Terrible No Good Very Bad "Classic" Areas

I want to hear from people.

What "classic" destination areas are you LEAST stoked to visit? Why? Uninspiring rock? Super-sandbagged grades? Awful approaches? A culture and community that would pickle granite?

Let's hear it.

B-Mkll wrote:I want to hear from people. What "classic" destination areas are you LEAST stoked to visit? Why? Uninspiring rock? Super-sandbagged grades? Awful approaches? A culture and community that would pickle granite? Let's hear it.

P I N N A C L E S

Matt Miccioli wrote:P I N N A C L E S

20 kN wrote: Arches National Park. Great views, but the "classics" I did mostly involved crappy rock covered in a beach of sand that lead to 30-year-old drilled pin belays. Add to the list the Fisher towers too.

Matt Miccioli wrote:P I N N A C L E S

Eldorado Canyon.

There. I said it.

Ryan Nevius wrote:Eldorado Canyon. There. I said it.

My experience with Eldo has been that if you're not climbing 5.10 or harder, expect sketchy, bad rock everywhere, and an entire climbing community ready to call you worse than Hitler if you don't like it.

Eldo is emblematic of the entire front range climbing scene: not bad per se, but an awful lot of people insist that being nearby and in large quantities is equivalent to truly world class. The crags at the periphery of the front range (Lumpy, Shelf, Vedauwoo) have better rock and better climbing. Eldo is just a shorter drive from downtown Boulder.

I was not that impressed with Smith Rock. The holds seemed to come in two varieties: greasy, or in need of sika.

I agree that the rock is scary-bad in Arches and the Fishers. That is sort of the allure. But there's better climbing rock for towers elsewhere in the desert.

eldo, shelf,

tim naylor wrote:shelf,

^^^ Why not just throw Yosemite Valley in there ?

vincent L. wrote:^^^ Why not just throw Yosemite Valley in there ?

Sam Fox wrote: What's wrong with Tuolumne?

reboot wrote:Jtree

Boy of boy do climbers on here (particularly those on the front range)love to bitch. I'm just thankful and happy to have so many places to climb, not everyone in this country is so blessed.

J Tree is by far the most overhyped climbing destination in the west coast.

I'd be interested in hearing the "why" rather than just a list of areas.

Eldo is bad. Its crowded. Full of gumbies. Sketchy choss. I would recommend not climbing there. Boulder Canyon is better and more worth your time.

Shaun Johnson wrote:J Tree is by far the most overhyped climbing destination in the west coast.

Eldo is gorgeous- my wife and I had our engagement photos done there- but the crowding and the often-sketchy rock keep me away.

Black Canyon: Poison ivy forests, huge spiders, cactus and thorny plants in the cracks, loose rock, pegmatite, hard to protect, the walk of shame. Love that place.