Trad Climbing in Colorado only on Passive Gear

Hey everyone, first off I am very new to trad climbing and because funds are limited I am currently trying to find out if there are any easy climbs 5.8 and under in Colorado preferebly Eldo or Boulder Canyon that can be climbed safely with only passive gear. For clarification when I say passive gear I am talking about Nuts, Hexes, and Tri Cams. Oh and I know safely is a relative term too, in short I would prefer not to have 20' runouts.

Also if there is anyone out there that needs a belay slave I would love to follow and see how you place your gear and build your anchors. I'll buy the beer!!!

Historically speaking, pretty much everything at that grade and below was led for the first ascent on passive gear. Not being a funny guy, but modern day cams like we use now are only from about the late 80's on. Everything prior to that was passive, and quite a few old times STILL only lead without cams.

I'm sure if you dig or someone can provide some excellent choices, you'll find nothing but passive leads in Colorado. That's the only choices they had till relatively recently.

Good luck!

I agree with Scott: Anything can be led on passive gear only.

But for a beginner leader, most routes on the Wind Tower in Eldo would go very safely with only passive gear, me thinks.

I'm always looking for people to climb with during the week when the weather is nice. Drop me a line if you want to get out sometime M-F.

--Marc

Wind Ridge should protect very well without cams. Others I can think of would be Duh Dihedral and Washington Irving on the W. Ridge. Maybe even Ruper with some big hexes. I remember doing Ruper in 1980 with a #11 hex as my "big" piece.

Scott McMahon wrote:Historically speaking, pretty much everything at that grade and below was led for the first ascent on passive gear. Not being a funny guy, but modern day cams like we use now are only from about the late 80's on. Everything prior to that was passive, and quite a few old times STILL only lead without cams. I'm sure if you dig or someone can provide some excellent choices, you'll find nothing but passive leads in Colorado. That's the only choices they had till relatively recently. Good luck!

I like this question, I have never tried anything with passive gear only. But there seem to be plenty of routes where I "save" my cams and find myself at the top only having placed a few of them.

Wind Ridge, and some others on Wind Tower and the easy routes on whale's Tail all seem to eat up passive gear.

Top of my list though would be west face on Castle Rock in Boulder Canyon. There a bunch of lines there and variations of each line exist. I lead several at the beginning of last summer and remember using almost all my hexes, this thing had cracks that just loved hexes, caming mode, used them like tube chocks, whatever. That would be a great one. You can pitch it out in 3 shorter pitches if you want which will allow you to retain more of your gear on each pitch.

Both the riviera and happy hour crag in boulder canyon have a handful of 5.5-5.8s that could protect well with nuts. Too cold for north facing stuff, but cob rock has a few fun 5.7s that could be doable on passive stuff. Options are a bit limited this time of year, like has been mentioned above, wind ridge (5.6) or maybe calypso and reggae (5.7) would be good, sunny options.

Thats perfect!!! Thanks for the Beta! I am going to go pick up some guide books now and try out a few of these climbs you guys have suggested.

Marc I have a mon-fri job but it is very easy to get days off. Ill shoot you a PM and maybe we could work something out.

Oh and a funny story. I ran into a guy on his 76th birthday on Longs Peak last spring and all he had was passive gear so it got me thinking that it had to be possible to climb exclusivly on passive protection.

East Slab 5.6, on The Dome and Standard Route 5.7+, on Elephant Buttresses would be good options too.

Just a note on trad and early protection. Those early climbs were put up with VERY active protection - pitons! To get rid of continuing damage the nuts replaced pitons as a standard pro agent. Cams came along much later. During the years the passive (nuts) have undergone terrific improvements. 5.8 and below? Nuts away. However be sure you know good placement practices. Many of those routes have long runouts on passive pro only!
OFF-ALL (Old Farts First - Ancient Leaders League)

just make sure you get some multi-directional placements in early cause you don't want to zipper!

Thanks for the correction on the pitons. Forgot 'bout those guys. Except for when I find one on route and am SOOO happy to clip!!
Gotta love fixed (safe) gear!!

if you cant find anything closer, 11 mile canyon has good stuff for you. I moved out here in the same boat you are in and found lots of fun out there. climb safe.

second what phil said about getting in a piece that can resist a sideways and/or upward pull ASAP. other than that, the world is your oyster, now get crackin!

I know this is an old thread, but it is cold and snowy, which sparks my memory to warmer times on Mainliner, Lumpy Ridge. I think this entire route sews up just fine with nuts. I remember laughing at how frequent and amazing the placements were all the way up. May be fun to take a triple set and enjoy a fast, light ascent. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anything else would be necessary for a safe outing.

mountainproject.com/v/color…

Yeah, I remember mainliner having an abundance of great nut placements... That last pitch up the awkward v-slot might suck with just nuts though. It was pretty wide and flaring if I remember correctly.

The Owl on the Dome and a number of the standard climbs on Cob Rock and Elephant Buttresses

I have led "Classic Dihedral", on the Bucksnort Slab, in the S. Platte placing only nuts and hexes. I had cams with me though.