Best Climb Ever

This post is dedicated to everyone bored on this saturday night. Or any other night. What is your favorite route, wherever? I want something to look at instead of doing homework over the next few weeks and reading about how to make anchors is boring. What climb did you feel epitomized(sp?) climbing, life, or just had a sick nasty view?

And I don't want bullshit answers about how every climb is your favorite climb or whatever. Don't wax philosophy, just tell your favorite friggin' climb.

For me, honestly, it was the last three pitches of ruper in eldo. I don't know why, but a combination of the exposure, sustainity(I know thats wrong), and the direct path up a pretty steep wall with good pro most of the way, and that it was pushing my climbing ability... and I dunno. It was f&%$ing awesome.

One climb really stands out to me. Probably because of many other circumstances other than the climb itself, but still a great climb.

The North Ridge of Mt. Stuart

I think I liked it so much for a couple reasons.
mountainproject.com/v/washi…

1. did it car to car, which was an epic 19 hr day
2. Gorgeous approach with glacier travel and over two passes
3. Once on ridge the rock is incredibly solid.
4. Great belay ledges.
5. Two awesome splitter 5.9 crack crux pitches.
6. Very small summit with amazing views.

A weird fog kept coming in and out as we where climbing making it seem kind of mystic.

most of my climbing experience has been limited to the state of colorado, specifically the front range, so i imagine that this choice will change in the future.

phil, despite your request NOT to wax poetic, i'm going to, just a little bit. i've had four beers.

My 7th day of trad climbing was Ellingwood Ledges, memorable for a number of reasons. To begin with, it was my first alpine climb, and dozens of climbs later, those pitches are still the best 5.7 I've ever climbed. Additionally, my partner for the climb and a really good friend, is one of the most enthusiastic climbers I've ever been out with - having a partner on a climb that wants some of the good leads and is generally stoked to be out there, for the approach, the shitty scramble-y pitches, and the summit, is a really rewarding aspect of climbing.

Dark Shadows, to the top of Mescalito, was my first big outing with some major unknown factors - how clean the upper pitches would be, how true the grades were, and what the descent would be like, were relatively unknown and a little intimidating, despite having a pretty good pitch-by-pitch description. My partner and I linked 10 pitches into 7 in about 5 hours, a feat I was super excited about at a time when I was still really a sport climber by experience and didn't have a whole ton of multi-pitch under my belt. The descent, involving a lot of route-finding that culminated in a good bit of heads-up down-climbing and some sketchy rappels (one 'anchor' was a slung grapefruit-sized chockstone) took as long as the climb itself, and solidified my love affair with adventure climbs.

Finally, my 'favorite climb' changes with the day. Lately, Spearhead has seriously invaded my head. I got out there for the first time with a partner from MP, Jesse Ramos, who ended up being an awesome guy - great attitude and a fast climber. Everything about the climb was spectacular. Fabulous views on the hike in and throughout the day, generally good rock, nice friction climbing, good cracks, everything was just great. Though the climb, East Prow, wasn't particularly 'classic,' it was a good 3 stars by MP standards, and everything else about the day was strikingly memorable. So much so, in fact, that we're headed back to RMNP pretty soon to make the most of late-season alpine offerings.

So take that. THREE favorite climbs, and it'll probably change again soon.

oh yeah, if you're looking for a good read, Layton Kor's Beyond the Vertical is awesome. i checked it out from the library here in ft. collins via interlibrary loan from CU - once i return it (early next week) i'm sure it'll be available at your local university. a really spectacular book that'll get you pretty amped to climb.

Camp 4 by Steve Roper is also good, my climbing buddy who's from California convinced me to read it and I thought it was super cool - certainly makes you look at aid climbing differently.

for the record, Kor is totally more badass than Robbins. cooler, too.

Robbin's, in a article described a sunrise "better than Mozart." Latter Kor described a sunrise "better than Chubby Checkers." He's totally cool.

It's Friday...

I'm going to have to agree with Chase.

Lotus Flower Tower

The Fastest Gun @ Poke-O Moonshine, ADK

If I had to pick just one, I'm with Phil. Ruper has it all.

Honeymoon Chimney, The Priest, Castle Valley, UT. After getting up and down Castleton Tower by noon, a good friend and I decided to "check out" the Priest. The days were still short (March).

The whole climb was an unknown. First the hard, wide chimney without any big pro. "Well I'll just go up to that bail piece and we can decide from there".

Then the 30' runout on the 5.7 chimney- We couldn't even see the first bolt. I wanted to bail, but my partner just fought through "the hardest pitch of [his] life, we're not bailing now". So 20' up I spotted the first bolt, and the pitch went smooth from there.

The 5.11-with-300'-of-air-between-your-legs pitch was next. Sickening exposure, with legs spread eagle between two towers.

The final 5.8 pitch was around a corner of the formation, exposed, and isolation from the belayer. The top is the size of a pool table, and it's summited 1/50 as much as Castleton. We ran down to the car in the orange of the sunset so as not to do the hike in the dark.

Jay Knower wrote:Lotus Flower Tower

+1 !!

I can't think of a route that epitomizes the sport of rock climbing better.

If not that, Serpentine

For me, and I mean "full value climbing experience", it's gotta be "When Legends Die" at Hueco Tanks. I had to actually leave Hueco Tanks without the send and go back to Boulder to sew at JRat for 3 more months and then go back to Hueco with my head all wonky and try again. Got it, and it was AWESOME! I never took the fall at the end thank God.

Beast Flake, Cathedral Ledge, at night. My partner wouldn't even begin the apporoach until it was dark. What a great night that was.

whatever. it was saturday somewhere.... lotus flower tower looks amazing.

Hanging out with a friend on any piece of rock just about anywhere and forgetting about "life" for a brief while.

Off the top of my head, I'd have to say *CLOSED FOR SAFETY * Serenity Crack, then continuing up *CLOSED FOR SAFETY* Sons of Yesterday, in the Valley. Part of it was the climb (incredible!), and part of it was the day.

I was in the Valley for a week by myself, finding partners in Camp 4. I had really wanted to do the route, and thought I had a decent chance at leading it. I assumed I'd be swapping leads, so if there was a pitch I couldn't do, maybe my partner could. Someone posted a note about wanting to do it, but not being able to lead that hard. She was as psyched for the route as I was, and understood we'd have to bail if I couldn't get up it, so we went for it.

Beautiful day, first one to the route, and I hung once on the crux pitch, but fired the rest. It was pretty sweet!

Off the top of my head, Lichen or Not, at Squat. Just good fun.

The Grand Wall @ Squamish.

Aaron Martinuzzi wrote:oh yeah, if you're looking for a good read, Layton Kor's Beyond the Vertical is awesome.

I'm with Aaron, Read a book instead of this thread especially the one he mentions, it's a bit more entertaining than wasting away on here. But I guess that makes me a hypocrite because I am doing the same thing on this cold Rain/Snowy Saturday,I'm in summit and it is cold!

This thread is funny though, gives everyone a chance to flex there chest and tell us how Rad people think they are. I love it, Pretty entertaining.

JPVallone wrote: I'm with Aaron, Read a book instead of this thread especially the one he mentions, it's a bit more entertaining than wasting away on here. But I guess that makes me a hypocrite because I am doing the same thing on this cold Rain/Snowy Saturday,I'm in summit and it is cold! This thread is funny though, gives everyone a chance to flex there chest and tell us how Rad people think they are. I love it, Pretty entertaining.

You're not usually cynical and condescending, JP. Most the posts don't fit that description and anyway, there's nothing substandard about spending a little time with fellow MPers on a thread.

My favorite climb all things considered, including quality of climbing, views, and convenient access from real life responsibilities, is Gambit. I hope 5.8 isn't too Rad!