Hey all, just wanted some opinions on the guidebooks for Boulder Canyon. There are about four differen ones that i have found, but am unsure which to choose. Anybody own one they feel is pretty good? There is always the online guide at climbingboulder.com, but obviously can't take that with me...
Thanks.
Boulder Canyon, Colorado
Boulder Canyon, Colorado
"To become a climber is to join a self-contained, rabidly idealistic society, largely unnoticed and surprisingly uncorrupted by the world at large."
- Jon Krakauer
- Jon Krakauer
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DaggerX
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Uncle Big Green
- Posts: 159
- Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 8:55 pm
Richard Rossiter's guide isn't bad and it's pretty thick. I would suggest Bell Buttress, Cob Rock and Castle. For clipping bolts, I would suggest Dream Canyon and Animal World, though both have trad routes, too. To be honest with you, BC just isn't that great. There are good climbs to be sure, but they are dispersed. I would recommend going to Eldo, S. Platte and Vedauwoo before going to BC if you are in the Denver/Boulder area. They're more stacked, at least a little less packed and the climbing is generally better.
democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch
I've liked the Rossiter guides - along with some stuff about the history of climbing in the area. I wasn't doing anything cutting edge (OK, I was doing really easy stuff) but it is still cool to think back to the old, old, old schoolers who put a lot of that stuff up.
Two things, though:
1) It can be hard to find the start of some of the routes. The down side of small granite blobs on the side of a valley is that it isn't like hiking along the base of a limestone or sandstone cliff line. You first have to find your way to the base of the formation (which sometimes involves looping around the top of the formation and descending) and then finding the start on the bottom/side of the blob. And the damn things look a lot different up close than from the road.
2) Afternoon showers/storms. It's absolutely true about the 2:00pm showers. They won't always hit where you are, but they generally involve some lightning, so it's better to be the hell off of things before they roll in. (Plus, you may not have noticed, but wet granite can be slippery...)
Unless you've already done it, or you are a grade snob, do the main route on the Third Flatiron. Easy AND fantastic!
(Peyote!?! Yikes! I sure am glad that I didn't start using real drugs until the early 90's - by which time we learned to stick with shrooms and skip the whole barfing-while-tripping thing! (Yuck!) At the time we thought that we were getting smarter and smarter each generation, but given the resurgence of smack in the 'burbs, that sure blows the 'progress' theory out of the water!)
Two things, though:
1) It can be hard to find the start of some of the routes. The down side of small granite blobs on the side of a valley is that it isn't like hiking along the base of a limestone or sandstone cliff line. You first have to find your way to the base of the formation (which sometimes involves looping around the top of the formation and descending) and then finding the start on the bottom/side of the blob. And the damn things look a lot different up close than from the road.
2) Afternoon showers/storms. It's absolutely true about the 2:00pm showers. They won't always hit where you are, but they generally involve some lightning, so it's better to be the hell off of things before they roll in. (Plus, you may not have noticed, but wet granite can be slippery...)
Unless you've already done it, or you are a grade snob, do the main route on the Third Flatiron. Easy AND fantastic!
(Peyote!?! Yikes! I sure am glad that I didn't start using real drugs until the early 90's - by which time we learned to stick with shrooms and skip the whole barfing-while-tripping thing! (Yuck!) At the time we thought that we were getting smarter and smarter each generation, but given the resurgence of smack in the 'burbs, that sure blows the 'progress' theory out of the water!)
Bacon is meat candy.