Which of the 4 Great Traverses would you consider as the hardest?

[Sglm14]

Thanks in advance!

[CheapCigarMan]

Mr. Gerry Roach puts them in this order:

Hardest
Little Bear / Blanca
Crestones
Maroon Bells
Wilson / El Diente
Easiest

[Wentzl]

Roach is usually right, but missed this one by a mile.

Maroon Bells
Crestones
Wilson/El D
Blanca/Little Bear.

Yeah, that's right. If it weren't for the Lake Como road, lots more people would do Blanca/Little Bear and common opinion would change.

Maroon Bells are clearly the most difficult. The difficulty of the next three are pretty much interchangeable.

[LURE]

Roach is usually right, but missed this one by a mile.

Maroon Bells
Crestones
Wilson/El D
Blanca/Little Bear.

Yeah, that's right. If it weren't for the Lake Como road, lots more people would do Blanca/Little Bear and common opinion would change.

Maroon Bells are clearly the most difficult. The difficulty of the next three are pretty much interchangeable.

Isn't the exposure on Blanca/LB on another level compared to Wilson and ED? Also much more class 4 climbing? I haven't done the LB/Blanca traverse but I feel like from what I've read this is generally true. Other than the summit block on Wilson you can basically get away with only class three on ED to Wilson, and only some short sections of bad exposure.

[dhagan]

LB-Blanca (significant exposure)
Bells
Crestone
Mt. Wilson-El D (easiest)

[CoHi591]

I have only done LB/Blanca, and the Crestones Traverse. That being said, it is really hard to compare because they all have such drastically different challenges. On the Crestone Traverse route finding is the big challenge, but the rock is good. On LB/Blanca, the exposure is dramatic but the rock is wonderfully solid and is clear where to go and if you have even a little bit of climbing experience you'll have fun. For context, I found the Crestones to be somewhat of a fitness challenge and route finding challenge, I had an INCREDIBLE time on the little bear Blanca Traverse and would do it again in a heartbeat, and while I haven't done the other two I literally lose sleep over the Maroon Bells Traverse because I'm terrified, and the reason I'm terrified is the loose rock.

[CCU_Jim]

The ElD-Wilson traverse was relatively tame. Easier than a few standard routes IMO.

I put LB-Blanca as the hardest - more sustained class 4/5, and the exposure is no joke.

Bells is a close second. Much shorter and more class 3 for most of it, but the two northernmost cruxes were harder sections (barely) than anything on LB-Blanca. Rock climbing stardards use the hardest single move to define the route difficulty, so by that standard I think Bells should be ranked harder. But if you compare the average difficulty of the entire route, and consider LB-Blanca is like 3x the length, then I give LB-Blanca the edge.

Haven't done all of Crestones, but from what I have seen and heard, I'd put it 3rd with a decent gap behind the two hardest, and an even bigger gap in front of ElD-Wilson.

LB-Blanca - Sustained class 4, with a few 5.0-5.2 moves
Bells - Sustained class 3, with two 5.0-5.5 moves (route-finding dependent)
Crestones - Sustained class 4, no class 5
ElD-Wilson - Sustained class 3, with a few class 4 moves

[oldschool]

I just did Crestone this week. It surely has Class 5 moves and the Class 4 headwall to attain the summit of the Needle is thrilling, exposed, and beautiful rock.

I found the route finding on Crestone to be simple...follow the cairns. The route finding on the Bells, which I have done, was much harder.

I would rank the 3 out of the 4 that I have done this way

Bells (hardest)
Crestone
ED-Wilson

LB-Blanca next week!

[blazintoes]

Having done all 4 in summer and 3 of the 4 in winter the things to consider are, exposure(E), rock quality(Q) and route finding(R) on a scale of 1-3 easy to hard therefore my order is:

Easiest to
hardest:

1. Wilson's E: 1 Q: 3 R: 1 Total 5
2: Blanca/LB E: 3 Q: 1 R: 2 Total 6
3: Crestones E: 2 Q: 1 R: 3 Total 6
4: Bells E: 2 Q: 3 R: 2 Total 7

Also, I soloed the Wilson's and LB/Blanca to Ellingwood in winter without question after experience in summer conditions. I had a rope for the Wilsons and used it and never took out my rope for Blanca and Co (in winter; no rope or gear used in summer). The Crestones with partners is good because route finding is better with more eyes, yes we had ropes but no gear and I didn't use ropes in summer. I'd want a partner, ropes and gear for the Bells in winter. In summer I'd forgo gear but still would want a partner. Also, after soloing the Crestones in summer using cryptic Roach, I put his book on the shelf and have never used it again.

[Monster5]

I've done most of them at least twice in a few different seasons with the exception of ElD/W. My thoughts:

Hardest to Easiest
LB Blanca - most sustained exposure and scrambling, but also the easiest route-finding. Also the longest.
Bells - most complicated with a couple tricky moves required. Also the shortest by far.
ElD/W - requires more care and sustained route-finding/scrambling than Crestone, but none of the moves or route-finding are quite as unforgiving as on the Bells.
Crestone - on route, the Peak 2/3 is a giant sidehill ledge bypass with no real (mandatory) difficulties and the Needle 1/3 is where it gets fun. There's some trickness to stay on route by the black gendarme and one mental wall. Still, given how short the goods are, I'd call it the easiest. Perhaps having to descend the Needle (most common) ups the ante as it's a trickier descent than some of the others.

[Sglm14]

Appreciate all your input. I am debating as to whether I should do the bells traverse and LB-Blanca. I've already done South Maroon and hated those crappy rocks that peel off so I'm contemplating as to whether I should just do North Maroon or go for the traverse. I've also done Blanca but not LB yet. I did the Crestone traverse and thought it was very straight forward and rocks were solid. I would say I had a harder time with El Diente-Mt Wilson especially going up the North Buttress although I enjoyed it.

[onebyone]

I have only done LB/Blanca, and the Crestones Traverse. That being said, it is really hard to compare because they all have such drastically different challenges. On the Crestone Traverse route finding is the big challenge, but the rock is good. On LB/Blanca, the exposure is dramatic but the rock is wonderfully solid and is clear where to go and if you have even a little bit of climbing experience you'll have fun. For context, I found the Crestones to be somewhat of a fitness challenge and route finding challenge, I had an INCREDIBLE time on the little bear Blanca Traverse and would do it again in a heartbeat, and while I haven't done the other two I literally lose sleep over the Maroon Bells Traverse because I'm terrified, and the reason I'm terrified is the loose rock.

Not a bad take. For me route finding was the biggest obstacle for the traverses. Little Bear-Blanca is pretty straightforward with solid rock with your objective always in sight. Exposure though. Pretty long and a big commitment but not very scary in my opinion. The Crestones are a little tricky because you can end up in the wrong gulley (talking traverse here). The last pitch is only like 5.4 but crazy exposure, and for me at least, I wasn't sure if I was in the right place until your up and over. Hard to see the end objective while on the traverse. As stated, the Bells are all about loose rock. You really have to double check each hold and have two points of solid contact for the tough spots.