Climbing in Golden.

I will be travelling through denver in a few weeks and was curious on the area. I have never climbed in the golden/denver area before and was hoping for some suggestions on where to climb. I can lead 5.7-5.8 and willet nly do sport or TR. Any tips on the area would be helpful!

• I personally think Clear Creek Canyon has some fantastic climbing. I would recommend Playin' Hookie and while you are over there check out The Safari!

Kevin Andresen wrote:

• I personally think Clear Creek Canyon has some fantastic climbing. I would recommend Playin' Hookie and while you are over there check out The Safari!

Thanks for the info Kevin! I have heard of clear Creek canyon and Im going to check out The Safari now.

East Colfax, Canal Zone, High wire, Catslab, other critters, safari, will all have a bunch of moderates with easy access in the canyon.

You won't find much TR. I've heard it said you can set up TR anchors from the top of North Table Mountain, but it seems sketchy to me and you'd be better off leading. If you're leading you're better off in Clear Creek. 

physnchips wrote:

You won't find much TR. I've heard it said you can set up TR anchors from the top of North Table Mountain, but it seems sketchy to me and you'd be better off leading. If you're leading you're better off in Clear Creek. 

NTM has a ton of TR opportunities.  scramble up the gully that cuts the cliffs in 2 and you're "golden" :)

curt86iroc wrote:

NTM has a ton of TR opportunities.  scramble up the gully that cuts the cliffs in 2 and you're "golden" :)

I'm curious now, especially since I was there just this weekend and thought a little about it, how do you set up the top rope anchors safely? Because there's not much at the top to tie into (in terms of trees or natural anchors), the only thing I can think of is setting up an adjacent route after back cleaning a route that was led. In other words, you go in direct to the top of the route you are cleaned, untie, thread the rope through the chains, traverse over to nearby anchor (stay on belay), clip a couple draws (or cordelette system if paranoid about draws), go in direct at new anchor, go off belay and pull rope through newly set up draws, and finally go back on belay and lower (voila toprope set up). Otherwise, with scrambles from  the top, I don't know how you'd do set up TR from top-down without a bit of soloing.

I placed a couple of pieces of pro and then anchored off them while I quickly set up the lockers on the bolted anchor chains.  Not totally necessary but I was there with my family and didn't want to take any additional risks while they were watching.  Last thing I want is to let my kids see me approaching the edge without being tied into something for fear they would mimic the behavior.

There are lots of things to anchor to at the top of NTM!  I do it all the time to top rope solo.  Lots of gear climbs at NTM, not just sport.

climbing friend,

you cannot climb front range colorado. there are too many peoplez

physnchips wrote:

You won't find much TR. I've heard it said you can set up TR anchors from the top of North Table Mountain, but it seems sketchy to me and you'd be better off leading. If you're leading you're better off in Clear Creek. 

Ok thanks. I didn't think it would have much TR but I'm fine with sport leading