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

[rijaca]

Sunlight has 300'? This would be great news, is it too early for champagne? This would beat California for high elevation hard climbs Thunderbolt Peak (14,003 feet) last 20' 5.9 yds

Dallas peak Is more elevated than Teton lizard head is more difficult than Teton and sunlight spire 5.10 yds is more technical grade than thunderbolt

Take a hike, fool.

[Edwardteach]

Sunlight has 300'? This would be great news, is it too early for champagne? This would beat California for high elevation hard climbs Thunderbolt Peak (14,003 feet) last 20' 5.9 yds

Dallas peak Is more elevated than Teton lizard head is more difficult than Teton and sunlight spire 5.10 yds is more technical grade than thunderbolt

Take a hike, fool.

Actually human feet are far more similar to gorilla feet than chimp feet

[onebyone]

I heard the Satan traverse is being added to the list of great 14er traverses.

And that Joe took his tripod up to Sunlight Spire and confirmed that it is over 14,000 feet and it is ranked.

I also heard they are paving the road up to Lake Como. No more packing in needed.

[boudreaux]

How would the Grand Traverse or the Zodiac Traverse in the Gores rank on this list?

[Edwardteach]

The current crestone peak to crestone needle traverse is a low class 5 yds however this is based on the traverse from West crestone peak which is no longer considered more elevated than East crestone peak, since the saddle that is between the east and west summit is only 100' of prominence for the west summit the west summit is no longer a 14er

That being said if you were to traverse from the East summit of crestone peak to the west summit of crestone peak the traverse required would be a 5.5 yds

Since the East summit is the new official 14er it would make a lot of sense to upgrade the traverse to the needle to a 5.5 yds and start from the East summit of crestone peak then traverse to the west summit of crestone peak and then finally complete the original traverse from West crestone peak to the needle

From the East to the west is 5.5 yds then from the west to the needle is low class 5

Voilà

[Monster5]

I'd probably place the Gore Grand Traverse beneath all 4, but not much below Crestones or ElD-W by their easiest path. The Gore GT is among the easiest of the named Gore traverses however.

[LifeIsGood]

I'd probably place the Gore Grand Traverse beneath all 4, but not much below Crestones or ElD-W

Not to be too pedantic or argumentative, but I would say it is considerably easier, in general terms, though some of the rock was rather loose and unstable.

It seemed short to me.

[Scott P]

How would the Grand Traverse or the Zodiac Traverse in the Gores rank on this list?

It depends on which side you come up but I remember the Grand Traverse ridge itself as being mostly class 2 with only one short class 4 section.

The scary part was getting up to the ridge since we did it late season and the steep grass was covered with frost.

[BillMiddlebrook]

I will call out whoever wrote the route description (https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=litt3) about the final pitch being "a breeze". It seems like you're done with exposed stuff and just need to plod up Blanca, but there's a final section of exposure that I wasn't prepared for. It's no more dangerous than anything else, but we thought we were done with exposure and started to relax... and then we're suddenly at another knife's edge/cat walk kind of deal. I would caution climbers to stay vigilant.

I love being called out! If you re-read the route description, the "Final Pitch: It's a breeze" portion of the route intro refers to the final pitch to gain Blanca, right at the end. The catwalk and difficult sections you're referring to are encountered during the stretch through the 3 towers. The final pitch is reached after the 3rd tower.

Congrats on getting this traverse! It's a big one.

https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=litt3

[Edwardteach]

The traverse from the official 14er the East Summit ("East Crestone") to the former 14er the West Summit of Crestone Peak involves YDS Class 3 to low 5th Class terrain (primarily Class 3/4 scrambling with exposed no-fall sections up to Class 5 depending on the exact ridge chosen

Class 3 to Class 5 (depending on whether you stay strictly on the knife-edge ridge or drop slightly onto ledges).

The traverse between East Crestone Peak (East Crestone) and the main/west summit of Crestone Peak involves difficult YDS Class 4 to low-5th class (5.4) terrain requiring precise route-finding and high exposure

Key Challenge: Down-climbing from the summit of East Crestone and navigating the tight connection to the Red Notch/Red Gully of Crestone Peak demands careful, no-fall 5th-class route-finding

[justiner]

Are you thinking of NE Crestone? That could be seen as C4 from NE Crestone to "East Crestone", but in no way is visiting"East Crestone" from off the standard route to Crestone Peak hard at all.

[cedica]

^ Dr. Supra Nihil explained this in great detail, but I guess Ed was still on his summer break. Here it is again:
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Crestone Points.jpg