RRC Archives

What's your favorite route,anywhere? You know ,the one that's sweeter than a chocolate bar. And we want to know why it's so good. The why is more important.
I'm going with Candy Corner at Seneca. It's 90 feet and every move is different and good. I can't think of any other route that is so good it's entire length. I'm sure if I climbed it a bunch of times it would get old but it's far enough away that I think I only went up it 3 times now.It never dissapointed. sustained coolness....

to date, my fav has been Boltergeist.

too many options, but right now, I'll have to go with Cornflake Crack at Looking Glass.

one thing i've learned i can count on is that whatever i've done i'll still think to myself that there is another EVEN BETTER route.

but so far it's those long, clean but not polished more or less direct multi pitch routes. serenity crack/sons of yesterday (yosemite) because it was the first multi pitch i lead and even though it's a well traveled route we had it all to ourselves.

thin ice at the needles. well, that place is a little dollop of heaven dripped from celestial joy spasm.

I'll cast another vote for Corn Flake crack. Perfect rock, awesome movement, old school classic!

HIgh Exposure, The Gunks

It's not the 'greatest' climbing in the world, but it is one of the 'greatest' routes. The accessibility, the history and the exposure more than make up for any shortcomings in the rock. And it is particularly memorable to me because it was the perfect experience... excellent partner (thanks Geoff!), perfect conditions to start, fun climbing, the puzzle up high, the exposure, the surprise storm at the top, the blueberries and the walk out.

for sport it would probably be orange juice, I like it because the first crux makes your legs shake, the second crux really gets you pumped, and the the tertiary crux (trux) after all the big business is over gets to shut you down after 70 feet of climbing with anchors in sight.

As for trad, I would have to consider my favorite to be the most memorable. That would be muscle beach, my first real attempt at offwidth. Though only 5.8, when your last piece of gear is at the half way mark and your not sure your going to make it, you cling to that rock with everything you've got. Sticks with ya

Super Slab in Eldorado Canyon would be pretty close to the top of my list.

Gunsight to South Peak Direct, Seneca Rocks.

Yes, it's only a 5.4, but it has a 5.15 sphincter pucker factor build in. The nearly 360-degrees of exposure when it was probably my 3rd or so time ever doing multi-pitch trad...probably wouldn't be so scary now, but if you ever want to take someone up an easy climb (anyone could physically crush this climb) but give them a sense of big exposure, this is the one.

rjackson made me remember the gunks a bit more. And I have to say that there is probably no single moment in my climbing career that I can remember with such inspiring detail as pulling the final roof on CCK direct direct at the gunks. The whole route is good, but right at the top you have to pull a huge roof, and throw a heel hook up by your head, while fully exposed and with your last solid gear about 8 feet down and to the right. It's not really that hard, but it's a great finish to an awesome route.