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Front Range essential sport climbs
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Help make a list of essential sport climbs at each grade
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Bumping, cool idea! |
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Fun idea! This should keep ya busy for a while... 5.9 Made in the Shade (9), Canal Zone, CCC The Young and the Rackless (9, 4p), Blob Rock, BoCan Lunchmoney (9+), Lower Capitalist Crag, CCC Edge of Time (9+), Jurassic Park, Estes Park 5.10 Persistent Vegetative State (10a), Little Eiger, CCC Mr. Sandman (10a), Plotinus Wall, BoCan The Scepter (10a), Palace, Poudre Canyon Bush Administration (10b/c), Little Eiger, CCC Lust (10c), Avalon, BoCan Batso Canal (10c), Canal Zone, CCC The Nordwand (10c, p1 only), Little Eiger, CCC Sunset Arete (10d), Winterfest Wall, North Table Mtn Tabula Rasa (10d), Monastery, Estes Park 5.11 Aretnophobia (11a), Canal Zone, CCC Reefer Madness (11a), Wall of the 90s, CCC Free Willie (11a), Animal World, BoCan Wild Child (11a, 4p), Mission Wall, CCC Curvaceous (11b), Wall of the 90s, CCC The Scientist (11b), Plotinus Wall, BC Jonny Rotten (11b), Punk Rock, CCC Night Stick (11b), Left Wire, CCC Walking with a Ghost (11b/c), Canal Zone, CCC Animal Magnetism (11c), Animal World, BoCan Crash Test Blondes (11c), Upper Security Risk, BoCan Spinal Tap (11d), Graveyard, CCC Eiger Direct (11d), Little Eiger, CCC Elanor (11d), Easter Rock, BoCan 5.12 Dia de los Muertos (12a), Graveyard, CC Wet Dream (12a), Wall of the 90s, CCC Days of Future Passed (12a), Animal World, BoCan Hot Flyer (12a), Upper Security Risk, BoCan Convicted Felon (12b), Monkey House, CCC Lucky Strikes (12b), Plotinus Wall, BoCan --Note, this is where I top out so hopefully some stronger folks can fill in the gaps-- Ten Digit Dialing (12c), Wall of the 90s, CCC Power Bulge (12c), Hand, Flatirons Your Mother (12d), Bastille, Eldo 5.13 Buster Brown (13a), Dude's Throne, Golden Gate State Park Sonic Youth (13a), New River Wall, CCC Lucid Dreaming (13a), Plotinus Wall, BoCan $00pr kr33m (13a), Slab, Flatirons 5.14 Hellcat (14a), Wall of the 90s, CCC |
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Not to be a downer but this idea breaks down on the Front Range compared to the Red. In the Red everything is very similar in style, so a big sequential list works. You wouldn't be caught dead saying you haven't climbed "Generic Jug Haul #35" from the list there. |
Shay Subramanianwrote: Nothing from the dungeon?? |
Luigi Mwrote: Haha haven't been there yet, missing out! Agree with Adam to an extent, it would make way more sense to have a list per area (CCC, BoCan, Flatirons, Eldo) instead of for the entire FR. I'd stand behind my picks as the standard classics post-work-able from Denver/Boulder/Golden (minus Staunton). Certainly wouldn't recommend it for someone out-of-town, but probably nice for someone who just moved to the area! Honestly just a fun exercise to look back on some of my favs over the years. |
Adam blocwrote: I considered asking for people to break it down by style, like essential technical climbing routes, essential overhang progression routes. I mean this isn’t supposed to be the definitive best climbs list. I think what I’d really want is a genre category in the classics lists, like start here and progress through this list to get better at technical climbing. |
Shay Subramanianwrote: This is great, thanks |
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DJ, it seems like you’re still not fully grasping what Adam is saying. When there’s over 10000 routes within after-work climbing distance from Denver, it’s not really possible nor meaningful to narrow down lists in anything except the most niche of categories (e.g. “highball slab boulders”). You could do a list like this for each major climbing area (clear creek, BoCan, Eldo, flatirons, etc) and most guidebooks already do. A list of “classic 5.9 technical face climbs in the front range” could easily be 50+ routes long, and that’s just one grade and style. You’d have to bring it down to “classic 5.9 bolt protected technical face climbs within an hour of movement golden with an approach less than 25 minutes” to be able to get a list of a reasonable length |
Tal Mwrote: It's a hell of a problem to have |
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The above list is a little heavy on CCC if you ask me! |
Ryan Moserwrote: To further illustrate Tal and Adam's point, this is based on my personal experience being a 9-5er in Denver...so I climb CCC a lot :) If you have other ideas drop em in the chat, I'd love to climb them! |
Shay Subramanianwrote: I have nothing against CCC, climb there all the time. Some personal favorites in other local areas are Unshackled 10d, Ddong Chim 11b, Animal Magnetism 11c, Light My Fire 12a, Empire of the Fenceless 12a |
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Upside the Cranium in South St Vrain gotta be one of the best 5.10 sport routes in the front range |
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An easier to curate collection (and CO's answer to the RRG's overhanging sport ladders) would be a list of essential front range sport multipitch routes/formations: - Fractured Fairytales (5.7) on Sheeprock - Black Gold/Playin Hooky (5.7/8+) in CCC - The Young and the Rackless (5.9) in BoCan - Royal Flush (5.9) in Frisco/Mt. Royal - Return of the King/Once & Future King/White Raven (5.8/10-/11-) at Wizards Gate - Knossos/Riders in the Sky (5.9+/10) on Sheeprock - Gneiss Route/Wild Child (5.10/11-) in CCC - Broadmoor/Brown Palace (5.10/11-) in Big Thompson Canyon - Time Stands Still/Time Warp/Revelation Route (5.10/10+/11-) on Devils Head - Divination/Earth Voyage (5.11/12-) in Upper Dream Canyon - Nearer To Thee/WoW (5.11/12) in Empire - Dharma Punks (5.11+) in BoCan - Solid Gold (5.12-) in CCC Any notable omissions? Any you'd take off? I never climb 11+ multis so I'm sure I'm missing some harder ones - these are just the ones I've been saving for someday. I think Zephyr (5.10/11-) on the Halidome will eventually be on the list but it's a bit too new to jump to the front of the line. The Tao (BV) and Transformation (Monitor Rock) would be the next additions heading west but I had to cut off the 'front range' list somewhere, so I picked 90 mins from Denver even if that technically excludes some far southern/northern routes and includes some non-front-range climbs. |
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Dungeon and Mt Royal are in the "Front Range?" Hmm, then Rifle is as well?! Or is that pushing things too far? I'd add "Tracks are for Kids", a seldom-done really cool 10b (sandbag) in the Flatirons. Virtually everything in the Tan Corridor and the Dungeon are amazing. For BoCan, Empire of the Fenceless and Vasodilator. At Dude's, Open Space Cowboy and Buster Brown are pretty popular (the former being hard for the grade, and the latter allegedly soft). Redneck Hero up at Button Rock... amazing route, questionable rock. Crystal Ball at Haus (hard for 12b, and not really Front Range). Slap Happy at N Table (the whole place sucks, but this is the best route probably, soft 12a). Anarchitect (12d) at Anarchy Wall in CCC (I love Power Trip, but it's kinda short). Crystal Tower in CCC, sandbagged but cool. Portrait in Flesh (14a) is supposed to be good as well. Damn, just thinking about all these routes has me psyched... stuck in the OC (Cali) right now for work. Sigh... |
MattHwrote: The Maiden in the Flatirons has a number of highly rated 5.12/13 sport multipitches. A number of other formations also have sport multipitch classics (north face of seal, the matron) |
John RBwrote: The front range is from the foothills to the continental divide from Pueblo to Casper |
Tal Mwrote: This is a weird oversimplification and feels generally inaccurate. The Front Range is a mountain range. And sometimes also a name for an urban corridor. It includes parts of the continental divide, but your statement makes it sound like it's everything up to the divide between those cities. But the continental divide west of Colorado Springs is not the Front Range. It's the Sawatch Range. Royal Flush is on Mt. Royal which is part of the Ten Mile Range (or Mosquito Range, depending on how you slice it). Also West of the continental divide. |
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Either way you slice it, anything west of the divide is not the “front range”. Dungeon is front range, Royal Flush is not |
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Jeeze people. So much pedantry. Suggestions to move this thread forward, because it could have potential: *Day trip range qualifies. Shelf Road, Thunder Ridge, Mt. Roybal in. Penetente, Rifle out. *For clarity, maybe limit it to 10 routes *If you're going to quote another post, you can edit the quote so we aren't scrolling forever. *Stop being so pedantic |
