Best "First 13" in Front Range

Some of my favorite difficult (for me) Front Range routes, not splitting hairs about the grades (besides, there are no 13a routes in the front range that you won't find a legion of downgraders for):

Sonic Youth (CCC)
The Buzz (BoCan)
Anarchitect (CCC)
Maestro (CCC)
New Horizon (ButtonRock)
Occupied Territory (Ridge4)
Sucking My Will (CCC)

And of course you can always polish off 10 Digit Dialing while you are in clear creek and join the grade debate on that one...

richard magill wrote:Some of my favorite difficult (for me) Front Range routes, not splitting hairs about the grades (besides, there are no 13a routes in the front range that you won't find a legion of downgraders for): Sonic Youth (CCC) The Buzz (BoCan) Anarchitect (CCC) Maestro (CCC) New Horizon (ButtonRock) Occupied Territory (Ridge4) Sucking My Will (CCC) And of course you can always polish off 10 Digit Dialing while you are in clear creek and join the grade debate on that one...

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Primo wall. My favorite in CCC for sure. I would add Flying Cowboys to the list. It's super fun.

Actually, going back to splitting hairs about grades, I though The Buzz was quite difficult.

Animal Instinct at Animal World in Boulder Canyon was pretty cool.

I'll throw my two cents in on the CCC routes.
The 12s that may be good to start on:

Quartz Sports 12b, Crystal Tower, CCC
Ken Tanks 12c, The Armory, CCC
Anything at Anarchy wall, CCC
Wet Dream 12a, Wall of the 90s, CCC

13s:

Finger Prince, 13a, Wall of Justice, CCC
Squeeze Play, 13a/b, Primo, CCC
Peer 42, 13a, Highlander, CCC
Head Like a Hole, 13a, Sex Cave, CCC

You shouldn't to go to Rifle this summer or you will have to start over again. I would recommend pump o rama but, you know, it's gonna be a process. Better go to sonic youth instead.

Has anyone here sent Sonic Youth post hold breakage and still thinks it's .12d?

Primo wall is a great place with a handful of .13's to choose from, you can probably find one to suit your style a bit as you break into a new range. There are also a good number of .12's to 'warm-up' on and send as you work your way up as well.

P.S. I haven't heard anyone say Problem Child is soft at .13a....

Fort Collins local and love both short and longer term projects.

Due to time constraints I've taken days spread out over several months on 13- projects. I like the process -- some times.

I second Elijah and others on Upper Echelon: best close to Fort Collins sport wall. It is a great wall and perfect for what you describe. All the climbs tend to fit the same mold: boulder problems separated by rests. I like that style, but my preferred style is a climb like Vasodilator, with scads of easier cruxes, more endurance than power on the spectrum, and I haven't seen a climb like that in Poudre -- love to hear of one!

Another wall with a moderate drive, but fitting the same bill is River Wall by Button Rock. Low 12's, high 12's and 13's that are quality lines.

Some of my favorites with proximity in mind, many already mentioned in this thread:

Psychatomic - Monastery
Dream of Poudre - Upper Echelon and all the other 12's here
Rapid Fire - The Palace - not the best but worthwhile
Old Yellar - Buttonrock above River Wall + Almost all River Wall Routes
Sonic Youth - CCC
Twitch - CCC - Great Short Crimpy Line
Vasodilator - Boulder Canyon - Perhaps my Favorite 13-

Primo Wall - Perfect Wall for what you aim for, some lines here climb like Upper Echelon. An interesting first 13a option (perhaps interesting and perhaps 13a) would be one of the two linkups of Sucking and Squeeze Play:
Sucking
Squeeze Play

You should post up some time in the future about your progress and any favorite routes you get on, particularly those close to Fort Fun. I'm always looking for the best lines near town.

Hey folks, thanks for all of the great input. Ticked Sporting Green 12a @ the Palace yesterday. Heading over to Upper Echelon Friday after work to have another go @ ODK.

johnL wrote:Ed, on Anarchitect, in your 20 tries, did you notice it outrageously slick some days? I'm trying to blame the humidity here. I'm considering rapping in with a brush and a bucket of water and scrubbing those polished chalky holds. Of course I'd have to take a giant shit at the base to keep people off it while I worked it.

I don't know if it's just my style or if I found some secret sick beta, but I definitely noticed it makes a big difference climbing it in the sun. Regardless if you want some beta let me know.

As far as 13's go, the first pitch of the Double Stout in clear creek is not to be missed if your a fan of the Techy.

The Price For Fire at Morrison looked way cool when I belayed Mark and Ken on it... didn't get very far myself.

what about a good first trad 13?

johnL wrote:The best 13 trad routes in the front range are all in Indian Creek.

oh.

john's pretty much right.

i think the best looking 13 gear routes are sphinx crack in the platte(kind of off limits for now), 5 year plan/space time inversion in the flatirons, anaconda up at lumpy, and the wasp up at rock of ages (which is supposedly light for the grade). the rest that i have seen in the front range just don't really look that great.

• note, i have neither caressed the exit moves nor fondled the entry moves to any of the aforementioned routes, and only add my opinion in an effort to lob grenades from the ivory tower. you may continue....

I heard Five Year Plan is superb (though super strong climbers can skip the jams).

Otherwise, a search of 13a-mid 13 single pitch trad routes in the entire state is only half a page long. If one excludes the soft ones (ahem the wa$p ahem), the bolt/pin crux protected ones (rainbow wall, wiled horses, surf's up, fraidline, freeline, etc) and ones you can't legally climb anymore (sphinx crack), there's not much left.

shuminW wrote:I heard Five Year Plan is superb (though super strong climbers can skip the jams). Otherwise, a search of 13a-mid 13 single pitch trad routes in the entire state is only half a page long. If one excludes the soft ones (ahem the wa$p ahem), the bolt/pin crux protected ones (rainbow wall, wiled horses, surf's up, fraidline, freeline, etc) and ones you can't legally climb anymore (sphinx crack), there's not much left.

yeah i ran the search too. i was just curious.

WH is a bit soft for a 13, and the hard parts are certainly protected by bolts. the only other thing in the area that would come close is Naked Kill (not 13), but pretty hard for 50 ft of climbing.

Darren Mabe wrote:the only other thing in the area that would come close is Naked Kill (not 13), but pretty hard for 50 ft of climbing.

If we bring hard 12d's in the discussion, Beethoven's Fifth and Red Dihedral are both likely as harder or harder than some of the 13a.

Personally, I thought about projecting The Avenger (never got on it), but ended up redpointing freeline (legit 13a and very accessible, but the shenanigan at the start detracts from the overall quality of the route) as an afterthought (of a summer of sport projects). With the abundance of quality 5.13 sport routes, it just seemed so much more efficient to work your way up the grades there and project the occasional quality trad route on the side.

shuminW wrote: With the abundance of quality 5.13 sport routes, it just seemed so much more efficient to work your way up the grades there and project the occasional quality trad route on the side.

well put. fortunately, over here in N.Az i have been finding abundance of both!! ;)

Darren Mabe wrote: fortunately, over here in N.Az i have been finding abundance of both!! ;)

JEELUZ!!

Climber73

If you want close to Fort Collins i would recommend Rapid Fire (12d) at the Palace and then most everything 12b and harder at Triple Tier. Dark Pony, Dream of Poudre, and Twinkletoes. These are all pretty stellar. Hope this helps.

bv
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