First Trip to Boulder. Where to Begin

Hi everyone,

I'm going to be taking my first trip to Boulder, Colorado next week and looking at my climbing options is a tad bit overwhelming. Looking at the number of options feels like a kid who walked into Willy Wonka's Factory.

Anyways, do any of you have any ideas on what classic climbs would be good for someone new to boulder to visit.

I'm hoping to get some more trad experience on some easier climbs to build up my trad skills.

Thanks,

Pieter Neethling
SmartRockClimbing.com

The Farm.

Eldo and the Flatirons, of course!

There are plenty of very easy, totally fun climbs on Wind Tower. Wind Ridge is of course the classic, but Tigger and others are really fun, too (Don't let a 5.5 rating make you think it won't be fun!)

Eldo is amazing.

Grades can be a bit sand-baggy, so be cautious.

The regular route up the first flatiron is really cool. Run out trad climbing with protection where you need it (for the most part).

Eldo, Bastille, Crack, Works Sup
Wind Tower, covered already
West Ridge, Long John Wall, amazing multi pitch 5.8
Redgarden, Yellow Spur, 1st and last pitches are tough but very doable and safe.
Rincon is just amazingly beautiful. Not much in terms of moderates, but what is up there is totally worth the hike.

I think that I might have just scratched the surface of intro to Boulder climbs. As someone else stated, it's all about the Flatirons and Eldo.

In Boulder Canyon:
Castle Rock, climb anything there, it's great and mostly trad
Upper Dream Canyon, very little trad but so beautiful and the sport climbing is amazing. In Lower Dream the Wall of Winter is almost as amazing to climb on as it looks (whatever that means!). It's all trad (except for a few crucial bolts at unprotected cruxes)

Aid climb Country Club crack, totally worth it, especially on a weekend.

That suggestions one might logically make would be entirely dependent upon what level and style of climbing you are looking for, of course.
Flatirons are easy, but can have long spaces between gear - some are or are not comfortable with that on slabs. Eldo has some great climbing on highly metamorphasized sandstone, but very liitle single-pitch climbing, Bocan is granite and us typically shorter.
For all I know you might climb 5.12 sport, which is way different than 5.9 sport when it comes down to what I'd suggest for you. Also - if difficulty is more of a concern, or amount of available gear, or if you expect fixed belay anchors, etc...

Please enlighten us as to your difficulty/grade/style preference targets and maybe that will help.

goatboy wrote:Aid climb Country Club crack, totally worth it, especially on a weekend.

All good responses, but I'd see if you can sneak some time in up at lumpy ridge. Not "technically" Boulder, but it's right around the corner (45 min). Everyone always seems to forgot about it!! Long, beautiful, amazing, slab and crack climbing. Views are amazing, gear is usually pretty great wtih some runouts here and there, and slight sandbags, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. And the aspens? oh la la!!!

Mind you dress appropriately as fall is here, with winter not far behind.

Thanks so much for your responses everybody. I'll definitely use your recommendations as I head out. I'm stoked to check out El Dorado on Monday.

Pieter Neethling
SmartRockClimbing.com