What's your 'comfort climb'?

Bandito

Fingers to offwidth at 5.8 is pretty freakin hard to beat!

The Becky route in the Whitney Portal. 6 or 7 laps I basically climb it every time I’m anywhere near lone pine. Easy approach good year round (ish) and not a bad pitch to an amazing summit!

Bastille crack. I love this route and would do laps up it if I had a friend who wanted to join me.

Linkup of Freeway -> Baker's Way -> North Arete -> Freeway downclimb - I do this linkup to really get into a zen state. Love it.

East Face Center of the Front Porch - This is my favorite lunchtime romp, as it's so easily accessible and relatively infrequently climbed. It's a great way to get some fresh air and digest the events from the morning, and I can do it car to car in less than an hour.

Your mom, best top out ever.

Gunsmoke traverse in JT. Approximately 1,000,000 laps and counting...

Cathedral peak in tuolumne. If I could only climb one route for the rest of my life, this is it.

RKMwrote:

Great topic:  Depends a little on the years and where I was living.  Eastern Idaho in the 70’s was the Exum Ridge and Irene’s Arete.  Late 70’s, early 80’s living in Boulder, it was Wind Ridge, Calypso and Bastille Crack for laps.  Utah in the 90’s was The Dead Snag Tour (start and ending with Steorts) and Cresent Crack over and over.  Loved the contrast of Quartzite and Granite.  The last 15 years with a home in CIty of Rocks/Castle Rocks its been a steady diet of Zinger (actually Fruit Pie/Zinger) in Castle Rocks, and for City, the East Side of Window Rock and all of the East side of Bath Rock.  Things go downhill in difficulty every year as I age, but I’ll still have plenty of ‘comfort’ climbs left.  This movement and meditation keeps a soul so happy.

The City would be a great place for comfort climbing at an older age. I like your description of "movement and meditation", I do this about half the time now. I'll add maintenance to movement and meditation, the 3Ms!

Speaking of those Wasatch climbs, I was really getting into the Mt Olympus slabs as a morning scramble, such a nice face.

Monterey Zay wrote:

Nurdle (5.8), at Pat n Jack.

Nice. That was the first lead I did on gear that I bought instead of borrowed. 

Great thread, enjoyed reading these. loved the description of bishops terrace at sunrise.

The Steck-Salathe was the climb I was most intimidated by, took me years to work up the guts to try it, and it worked.me the first time I did. a terrible beat down with a shiver bivy on the sloping ledge above the narrows. when I got down to the valley floor the next morning I jumped in the Merced, closed my eyes, sunk under water, and experienced flashbacks of being in the flare, terrified.

But I've done it at least once every year since then, and it's become a 100% comfort climb for me now. Every pitch a joy, +/- 15 hours of peace and bliss. the approach, the climbing, even the descent, love it all and I'll never tire of it.

NEB, serenity-sons, gripper, snake dike also on the list. 

Double Cross and Toe Jam at JTNP

In Boulder:

East Slab on the Dome. So close to town, such a fun/long/easy pitch with jugs, crack, slab.. just great. I've taken a lot of beginners up this climb and I always have fun.

Back in LCC:

Jack's Slab at Cabbage Patch. I don't boulder very much but I always try to do a few laps on this when I'm in town. This was the climb where I first realized how tiny of holds you can stand up on with just friction and balance, and it really made me fall in love with that sweet sweet LCC rock.

The Coffin. One of the best pitches anywhere imo. The Crescent Crack > Final Link > Coffin linkup is hard to beat. 

One Hand Clapping at Donner Summit.

Perfect granite, fun movement, good gear, nice exposure, great view.

MIchael Plappwrote:

One Hand Clapping at Donner Summit.

Perfect granite, fun movement, good gear, nice exposure, great view.

And the perfect name for the climb.

Whiteout, RRG. Probably just because of the short approach and cool views. I like taking people up it for their first multipitch.