Route/Boulder Development

Hey folks,

I've posted about this before but re-upping on it. Looking for people to develop some routes/boulders with at an area we've been working on. There's just more rock out there than we know what to do with/care to do with. Ultimately, we're looking for someone who doesn't look like me and climb like me to get involved.

Some facts about the area

• Roughly 1hr drive from Denver Metro (SPlatte)
• Rough 2/3 sq mi of rock - mostly untouched (though the area is in at least one guidebook already)
• It's the platte so rock varies from kitty litter to bulletproof
• Routes are mostly slab and technical face climbing. Some opportunities for trad from 5.easy to 5.hard -- mostly on the easier side of the range though. Sport routes would cover the same range.
• Potential for bouldering, single pitch, and multipitch. The only established bouldering I’m aware of is actually ice climbing bouldering clocking in around WI2
• Roughly 15 established lines across 4 different formations. Probably room for at least 50 more across those and 9 additional formations in the same area. My guess is that number of total routes for the area could easily encroach triple digits if there's interest though.
• https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/122494751 Example pic of the area (Also one above)

If you already know what you're doing, feel free to shoot me a message and I'll send you the details on it and the active stuff we're working to avoid and you can go on your own time. If you're looking to get into development, I'm happy to take you along and use my gear and learn from each other. No minimum climbing grade required but you should be good with doing some hard work (bolting, cleaning, and hiking with packs is no joke) as well as understand that route development is inherently more risky than climbing at the typical well traveled routes of the front range due to lack of pre-established fixed hardware and the process of cleaning loose and brittle rock off of routes.

Promise I'm not just looking to spray - like I mentioned, this area was already in a guidebook and found by not me - plus there's enough identifying information in the post above to find it yourself - just openly providing an opportunity for folks to get involved and make the area reflective of the invested local community rather than of the couple of us who have been there so far.

Looks awesome.  Glad to see someone teaching more people the process of developing.  Keep up the awesome work. 

Welp folks, I've got good news and bad news, and then more good news..

Good news is that we had our first batch of people come check out wonderland - thanks for joining to those folks who did. It was great to meet people, we got some great lines developed and opened up, and conditions are pretty perfect there right now. There's a couple spots on the road that might be a bit dicey after a snow where you'd probably want 4WD/AWD/Snow Tires, but most of the road was completely clear and in great condition.

Bad News (for me) is that I tore my labrum the day after we went out and I'm going to have to have surgery on it in December. That means I'll probably be a bit less active in the area, or at least less able to carry heavy loads down and climb/etc. I'm sure I'll be antsy enough to try to get an easier line or two done prior to the surgery, but I'll be pretty MIA for a couple of months post surgery for sure.

Good News 2.0 (for you) is that I'm pretty committed to going full guide mode for the area. I'm happy to hike around and show it to whoever and will probably be doing some more in-depth exploration of the areas I haven't checked out now in order to keep myself only moderately insane. If you're interested in getting out, shoot me a message and I'd be happy to join (though my car is RWD so if it's around a snow, we may need to carpool).

Also, if there's any crushers around who want to check out this absurdly proud arete...hit me up. Even prior to the injury, there's a zero percent chance I'd be able to touch this thing.

Here's a couple more photos that may be of interest to pad people as well. I'll be honest - I have next to no eyes for boulders so I'm sure there's some good stuff out here, I just haven't checked anything out that's not immediately next to an obvious rope crag.

Hey man! I’m really interested in development and would love to learn proper bolting. I’m happy to check out the trad lines and rent some gear for drilling as well! 

Heading out sunday for some bouldering specific development - shoot me a message if youre interested! Heres a photo of that arete with a person for scale

Since I'm recovering from shoulder surgery still, and not feeling great about negotiating ice at the top of crags to set lines to rap - our focus has been bouldering lately. I think 20 or so lines have been put up in the last 2 weekends - mostly in the V1-3 range, though some harder and some easier. 

If any folks want to get involved, shoot me a message. There's room for an enormous amount of development still at all grade ranges (even the hard-hard). Here's some pics of the goodies from the last few weeks.

Edgelord - V5

Not Yet Named Line - V5

I’m finally starting to be cleared to climb again post-surgery and will likely be hitting the area fairly hard over the weekends this year. Send me a message if you wanna get involved. I won’t be around much until May but will look to hit the ground running.

Some more goodies for the update. This theme: Highballs

Tal Mwrote:

This one looks cool!

nbrownwrote:

This one looks cool!

Sorry, couldn't find a way to NSFW tag this one

Well folks season is officially in full swing. I’m generally committing to being in the area at least 1 day every weekend in May, so if you want to get plugged in, send me a message! Despite a few dozen documented routes and boulders already established, there’s still a staggering amount of stuff to do for those who want to.

Tal, I'm sending you an email about helping y'all develop new lines at this area.

Hey folks, checking back in here. We’ve had some great new lines go up lately despite the platte slowly drowning. I won’t lie and say this place won’t get warm with the upcoming heat but I will say it’s at 8000ft and much of the best bouldering is in the trees and at all sorts of sun aspects. Additionally, found a rad north facing crag today that will open up some additional summer climbing opportunities in the area.

I’ll likely start working remotely from the general region Thursday and/or Friday and then doing some work starting in the afternoon in case any folks with predominantly weekday availability want to start joining or if anyone wants to do some post work trips. I’ll still be trying to hit a weekend day every weekend as well but will likely miss a few for weekend trips and alpine training days.

Hit me up if you’re interested!

The fun continues - and the shade hunting season begins. Just took stock of the guidebook I've been managing for the area and we're somewhere around 80 established boulder problems and open projects V-Easy to V10, and around 60 roped routes from 5.5-5.11+ (with some harder ones incoming) including multipitches and we've only started scratching the surface. As always, hit me up if you want to get involved!

Checking back in - The area is coming into season soon and I’d love to start getting feedback on grades/star ratings on routes for the guide - so if you’re interested in trying out a new place (breaking holds, nebulous approach directions, largely missing topos, no chalk - but also: no crowds, some adventure, something new) hit me up and I’d be happy to send along the info or show you around myself.

Hey folks! Still chugging along despite the weather - though this coming weekend will certainly throw a wrench in the progress for a while. Here’s some recent drone clips from earlier this week as a stoke injection in the mean time - this covers about 1/3 of the area.
I’ll be leaving my job at the beginning of March and will be hitting route development for a few months with pretty much 24/7 availability sans a few trips I’m taking so if you wanna get plugged in this spring/early summer would be an awesome time to do it! Aiming to have the first edition of the guidebook cut and published by fall sometime.

I'd love to donate some time, trail mattocks, and bolts to you, let me know when you want to link up! I also have heavy equipment and cordless drills at my disposal.

Looks cool. Is there directions so we can explore some lines. 

Thanks to all who have reached out - recently went back and counted and I think I’m up to over 50 people having reached out from this thread so far!

Jeremiah, the offer is super generous - I’d certainly welcome the extra hands though honestly what I could use the most is traffic - both to help step in the trails (we're not building any as that's not legal) as well as to continue to clean up the routes - but most importantly I’d like extra opinions on grades/quality of lines! I’d be surprised if any lines down there have double-digit ascents yet (though I know a few are pretty close).

Kevin (and anyone else with the same interest) - please reach out and email me through MP and I’ll share it with you. I need an email to send the docs to (not ready to have it available through a general link yet). The guidebook and actual area are still very in progress so expect to have to do a bit of adventuring yourself as topos and such will likely be the last thing I do for it so I don’t have to constantly update them.