Biggest Alpine Face in Colorado

[Scott P]

Below are some of the big cliff faces in Colorado that were mentioned in the thread and I threw in a few more for good measure. Obviously there are a lot more than these. All maps are at the same scale (default) so you can compare the steepness and height of each.

Alpine

Blanca Peak:

Up to 1500 feet depending on how you measure.



Capitol Peak:

Up to 1900 feet, depending on how you measure. Not as steep as cliffs such as The Diamond, Painted wall or Warm Springs.



Challenger Point/Kit Carson:

Possibly up to 1000 feet, but this is pushing it. From below the faces appear pretty steep, but they aren’t nearly as steep as some of the other ones.



Crestones:

Up to 1800 feet on the Needle, depending on how you measure.



Echo and McCauley:

1100-1200 feet depending on how you measure.



Longs:

Up to 1800 feet depending on how you measure. The Diamond itself is said to be 1300 feet.



Pyramid:

Up to 1800 feet depending on how you measure.



Vestal:

Up to 1200 feet depending on how you measure.



Non-Alpine

Peak 7071, Warm Springs Cliff:

The SW face of Peak 7071 is higher (~2000 feet), but Warm Springs Cliff (~1700 feet) is steeper (and still a ranked peak), though there is a class 2 walkup route.



Painted Wall:

The west end is very steep for nearly 2300 feet. It’s not a peak though.

[its_not_a_tuba]

It's not a Tuba -

I have climbed both Lizard Head and Sunlight Spire. I can tell you that without question, that Sunlight Spire is a more difficult summit than Lizard Head. You may dismiss this as Sunlight Spire is not "ranked". There are plenty of difficult peaks out there. Many of which we probably don't know about.

PK

Wow, tuba goes to school today! I would count Sunlight Spire, but I have always heard that Lizard is much more difficult than it's rating would imply given the conditions. Personally I would rather be on a 5.10d that protects well as opposed to a 5.8 that is falling apart. Then again, I haven't done either so I am really not qualified to comment and should really just STFU about things I don't know about. I guess I'll just have to eat my words with a side of humble pie.... mmmmmm tasty.

[Mark A Steiner]

You may want to include the north face of Uncompahgre into the discussion. According to my understanding, this face has never been climbed.

[Scott P]

You may want to include the north face of Uncompahgre into the discussion. According to my understanding, this face has never been climbed.

It hasn't been climbed, but it is only 700 feet high.

[ajkagy]

You may want to include the north face of Uncompahgre into the discussion. According to my understanding, this face has never been climbed.

It hasn't been climbed, but it is only 700 feet high.

it's pretty crappy rock isn't it? I'm surprised it's never been aided at least, maybe a summer project? lol

[TWorth]

For maximum drops(alpine or not) at 3 fixed horizontal distances you can view these lists which were developed from analysis of digital data:

max drop at 100m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 800m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 1600m, CO top 200 summits

Click on the angle figure for a map. Example

The measure is from summits only, so greater slopes can be found if the origin point is moved to the cliff edge. Customizing the x variable can also yield higher slope.

[Scott P]

it's pretty crappy rock isn't it? I'm surprised it's never been aided at least, maybe a summer project? lol

If it's on a 14er and hasn't been climbed yet, most likely it is super-crappy rock.

For maximum drops(alpine or not) at 3 fixed horizontal distances you can view these lists which were developed from analysis of digital data:

max drop at 100m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 800m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 1600m, CO top 200 summits

Those are some awesome list! :D

[Kovar]

For maximum drops(alpine or not) at 3 fixed horizontal distances you can view these lists which were developed from analysis of digital data:

max drop at 100m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 800m, CO top 200 summits

max drop at 1600m, CO top 200 summits

Click on the angle figure for a map. Example

The measure is from summits only, so greater slopes can be found if the origin point is moved to the cliff edge. Customizing the x variable can also yield higher slope.

Awesome lists. Thanks for sharing.

[TWorth]

Thanks guys. With digital data becoming more accurate lists like this are now possible. Good to have a measure that is objective - ie doesn't play favorites.

Scott, looks like you called a lot of the steepest CO faces identified in the above lists like McCaluley, Warm Springs Cliff, Longs, Crestone, Serpent Point, etc.

Just as a bonus, here are the lists for the 11 western states combined(top 3000):

Max at 100m
Max at 800m
Max at 1600m

[RobertPetrowsky]

Is there any list out there that has the difficulty of those peaks or that would show how much of the peak has those drops? It would be interesting to see how some of our peaks rank up compared to some much larger ones that may have a walk up route that isn't indicated by this info.

[TWorth]

Is there any list out there that has the difficulty of those peaks or that would show how much of the peak has those drops? It would be interesting to see how some of our peaks rank up compared to some much larger ones that may have a walk up route that isn't indicated by this info.

Averaging the drop from all directions is better for showing how much of a peak has big drops. Average drop at 100m correlate well with technical difficulty. Take a look at the 100m avg CO list. There are a lot of 5th class peaks in the top 20.

One way to compare by state is to look at a numerical state by state breakdown of the top x summits in a list spanning multiple states. An example below is the breakdown for the steepest line lists shown above, looks like CO falls in the mid to lower half of the totals.

State totals, max at 100m
State totals, max at 800m
State totals, max at 1600m