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

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

Post by Watlas »

MonGoose wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2026 9:51 am Little Bear -> Blanca is the hardest.

The second hardest is the flashbacks from the doing Little Bear -> Blanca traverse.
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Edwardteach
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Re: Which of the 4 Great Traverses would you consider as the hardest?

Post by Edwardteach »

justiner wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2026 10:55 am 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.
Well it would be kind of backtracking to go from east crestone to west then to the needle meaning it would defy regular traverse qualifications, however the reason I mention it is because the original traverse route starts from the crestone West peak which is technically not a 14er as it has only 100' of prominence and so the only modification to the route would be to summit the east crestone peak then traverse to the west summit just for tradition to keep the traverse route the same then continue to the needle, but I suppose that would be less pertinent than popularizing a new official direct route from crestone East peak to crestone needle considering the East peak is the true 14er and the west summit is the false summit
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Veory
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Re: Which of the 4 Great Traverses would you consider as the hardest?

Post by Veory »

Edwardteach wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2026 8:33 pm
justiner wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2026 10:55 am 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.
Well it would be kind of backtracking to go from east crestone to west then to the needle meaning it would defy regular traverse qualifications, however the reason I mention it is because the original traverse route starts from the crestone West peak which is technically not a 14er as it has only 100' of prominence and so the only modification to the route would be to summit the east crestone peak then traverse to the west summit just for tradition to keep the traverse route the same then continue to the needle, but I suppose that would be less pertinent than popularizing a new official direct route from crestone East peak to crestone needle considering the East peak is the true 14er and the west summit is the false summit
The only qualification is that it was in a book once. Most of the traverse isn't on the ridge anyways. If you wanted to stay on the ridge you would've gone over the east summit the whole time.