Montezuma & Frisco area
Summit County, Colorado, in addition to having fantastic skiing both backcountry and at resorts, is fortunate to have innumerable rocks, faces, cliffs, and other features that make it a prime alpine rock climbing area. Routes reportedly as high as 5.13 have been established at the developed areas, and there are more than enough insane faces, buttresses, and ridge climbs to keep climbers here happy forever. This guide will attempt to continue work previously done on the developed areas, as well as push for reports and development on new alpine climbs in the area. It is a not-for-profit public (open-source) work. Please feel free to distribute the information, photos, and route descriptions freely. Please send corrections, news, comments, or new routes to me at tradkelly@yahoo.com.
This guide is being developed based on onsight information as well as previous notes and the out-of-print guide High Country Crags by Scott Astaldi and Mike Gruber. I am attempting to contact the authors to allow me permission to use their specific notes for this guide and to gain additional insights on newer areas and climbs since their first edition guide was published in 1993. I am not, until I have permission, using any information in their guide directly, and if you can find a copy it's well worth having for the topos in it. Our photos of the climbs can only show where the route goes, and until I can get onto the routes themselves I will not post hand-drawn topos. Plagiarism would be a copyright offense. This guide will attempt to address errors and new information on the crags since the original was published, and I invite the authors (as I have already) to contact me about this project.
31 Oct 2001: It has come to my attention (wandering through Wilderness Sports in Silverthorne) that there is now a reprint of the guide book available at certain locations (and possibly online through some retailers, I have not checked). When my professional work demands allow me, I will be modifying this site to be a supplement to that guide, so that I may continue the site. I believe that posting the route names and first ascensionists, along with estimated '93 ratings, will keep me from any legal troubles in this endeavour, and I will continue to climb and document the climbs in the area to make for a more complete secondary guide. I will only use this site as an add-on to Astaldi' and Gruber's fine book. I hope that the photos of the routes (approximate, as always) will accent their work and make it easier to find the routes you'd like to climb safely. Please contact me directly with any concerns.
Disclaimer: Rock climbing is an inherently dangerous activity, and especially so in the alpine environment described in this guide. No guide can substitute for competency in the skills necessary to reduce the risks involved to a manageable level, and this one does not suppose to. Before attempting any of the routes or areas described herein, ensure you and your partners have sufficient experience, technical skill, proper equipment, and common sense. Enjoy yourself in the alpine environment, but remember that it is very different (weather, rockfall from extreme temperature changes, and other objective hazards) from climbing in other areas. Above all, climb safely and have fun!
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