Looking for OW in the Front Range

Planning a trip to the big stone in April, and hoping to get on the Salathe. I'd like to get in as much mileage as possible on OW before then so I'm looking to the good people of MP for suggestions. I'm in Broomfield and my partner is in Golden so really anything in the front range will work. I'm aware that my training season is during the height of raptor closures which may make some options inaccessible. It is also winter so anything at higher elevation is probably also a no go. Is veaduvoo too cold this time of year? If you know of routes that are similar to some of the harder OW pitches (the Ear, Hollow Flake, Monster OW, etc) those would be the best thing, but really anything that will build my tolerance for pain and suffering will work.

Thank you in advance for reading and for any suggestions you have!

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/106729991/tuesday-night-offwidth-2010-stack-til-you-yack-tour 

If you’re willing to peruse a bit further south, there’s a bunch in the Whiskey Rocks/Big Cat Sanctuary area - and you could always hop on Don’t Fear The Boogie Man on Cyn Pin before the raptor closure in March 

Damn Cory that is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

And Tal, I've been wanting to make another trip down to Cyn Pin anyway so that's just some more motivation. Thank you!

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106458861/for-turkeys-only

Are you planning in freeing these pitches or aiding? The monster has a reputation for being particularly brutal and pretty much none of the currently accesible climbs listed here will prepare you for it (Maybe doing Bishop Offwidth in one pitch and a few laps on Tiger King). I would recommend a desert trip hitting all the harder 11 to 11+ desert OW you can, including The Mayor (overhanging tipped out 6s) and Lobotomy among some others.

T Dwrote:

Lobotomy among some others.

Lobotomy for the fitness!

T Dwrote:

Are you planning in freeing these pitches or aiding? The monster has a reputation for being particularly brutal and pretty much none of the currently accesible climbs listed here will prepare you for it

We will be freeing the Ear, Hollow, Half Dollar, not much choice on those. There's an aidable alternate to the right of the Monster that we may take depending on how its going. Getting in some practice on something similar to the Monster ahead of time would help to inform whether it's even feasible for us to try it. You know what size the Monster is? Is it pretty consistent size the whole way?

Thanks for your reply!

Crack of Fear will fit the bill. 10D, tipped #6 and #7 on the crux...rumor is that it's harder than the monster. Lumpy ridge rock is vaguely similar to Yosemite too, smoother than South Platte or Vedauwoo.

Sam Chalkleywrote:

Crack of Fear will fit the bill. 10D, tipped #6 and #7 on the crux...rumor is that it's harder than the monster. Lumpy ridge rock is vaguely similar to Yosemite too, smoother than South Platte or Vedauwoo.

CoF isn't exactly in season right now.

Tigers tooth, wolfs tooth, COF, twister, peaches would be a good progression at lumpy, but closures are soon. Crux on COF is really short, i seriously doubt it is harder than monster.

Maelstrom and bishop ow are probably a good starting point for monster. Maelstrom in particular is probably your best bet overall as it is long and fairly sustained. Closures are a month later than other areas iirc.

Vedauwoo is too cold right now but the torpedo tubes, maxilash, big pink, etc would also be a good start.

Turkey has good easier wide on numerous routes that would be helpful towards the easier wide stuff, but the rock has more holds and a lot more friction.

Another couple that would be good practice are harvey's route and the carter route on the lower right flank of scorpio dome.

Boulder canyon, umph slot, super squeeze, and coffin crack would be good for short days.

Thank you everyone for the replies! 

Any recommendations for hollow flake size thats not 100 ft runout?

Tyler,  absolutely. Although Sunday looks like it would be manageable, who knows, maybe the extra layers would help to stay in that thing ;)  

To add to the Platte list, there is a south facing 10 at chair rocks that is splitter #6 the whole way up (not on this site -- but in Haas's book), that might be another good option for colder days (no raptor closure)

Slim -- for the Maelstrom, would the #7/#8 help? or just get in the way while chimneying? 

Sam Chalkleywrote:

Tyler,  absolutely. Although Sunday looks like it would be manageable, who knows, maybe the extra layers would help to stay in that thing ;)  

To add to the Platte list, there is a south facing 10 at chair rocks that is splitter #6 the whole way up (not on this site -- but in Haas's book), that might be another good option for colder days (no raptor closure)

Slim -- for the Maelstrom, Would the #7/#8 help? or just get in the way while chimneying? 

I didn’t have anything bigger than a a 6 on the maelstrom, can’t remember whether I was worried or not, it was a while ago.

By Gully on Castle Rock is the most horrendous 5.9 that has ever existed. Proper respect to Royal Robbins and Pat Ament. I almost puked on toprope, hated every second of the entire experience and came down so crushed I was done for the day. In other words: Offwidth climbing. Looking back it was super fun and you should totally get on it! 

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105760530/by-gully

By gulley. That was the other one i was thinking of. A couple more good ones in boulder canon might be crack of despair and the gates of eden.

For maelstrom i had cams up to a 6 and 1 each green and blue big bros. I seem to remember a purple tcu or something like that was helpful near the top.

Another good platte spot is asshole rock. There are several good widish cracks in the 9 to upper 10 range there.