Most Unique Pitches in the Front Range?

I hate you guys

Sorry to clutter up a really good thread Tal.  You have people posting good stuff.  I thought eot was a good addition to the list, and a decent climb.  Even if easy and popular.  Hopefully these guys start adding to the thread with unique climbs.

Great thread.

I'll second the first pitch of Rosy Crucifixion and the traverse pitch of Turf Spreader. Not as popular are the chimney and exit pitches of the Black Dagger on the Diamond. Also, but not on the Front Range, are a couple of the pitches of Blackjack in the Black Canyon which have golf ball-sized mica clasts (may have warn down due to climber traffic?) that you use for face holds and stem too - unique and unforgettable in a different way... .. .

Edit to add Bad Ju-Ju.

The third pitch on Cozy Hang is 5.10?

I thought the roof pitch on Sykes Sickle was easy once I fell off and got back on.

There is a third pitch option for Cozyhang that goes at 5.10, sort of a steep, short hand crack. The original route goes up a v-slot they call 5.7... but (as I have said before) it feels like 5.10 the first time you do it. It's only 5.7 after about your third time up it.  

Second the 5.12 walking pitch of human experiment, also the insane chimney exit on Black dagger. Also second velvet Elvis on the east ironing board, very interesting cobblestone traversing. Finally Black canyon not really the front range but the womb fight is pretty damn special!

Adam blocwrote:

I’ll bite! Things that have left indelible impressions on me, either watching or doing:

The Beak at Castlewood, a 5.11 move in every style

The all out crux boulder on Starlight.

In the flatties: The sustained 5.12 walking section on The Human Experiment, west overhang’s puckery traverse next to the insane flying toehook crux on Maiden Time; the 60 foot long “tufa” on the Walrus

The Inside Passage is peak flatiron shenanigans

The downwards handjam roof on Uncle Sam’s Jam at Sunshine Wall, although the Abattoir roof looks better!

Flying Beast and Archangel in Bocan

I think New Horizons and Old Yellar are pretty wild just for even existing on granite in Chossorado

The last pitch of Kingfisher and the Sarchasm Arete in the park, maybe the 360 chimney crux of Sykes too but the choss getting there really blows.

hell of a list here. very much second Archangel - one of the most striking lines in the area in my opinion, and my beta for the crux was some of the strangest movement I've ever done on a route.

For other BoCan options, the crux of the good the bad and the jacked is quite unique movement-wise. Sinopia has some very gymnastic movement and unique features for an outdoor route. The final one I'll list is Earth Angel. Big old hanging arete that calls out to be climbed when you see it from the road. 

The womb fight on MSV in the Black

velvet elvis

Ellingwood Chimney on the Bishop.

Maybe Naked Edge’s bombay chimney?

Just a couple that I thought of.

The Guillotine in Lumpy Ridge - the bizarre pitch tunneling into the Guillotine is pretty memorable.

We have some very unique ice in CO. Silk Road is like nothing else I've ever seen or done. A bit of slab climbing with crampons on. Super thin ice climbing with Flatirons rock as the back drop. Mouse-ka-tears is another one on Mickey Mouse Wall. One pitch of steep ice surrounded by beautiful Fountain sandstone. Then a finish with a crampon or two placed on the same rock that is so familiar to us Eldo lovers. Awesome route with a very unique winter approach. 

I once did Alexander's Chimney and followed the second pitch when it was an ice hose that was no more than 1 1/2-2 feet wide. Placing tools, one directly above the other in good thin ice for many consecutive placements, while stemming both feet on rock. It felt like super alpinism climbing that pitch. 

And I remember a route on the N. Face of Quandary Peak called Claim Jumper (I think) that had one of the most unique pitches I can remember. Climbing up a corner filled with ice, and then a very unlikely rightward mixed traverse front pointing in turf, with nothing for the tools. And then a few moves on extremely thin and run out ice, but fortunately the angle is not steep and so with a light touch, just enough ice to finish the pitch. Those kind of pitches amaze me, because it's almost as if some higher being designed it to have just enough of what is needed to climb. So unlikely!

And I think the Ames Ice Hose is pretty unique for being such a long continuous flow that is so skinny for most of its length. When in, that second pitch is one of the best and most unique thin pitches around.

For rock, the peg traverse on the Scenic Cruise is pretty exciting and unique. 

And if you think of it as a mile-plus pitch, the Little Bear to Blanca Traverse is extraordinary and unique. I remember holding on to the ridge handtraversing with a bunch of air under my ass, and looking down the other side to hundreds of feet of exposure.

I guess I didn't limit myself to the Front Range either.

Central Corner on Mt. Skinner in the Splatte is super aesthetic. Corner climb that exits through a series of undercling roofs all at 10.a on perfect gear.

One of the most unique scrambles in the Front Range is probably the Southeast Chimney of Jamcrack Spire.
Having done literally every route in the Roach book, most of them a few times or more, I'd say this one is pretty unique:
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106952356/southeast-chimney

Certainly not a winter route though - you have to get on it between August and Nov.

P2 traverse on The Great Escape in the black is very memorable, shuffling up a thinning ledge over a huge roof with the only handholds/gear at your feet

Appreciate the responses everyone! I’ll throw one of my own here, and the route that inspired this thread. A new line in the South Platte we equipped ground-up (not sure how else you could do something that traverses this much) - offwidth, laybacks, kneebars, jamming, stemming, face climbing, slabbing, and a lot of getting full on swallowed by a chimney with a 115’ runtime. Unfortunately the weather and schedules haven’t allowed us to get back there to send it clean nor to finish establishing the “outtie” variation that will hopefully be a far easier, though lower quality version of LCC’s Slayer. Hopefully the area will be visitable by April.

There should be an equally wild but much shorter second pitch to it as well

Bishop crack I think is unique for Colorado cause it’s actually quite good 

Maybe not the most unique routes, but some of the most memorable:

- Road Warrior on the Black Wall: An offwidth splitter at altitude

- Bullet the Blue Sky at Penitente: Stunning arete.  Not on the FRange, but worth the drive.

- Equinox on the Sunshine Wall: Classic sandbag that is awkward yet awesome

- The Example at Shelf: My vote for sharpest route in Colorado!  I have vivid memories of a pocket shaped like a pair of scissors.

- Reptile at Thunder: The gator skin is so good.

- Childhood's End on Big Rock Candy Mountain: 12 pitches of excellent runout slab climbing.

- Shining Path on Sunshine Dome: You'll never forget climbing past that titon(?) thing on P1.

What about Chockstone? I think it has to have one of the weirdest fixed anchors I’ve ever had to reach. 

Montywrote:

- Shining Path on Sunshine Dome: You'll never forget climbing past that titon(?) thing on P1.

I think the Titon unfortunately fell out :’( - though apparently now offers a tricam placement?