Your Favorite Route You've Done This Season

Just moved to Tucson, and have been sampling the So. AZ classics. Favorites so far:

Lemmon:
Steel Crazy
Momo Buttress
Nang
Chiboni>Bender-Axen>Quick Death>Black Quacker on Rappel Rock made for a nice day

Cochise:
What's My Line?
The Wasteland
Forest Lawn (need to go back to that one...)

One favorite is too tough, here's my top 5:

Thin Ice, The Needles
Wall of the Worlds, Calaveras Dome
Good Medicine, Uintas
Triple Overhangs, Lone Peak Cirque
Fandango, Lovers Leap

Not my best year of climbing, but still amazing!

This year I managed to get on the Casual Route on Longs Peak. Beforehand, I had been thinking of it as just the easiest way up the Diamond, but it is a stellar route in it's own right. Every pitch is good, lots of very great cracks in excellent rock, and even the traverse pitch is fun.

Stanely Burgner on Prusik Peak in the Enchantments was a pretty fun adventure for me.

In terms of single pitch sport. Probably a route called Mental Warfare in Spokane,

WA mountainproject.com/v/menta…

Don Ferris wrote:Best route this season was Turn Korner at lumpy ridge. Probably the single best route I've ever climbed.

Dude true that, got on this for the first time few weeks ago. I followed the crux pitch and got spanked because I didn't realize you could escape out onto the face. What an absolutely classic line though. I've been climbing a bunch of Layton Kor FAs and just realizing how prolific the guy was.

I love to hear people's favorites to go after em...I will have to get on that one at Sundance in Lumpy. This years been great and certainly not over! Sport season is a coming :)

But...I can't pick one

Red Rocks - Unimpeachable Groping 7 pitch 5.10 and steep with great summit "spire"

Black Canyon - Russian Arete - River to Rim 5.9+ with 6 legit 200 ft pitches followed by 600 ft of class 4 and 5 simul climbing

RMNP - South Face Petit Grepon - Coolest Alpine summit in Colorado

Moab - Ancient Art - best summit ever? But filled with idiots haha so maybe meh

Bugaboo Spire NE Ridge - Just a big alpine day in most beautiful setting I have seen

SPlatte - Center Route on Cyn Pyn - All around best climbing of the year hands down and just wow

Hope folks go chasing some of these!

Cheers,
Dave

Twin Priest Tower - Act of Contrition

Twin Priest Tower in the San Rafael Swell. Extremely remote - long difficult 4WD approach more typically one in an ATV or dirt bike, but I managed to drive my Rubicon back there. I did the second ascent 8.5 years after it was first climbed. Wild climbing on a beautiful tower with very soft rock.

Back here in New England... I did my first on-sight redpoint lead of an .11 this summer, Know Ethics at Rumney, that felt good and a fun route.
...A couple of .9s on the upper wall on wheeler and Eagle point crack I think were some of my favorite trad leads... The Garcia Variation below the great corner... super scary and fun. Also , I did some traveling (last winter, but it was in 2015 so I guess it counts as this season and one route that I remember very well and I seem to think about a lot was the Roofs of Babylon, on the prophesy wall near St. George, Utah. But I'm not counting the season as being over yet, I may well do some of the best climbing of the season next week, weather permitting!!

Despite getting benighted and all sorts of gumby shenanigans, leading all six pitches of Outer Space was a definite season highlight.

mountainproject.com/v/intim…

Intimidation at Cathedral Ledge - it was on the list for a looong time!

Regular route on Higher Cathedral Spire, challenging exposed and good fun with friends. Royal Arches, the classic 5.7 was the longest climb we'd ever done and the most amount of vert I ever climbed in a day. And most recently feast of fools in the gunks, hard, scary, yet attainable. Was especially cool to get on a gunks 5.10 as I remember being scared shitless on 5.easies there learning to trad climb...

An honorable mention was taking my fiance up snake dike. We left at 7am and didn't get back to the car at 2am. It scared the hell out of her but she hasn't run away yet!

Regular route on Higher Cathedral Spire, challenging exposed and good fun with friends. Royal Arches, the classic 5.7 was the longest climb we'd ever done and the most amount of vert I ever climbed in a day. And most recently feast of fools in the gunks, hard, scary, yet attainable. Was especially cool to get on a gunks 5.10 as I remember being scared shitless on 5.easies there learning to trad climb...

An honorable mention was taking my fiance up snake dike. We left at 7am and didn't get back to the car at 2am. It scared the hell out of her but she hasn't run away yet!

Hell, I don't know, these favorite, least favorite things are challenging. For '15 it looks like it was a lot of Yosemite:

North Face of the Rostrum - It's just always been pretty high on my list of aspirational type climbs. Now that I've gotten to the top, I need to better the style/clean it up a bit. It taught me a lot, and required me to keep chugging despite feeling stomped down.

East Buttress of Middle Cathedral - A fun, traditional romp with enough bite to it to make you feel like you had a climbing day. I did it with a good friend and had to do a bit of pioneering on the raps which is a big deal for me since I had a rappel accident a few years ago.

Moratorium -> East Buttress of El Capitan - Hard climbing, to an objective in its own right. I was with a super solid partner and did a 75-80 meter pitch somewhere in there, so what wasn't to like? Dropping my rappel device and tangling the fixed lines all to fuck on a munter was just icing on the cake.

Voyager - This Yosemite lesser-known classic has a hell of a lot of quality without a lot of wide or other worries. It was notable for me because the "warmup" beginning pitch was also my first 5.11- lead in the Valley.

The Thing - This Donner Summit, B-list classic has been a minor obsession for me; I'd gotten several lead burns before getting the direct, 5.11a start clean. It climbs like a trad climb fucked a sport climb, and the send was all out with the pump at the top culminating to dueling lieback throws I was only recovering for as I threw for them. Nice! It's all about the effort, whatever level we're climbing.

Other than that, I've had some pretty solid cragging days, and it's always those climbs/trips where you have an absolute blast with the people you are climbing with that makes this activity truly worthwhile.

Colonel Mustard wrote:Hell, I don't know, these favorite, least favorite things are challenging. For '15 it looks like it was a lot of Yosemite: North Face of the Rostrum - It's just always been pretty high on my list of aspirational type climbs. Now that I've gotten to the top, I need to better the style/clean it up a bit. It taught me a lot, and required me to keep chugging despite feeling stomped down. East Buttress of Middle Cathedral - A fun, traditional romp with enough bite to it to make you feel like you had a climbing day. I did it with a good friend and had to do a bit of pioneering on the raps which is a big deal for me since I had a rappel accident a few years ago. Moratorium -> East Buttress of El Capitan - Hard climbing, to an objective in its own right. I was with a super solid partner and did a 75-80 meter pitch somewhere in there, so what wasn't to like? Dropping my rappel device and tangling the fixed lines all to fuck on a munter was just icing on the cake. Voyager - This Yosemite lesser-known classic has a hell of a lot of quality without a lot of wide or other worries. It was notable for me because the "warmup" beginning pitch was also my first 5.11- lead in the Valley. The Thing - This Donner Summit, B-list classic has been a minor obsession for me; I'd gotten several lead burns before getting the direct, 5.11a start clean. It climbs like a trad climb fucked a sport climb, and the send was all out with the pump at the top culminating to dueling lieback throws I was only recovering for as I threw for them. Nice! It's all about the effort, whatever level we're climbing. Other than that, I've had some pretty solid cragging days, and it's always those climbs/trips where you have an absolute blast with the people you are climbing with that makes this activity truly worthwhile.

Sorry but I love your name and your avatar I think is supppacoool... I know I just fukaround...cheers

My woody.

NE Face of Middle Pal for sure. My first peak!

Thought the SE Face of Mt Emerson was a close second.

Triconi Nail - on our 27th wedding anniversary we climbed this together for the first time - this year we did it on our 42nd. The goal is to do it again in 8 more years on our 50th.

The Arizona season is year-round, so my favorite climb that I have done this calendar year is probably Shune's Buttress in Zion National Park, though I unfortunately didn't get the on-sight.

My favorite route that I have sent this year is probably Natural Enhancement at The Waterfall

It has been an OK year for climbing, but here's to a better next year!
-Mike

I'd have to say upper exum ridge. It was an incredible route on incredible rock and we'll the setting speaks for itself.

Snake Dike in a day