This is a post to confirm that there is good, fun bouldering in Grand County. Although a ton of people mountain bike, hike, fish, run, ski, etc. in Grand County, climbers have tended to stay away from the area for a couple reasons. One, there is no easy access climbing anywhere in the county - there are a few roadside boulders that offer up a couple fun problems, but almost everything worth climbing involves a fairly long approach and some adventuring. Over the past four years, Tara and I put up around 50 problems in the county - most in RMNP or in the Indian Peaks - that range from V0 to V10+. There is potential for a lot more development at a couple areas, and there are a few areas that we found which we never got around to developing. For those looking for some fun stuff in the Granby, Fraser, Winter Park area, here is the low down. I'll put up more in other posts, this one is focused on The Titans.
Winter Park/Fraser
There is not much here. We put up a couple small problems on Berthoud Pass in Second Creek, but nothing worth mentioning. The only real area that we developed over the years is called The Titans. This is a fun area with several house sized granite boulders along with tons of small boulders sitting on the edge of the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I'll describe the area briefly here. To get to The Titans, find your way to the west side trailhead for Devils Thumb Pass. From the trailhead, hike for about 1.5 miles, passing a couple small fun boulders with short problems right by the giant meadow. Continue around the meadow and continue on the trail as it runs along the south side of the meadow. On the far side of the meadow, in the trees, the trail will pass through a series of granite boulders. This is the first zone. Just up from the trail are a few easy problems on small boulders, but the two gems are downhill on house sized boulders - The Grand Surf V10 and The Project V11+?. In this first zone we put up around 25 problems with the project above the Grand Surf and the project on the northwest corner of the Grand Surf boulder still needing to be done. If you continue hiking, the trail drops a bit and you hit zone two, with some massive boulders and a small little cave type feature on the north side. Here again are some fun problems on the main boulders as well as on all of the smaller boulders nearby. From there you can hike back towards the meadow and you will find a couple more boulders with fun problems on them. If you keep hiking on the trail, it will cross a creek. Hiking up the trail from here another 20 minutes brings you to the third zone of boulders, which are big, highball, and fun. If you hike up the side trail that runs north along the creek, you will run into more boulders with little or no development.
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