastly while belaying on it the leader pulled a 10-inch rock off and it landed point down and went a couple of inches into the ground. Luckily it missed me and I was wearing a helmet while belaying. |
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I am reminded of an ascent of Tarrant Buttress on Odaray Peak. |
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Not the chossiest route by any means, but has a feature called "kitty litter pillar" and it's exactly what it sounds like |
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West Ridge of Forbidden Peak in the Cascades was several thousand feet of pulling on shifting death blocks. Terrifying. And that's supposed to be one of the more solid climbs in the Cascades! I shudder to think what the non-classics are like. |
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I've never done it but I've read that the north face of Mount Morrison is extremely loose. Possibly why one route is called the Death Couloir? |
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Smith Rock - welded tuff. Fossil Rock - poorly welded tuff. Pinto Rock - barely welded tuff. From pictures I suspect Coethedral just as bad as Pinto Rock. |
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Colorado. |
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Its in the canadian rockies for sure! I love the rockies but there be some choss! Climbing loose rock is an art form |
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Ty Gilroy wrote: Its in the canadian rockies for sure! I love the rockies but there be some choss! Climbing loose rock is an art form This. We did the East Ridge of My. Whyte and it felt like climbing unmortared bricks the entire way up. Also total sandbag, gotta love the 5.10 section on a 5.6 rated route. https://www.summitpost.org/east-ridge-perren-route/538512 |
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Artem Vasilyev wrote:...scree piles caked together with dried mud - standard for Oregon volcanoes... True and I could add my own Cascades nightmares (rockfall on Thielsen sent me to the ER), but I expect they would pale in comparison to the sketch-fests of the Canadian Rockies and desert SW |
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all "routes" at Birdsboro. total chosshole. |
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https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105759645/civic-minded
Same rock as Rotwand Wall, but without the view in Eldo. When handholds crumble in your hands as you touch them, that's indicative of chossaneering. A bomb route if ever there was one. The bummer is that it actually looks pretty good from 100 feet away. Don't sneeze or the arch might fall on you, haha! |
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YOLOLZ Bicarbonate wrote: I've never done it but I've read that the north face of Mount Morrison is extremely loose. Possibly why one route is called the Death Couloir? Super ominous is the right description for Black Kaweah--that N face directly below and to the right of the summit strikes me as probably very dangerous (also the SE face, which you can't see in that picture). Secor gives some good attention to the Kaweahs in general, but mentions nothing at all on the N side of the Black, at least in my (first) edition. It's a haul to get in there too, as you say. A similar thing is the NW face of Mt. Goddard. |





