Favorite Red Rocks routes!

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Rob

 
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Favorite Red Rocks routes!

by Rob » Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:04 am

Prime season for Red Rocks!


Some of my all time favorite routes:

Running Man 5.11 A classic single pitch climb. Lots of sport climbs in the area, but this ain't one of 'em :wink:

Red Rocks climbing tip #1) Any route with the name Paul Van Betten, Sal Mumusia, or Mike Ward in the first ascent credits, will probably be a serious lead. These guys were some of the areas pioneers, and had a penchant for putting up bold climbs. And they picked some of Red Rock best cherries. 8)

Red Rocks climbing tip #2) Any route put up by Jorge & Joan Uriostie will have very good protection, and the climbing will be easy (for the grade). Thankfully they put up tons of the classics, so we can all lead those ones :D Thanks Jorge! Really, I mean it.

Red Heat 5.10 another good one.

Sport routes: Sonic Youth 5.11c
When the Cats away 5.11b, on the Holiday Wall. There's some good stuff around there, and nice and sunny on cold days!

Willow Springs:
Little Big Horn 5.8 Excellent rock around here...like Black Velvet.
Grippitty Gravity 5.10 alright route..I like the name though :)
Sheep Trail 5.10a ***** FA: John Bachar, Mike Lechlinski, Rishard Harrison Excellent route! But eat your Wheaties and suck it up buttercup, this ain't no sport climb :D

Pine Creek Canyon:
Dark Shadows 5.8 One of the best of the best.
Juniper Canyon:
The Nightcrawler 5.10 Fun route up a huge corner on great rock, plus it has a nice long approach! Yea! Oh, and a compelling view of the Rainbow Wall...someday, someday.

Crimson Chrysalis 5.9 Ok, route, nice and long, good location, a bit overrated though IMO. Nevr got on Cloud Tower, supposed to be really good.

Oak Creek:

Rainbow Buttress 5.8 I liked this one alot. Pleasantly easy climbing on a nice long route with a long approach, and and even longer decent. A full day for sure :D

Black Velvet Canyon: Not a bad route in there, if you ask me. Some all time favs would be...

Frogland 5.8************* mega stars One of the best 5.8's anywhere!

Ixtalan 5.11 3 classic pitches of varied technique. Kinda hard too 8)

Epinephrine 5.9 A pretty good one, to say the least, hehe.

Did I miss any? Tons..I know!

Have you done any of these? Anyone else done Ixtalan? Mazatlan? Triassic Sands?

Got any Favorites?

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The Chief

 
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by The Chief » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:09 am

- SGT. SLAUGHTER

- CRAZY WORLD

- PRINCE OF D

- FID ON THE ROOF

- YELLOW BRICK RD

- DOWT

- REFRIED BRAINS

- ROCK WARRIOR

- T-SANDS

- SOUR MASH

- MAZATLAN

- L 29

- EAGLE DANCE

- BUFFALO WALL

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rpc

 
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by rpc » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:27 pm

think i'd have to dig deep to recall a RR route i did not enjoy. Two that haven't been mentioned here but I thought were high quality, La Cierta Edad & Inti Watana...the former for the climbing & the latter for the setting.

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CClaude

 
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by CClaude » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:32 pm

Personally, I think the routes are ok.... not a huge fan of RR.

Rainbow Wall Original Route I thought was ok.... maybe I'm jaded since everyone told me its this amazing route and when I got onto it, I was seriously let down.

Cloud Tower would be up there, better then RW, OR. If I ever go back I'd probably do a Rainbow Wall, OR/Cloudtower in a day linkup (or atleast attempt).... since that would be fun.


Somewhat fun are Red Zinger (a 2 pitch 5.10d), Triassic Sands, having a brainburp, the Fox. For short routes, would also like to give Desert Gold a try. Roxanna said the crux is short but the climbing pretty good.

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Rob

 
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by Rob » Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:52 am

rpc, those ones look good, I'm going to put 'em on my list. I always enjoy doing Uriostie routes.

Chief, you named five routes on the BV wall on your list, which is your favorite? DOWT, POD, and YBR all seem pretty similar to me, and Rock Warrior too, 'cept there's alot less bolts. Fiddler on the Roof, now that one's different ha. Traversing over the lip of the big roof is crazy.

The Buffalo Wall musta been fun, it's got a big approach though...that's why I didn't do it yet :wink: Did you bring ledges?

Claude, yeah Desert Gold! THAT looks rad. Probably been on the cover of more than one climbing mag over the years Good on you if you can do it!

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Joe White

 
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by Joe White » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:56 am

CClaude wrote:Personally, I think the routes are ok.... not a huge fan of RR.



Why is that?

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rpc

 
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by rpc » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:27 pm

...one more: Community Pillar. Not too many routes without any fixed gear, this was one of them. Maybe I gave it a low star rating right afterwards but now - with the fog of time having rolled in - I think it was a very nice route.

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Dow Williams

 
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by Dow Williams » Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:05 pm

I do advise folks to get off the beaten path once in awhile. Zach and I went back to Eagle Wall yesterday and did Mountain Beast (I doubt if anyone here, besides Radek, has even heard of it).....I know a shortcut to the wall, so even though we never saw the two parties in front of us, we were at the base of the wall first and they were so worried we were going to get on Eagle Dance or Levitation. I admit we no doubt would not have considered Mountain Beast before we had done those routes.....but if you like those two ultra classics, Mountain Beast ranks damn near as good and worth the hike. Same grade basically.

Folks are always asking me to help them with their itineraries in picking routes. It truly is difficult for me to do this for any location, not just RR. For me, it has a lot to do with considerable variables; mood I am in, physical climbing condition, weather (south or north facing is huge in the desert), etc. The more flexible you are, the most likelihood of success. I am shocked at the percentage of bails I see on summit logs and among campfire conversation. I suppose I have more time to plan than the average.....but normally am setting myself up for success the majority of the time depending on all those variables.

Cheers.

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CClaude

 
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by CClaude » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:50 pm

Joe White wrote:
CClaude wrote:Personally, I think the routes are ok.... not a huge fan of RR.



Why is that?


For desert routes, I'm looking for "the perfect line" which is absolutely clean. There are other desert areas which provide the possibility for that, for me, such as Indian Creek, Zion, Moab, .......

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Byran

 
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by Byran » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:23 pm

A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned: Nightcrawler, Levitation 29, Epinephrine, The Fox...

But a couple other great ones are the Schwa, one of the few splitter cracks in RR, and also the Black Dagger has some fun pitches up the dihedral. There's still so many routes on my todo list though. I'm always in RR when it's cold and it seems like all the good climbing is in the shade.

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Dow Williams

 
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by Dow Williams » Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:30 pm

surfnturf wrote:I'll be out there Saturday. Im equipped with some great suggestions (for 5.7-5.9 stuff) from a fellow SPer who shall remain nameless :) and im ready to rock and roll. Super stoked, thanks again! See you out there...


I have been called worse. My client changed his flight, I will be bellied up to the Agave bar (or outside drinking margaritas by the fire more than likely) Sun and Mon nights, vs Sat....look forward to meeting any of you really. Good luck on those climbs. Cheers


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