climbing during the winter month in NM or AZ

Any places recommend?
I want to spend 3 or 4 days for some moderate(up to 5.7) multi pitch climbing in NM or AZ during the winter months.

what part of NM are you thinking?

Maybe Conchise Stronghold?

My wife and I went there in March a couple years ago and it was pretty warm in the sun. I imagine that during the winter, if you kept in the sun, it would be pretty nice.

Just saying that you are describing Red Rocks to a T.

Cochise in AZ would be a fine choice. For NM, Winter Wall is nice and warm multipitch sport climbing. I think it would be too cold anywhere else in NM (higher elevations) for multipitch climbing, generally speaking.

you could do winter multipitch in the lower sandias,

mountainproject.com/v/la-cu…

mountainproject.com/v/domin…

There is years worth of bouldering in the lower sandias in between routes if your into that sort of thing as well.

some winter days can be not bad and others can be freezing in NM weather changes by the hour.

ian watson wrote:what part of NM are you thinking?

Lower La Cueva is in the shade and generally speaking I have found it to be too cold for winter climbing. Diablo and White Rock in the winter. Not multi-pitch thou. The Organs are further south but they are prob to cold as well. Just go to Tucson.

What I know about winter climbing in central/southern NM ...

Dona Anas: In past winters, I've often found good climbing weather at Checkerboard Wall down by Las Cruces:

Primitive camping but also gets that coveted morning sun. And, if the evenings are too chilly for hanging around camp in the shade, head into town for a warm sit-down meal.

Organs: Don't know as much about winter multi-pitch there. Some locals could likely make some great recommendations.

Sandia Mountains: The thing about the Sandias are their high elevation and general facing-west aspect. Makes finding winter climbing challenging - if you can wait to climb after a bunch of snow-melting sunny days then there are more possibilities.

Agree with Bill M - the south side of Lower La Cueva Canyon is shadey and some ledges become filled with ice/snow for weeks during the winter (i.e., Gemstone East and Gemstone West). But if you have a day to kill then easy climbing at Flake n' Bake and surrounding lines can be fun, especially if you go in with an adventurous spirit.

Mid-height in the Sandias is Ego Boost. It gets loads of sun. Involves spending about half the day hiking, bushwhacking, and perhaps a little snow wading with possibly getting locked in when the gate closes at the Allena Gallegos picnic area.

Another mid-height possibility for easy multi-pitch is Southeast Ridge of The Pulpit after several days of sunny weather. Just be prepared to rap down into knee-deep snow.

Have done Standard S Route in February after a week+ of good sunny weather - still had to deal with a little snow in some areas (never took off rock shoes). Takes some thought though about how to get down. There's lots of snow in the winter to deal with if one heads to the Crest. We went down the Knife Edge - but if you rope up on that after Standard S Route it could get challenging to make it down before dark in the winter. Of course, another option would be to just go up and down the Knife Edge.

As Ian mentioned, The Ribcage can be fun quasi-multi-pitch in the sun - just hold your nose as you are scrambling and bush whacking between pitches (bring your tweezers!). I frequently go there in the winter.

Mid-December climbing in the upper Sandias,

Southern comfort wall is the go to place in the organs for winter climbing. mountainproject.com/v/south… South facing 3 pitch trad routes with a shorter than average organ approach.

Rough and Ready hills mountainproject.com/v/rough… are probably not too bad.

The tooth mountainproject.com/v/the-t… is west facing and should be nice. As a bonus shoes work better on slab when cold.

Actually there should be a fair amount of not too cold climbing in the organs if it has not snowed recently and you go looking for sun.

Down low on Mt. Lemon is often good in the winter.

Cochise Stronghold can be good too, like the organ depending on the recent weather.

Each of these area have their own feel. Mt. Lemon is mostly sport climbing with easy approaches, Cochise Stronghold is trad with some exceptional sport/trad (sheepshead) thown in with straight forward approaches, the organs are trad with more difficult approaches and very few people.