where are some good location to practice building anchors?

in and around front range, where are some good location to practice building anchors? the shorter approach the better...

or maybe routes up to 5.5-6 with good placements and fixed anchors?

the goal is to practice placing pros, a lot of pros.

thanks.

Kai Huang wrote: the shorter approach the better... .

castle rock, BoCan

Walk along the base of North Table Mesa/Golden Cliffs. You'll encounter a massive variety of cracks, flakes, good, bad, wide, thin, placements vertically aligned, horizontally spread, swirled like a tie-die...it's like a belay setter's practice gym.

EDIT: Suck it up and get 20 minutes of cardio. :)

Kai,

Only in these days it seems, that a person so talented in rock climbing ability still can't be confident in building anchors. If your Personal Page is true, you must not have learned to climb outdoors or haven't been observant when at belays. Thats all ok, just mind blowing for us older climbers!

Read instructional books on the subject and you can go just about anywhere close and stay on or close to the ground when doing so. Seek help to judge the status of each one (hopefully from the climber who leads you up the 5.12's you have been up) and they will help you learn. Clear creek Canyon (CCC) is close but the pro is often not too available (hense the bolts) but with the short approaches you could visit many areas in CCC. Also Eldo is great for that. Have fun and be safe!

jim

Shawn Mitchell wrote:Walk along the base of North Table Mesa/Golden Cliffs. You'll encounter a massive variety of cracks, flakes, good, bad, wide, thin, placements vertically aligned, horizontally spread, swirled like a tie-die...it's like a belay setter's practice gym.

that's actually a great idea.

Shawn Mitchell wrote: EDIT: Suck it up and get 20 minutes of cardio. :)

that's what i will have to do. hopefully my wife won't kill me for dragging her out.

Jim Gloeckler wrote:Kai, Only in these days it seems, that a person so talented in rock climbing ability still can't be confident in building anchors. If your Personal Page is true, you must not have learned to climb outdoors or haven't been observant when at belays. Thats all ok, just mind blowing for us older climbers! Read instructional books on the subject and you can go just about anywhere close and stay on or close to the ground when doing so. Seek help to judge the status of each one (hopefully from the climber who leads you up the 5.12's you have been up) and they will help you learn. Clear creek Canyon (CCC) is close but the pro is often not too available (hense the bolts) but with the short approaches you could visit many areas in CCC. Also Eldo is great for that. Have fun and be safe! jim

i mostly do sport climbing, hence not so great with gears and prefer shorter approach...

anyways, i am pulling the plug and gonna learn the other side of climbing.

Kai:

I agree with the advice given by Jim

For reading material, I would recommend Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide by Craig Luebben. This is a really solid text on the subject, probably the best I've read.

Get yourself a copy, read it, and practice. Get a good climber to evaluate the anchors. Or, take a one day class with CMS or the like. It's amazing how much you can learn in a short time frame. But above all, build the anchors.

After the incident at Rewritten in Eldo, I'm sure those climbers were glad of their solid anchors.

David Bayendor wrote:Kai: I agree with the advice given by Jim For reading material, I would recommend Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide by Craig Luebben. This is a really solid text on the subject, probably the best I've read. Get yourself a copy, read it, and practice. Get a good climber to evaluate the anchors. Or, take a one day class with CMS or the like. It's amazing how much you can learn in a short time frame. But above all, build the anchors. After the incident at Rewritten in Eldo, I'm sure those climbers were glad of their solid anchors.

thanks.

also thinking about getting climbing anchors by john long.

second wiledhorse's suggestion of castle rock in boulder canyon. you can practice simple anchors, complicated anchors, tricky gear placements, etc, and fully test them (bounce, etc). also, you are about 20 feet from the car. as a bonus you can scope some future routes to hone your skills on.

slim wrote:second wiledhorse's suggestion of castle rock in boulder canyon. you can practice simple anchors, complicated anchors, tricky gear placements, etc, and fully test them (bounce, etc). also, you are about 20 feet from the car. as a bonus you can scope some future routes to hone your skills on.

all that on the ground? maybe i will start with that this weekend...

looks like the west face, 5.5, has fixed anchor for first pitch and big boulder for anchor on 2nd pitches. there are plenty of sport routes there too.

Another good place for anchor building practice with a short approach is Elephant Buttress in BoCan. (The space between the tops of the 1st-2nd or 2nd-3rd buttresses.)

Happy Hour Crag in Boulder Canyon has a lot of very easy routes which you can build anchors on. Plenty of cracks to fill up with gear. You can also walk off the top easily and backup your practice anchors with the many trees at the top of the cliff (just bring a long static line or cordalette). There is a somewhat steep 5-10 minute hike up, but it also is a nice location well above the road with decent views (for Boulder Canyon).

On the far left side to the left of the route Twofers are some pretty easy routes, may not even have names.

so the choices of locations in bocan are castle rock, boulderado, happy hour crag, and elephant buttress.

then north table mountain in golden.

Unless you want to die of a heat stroke, I'd skip Table Mtn this time of year. Elephant Butt would be a great place. It has a "two pack a day" smokers apph.

Or hit it up early and then do something else with the rest of your day...

North Table is perfect for this sort of thing and you don't have to leave the ground.

I recommend the base of rewritten

kidding, kidding

I used to boulder with my rack on and place gear....you get some strang elooks but who cares you will get used to taking the gear off your harness or gear sling and will get the same feeling as if you were climbing...cant really get the feeling of standing on not so good holds and only one hand on the wall if you walk along the base of a cliff and place gear