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Best Cities in U.S. for Multipitch/Trad

Original Post
Rachel Heath · · Anchorage, AK · Joined Sep 2014 · Points: 0

I'm curious as to what everyone's opinion is on the best city for climbers to live who are interested in multipitch/trad.

Qualities of the city I'm looking for include that it is relatively small (not San Francisco) and has a reasonable vicinity (< 2 hours) to multipitch trad.

Thoughts?

Adam Menz · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Jul 2014 · Points: 95

Salt Lake City

FoamFinger _______ · · Rad Town, Not set (USA) · Joined Jan 2013 · Points: 250

Probably Salt Lake for the Cottonwood Canyons or Vegas for Red Rocks.

Nathan Scherneck · · Portland, OR · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 2,370

Vegas has gotta be the best. Endless quantity of long routes in Red Rock and relatively quick access to many other venues (Sierras, Zion, Snow Canyon, Sedona, etc.).

Jim Fox · · Westminster, CO · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 50

Denver, Boulder, CO Springs, Fort Collins, Golden, Estes Park...

Golden has a nice small town feel to it but is really close to Denver and even closer to great climbing.

Gargano · · Arizona · Joined Jan 2011 · Points: 1,535

Cheap flights in and out of Vegas, too.

Question is: just how Vegas is Vegas?

Eric Mountford · · Lakewood, CO · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 0

I can be on the rock in a half hour do 4 pitches of trad and be home by 1pm from Lakewood, CO.

Tyson Anderson · · SLC, UT · Joined May 2007 · Points: 126

Vegas.

Rich Farnham · · Nederland, CO · Joined Aug 2002 · Points: 297
John Wilder wrote:I'm pretty biased, but being able to climb 12 months a year in town...
What do you do in the summer? Don't you get crazy temps, like 110+?

I realize you can get up to some higher crags, but isn't that heat debilitating to live in? The "Oh, but it's a dry heat..." thing only goes so far.
Frank Stein · · Albuquerque, NM · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 205

How about Albuquerque, ~1 mil. metro, Sandias; or Las Cruces, ~200K metro, Organ Mts.

Bill M · · Fort Collins, CO · Joined Jun 2010 · Points: 317

Red Rocks rocks, but I am not a Desert Rat. If you are from Chattanooga than it might be hard to adjust. I am from East Tennessee and found Albuquerque too dry. Vegas is way more desert-ish than Albuquerque.

When it come to climbing, trad or not than the Front Range of Colorado has to be in the list. Anywhere from Colorado Springs up to Fort Collins.

splitclimber · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 18

since you didn't say anything about the quality of the city but just <2 hours from climbing, for California I'll throw out Sacramento or Reno (Tahoe) and Fresno/Merced (Yosemite).

FrankPS · · Atascadero, CA · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 276

I don't see how Vegas, Albuquerque or Denver qualify as "smaller towns," but this is a fun thread to read!

Bill M · · Fort Collins, CO · Joined Jun 2010 · Points: 317

Fort Collins is smallish. I lived in Albuquerque and you can get around easy. Nothing about Denver is small I will grant you that

Tradster · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 0

Tucson might work: 3000+ climbs on Mt Lemmon, many with multi pitch (Reef of Rocks, Rap Rock); Cochise Stronghold one hour south with climbs up to 1000 feet on Sheepshead, 500 feet on several other domes; Babo two hours southwest with climbs up to 500-600 feet; drive two hours north to the Superstitions for trad climbs up to 600 feet (on the Acropolis) with Barks Canyon wall providing seven or eight tradish climbs up to 500 feet; Weavers Needle for the trad mountaineer type experience. Hot is the summer but Mt Lemmon tops out over 9000 plus feet in elevation as you go through six climate zones to the top. I don't find Tucson to be particularly attractive as a city, but you can climb 12 months out of the year.

Charles Vernon · · Colorado megalopolis · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 2,655
Tradster wrote:Tucson might work: 3000+ climbs on Mt Lemmon, many with multi pitch (Reef of Rocks, Rap Rock); Cochise Stronghold one hour south with climbs up to 1000 feet on Sheepshead, 500 feet on several other domes; Babo two hours southwest with climbs up to 500-600 feet; drive two hours north to the Superstitions for trad climbs up to 600 feet (on the Acropolis) with Barks Canyon wall providing seven or eight tradish climbs up to 500 feet; Weavers Needle for the trad mountaineer type experience. Hot is the summer but Mt Lemmon tops out over 9000 plus feet in elevation as you go through six climate zones to the top. I don't find Tucson to be particularly attractive as a city, but you can climb 12 months out of the year.
All good points, except that most of the climbs on Babo are a lot more than 500-600 feet :) I would also throw in the climbs above Catalina State Park (NW side of the Catalinas)--numerous climbs in the 500-1000 foot range.

I've lived in Tucson and Boulder for approximately the same amount of time; I think Boulder is better for "multipitch/trad" but it's a close call, and those kind of routes are a lot less crowded down here.
Nick Sweeney · · Spokane, WA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 969

Tons of small towns around the Cascades in Washington State!

Jacob Smith · · Seattle, WA · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 230

Second on WA, specifically Leavenworth - local crags plus easy access to the Stuart Range, an hour to Index in the summer, an hour to Vantage in the winter. Plus Squamish is probably doable in a weekend

runout · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 30

Flagstaff AZ? Never been there or lived there although I think it might be a great place to live and have great climbing year round.

Dallas R · · Traveling the USA · Joined May 2013 · Points: 191

Hi former neighbor, we lived in Harrison Bay for a while. Now we get to travel and climb.

The problem with living someplace is you need to enjoy the place you live. So some places that we have climbed at that also have some nice towns.

We really liked Ft. Collins, there are several good climbing areas within an hours drive. Temps don't get crazy hot or crazy cold. Didn't like Boulder.

Laramie, WY was a nice town, Vedauwoo. But you have a real winter there.

Salt Lake City or Provo, Utah. Not too harsh a winter in the valley and easy drive to the mountains. You'll have to adjust to the Mormon influenced culture.

Moab, Ut. Small tourist town. August can get pretty warm.

Bend, Or. Not that much trad here. Another place the temps don't get crazy hot or cold. Lots of diversity however and lots of micro-brewery's.

Travis Weil · · Leavenworth, WA · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 0

If you are looking for something further east than the Rockies, Asheville, NC is a pretty great place. Within two hours you have many options for multipitch climbing: Looking Glass, Rumbling Bald, Linville Gorge, Laurel Knob, and Whitesides.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Trad Climbing
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