I am writing an article right now and was wondering how Red Rocks places in the "area with the most routes in the USA"ranking. Thanks for any help with this. C

What do you mean by Area?

Do you mean most established routes, or most potential for routes? To give a bit of perspective, this site lists:
978 routes in Mt Lemmon, AZ
1044 routes in Red Rock, NV
1080 routes in Moab, UT
1255 routes in Boulder Canyon, CO (with 3208 routes in the greater Boulder area)
3244 routes in Joshua Tree, CA

Do you mean most vertical milage? cause if you count Joshua Tree... Which I think has more individual routes than almost anywhere, it may actually be lacking in vertical elevation compared to somewhere like yosemite.

If you mean potential routes, Ten Sleep is by far on top. If you mean established routes, Jtree.
It also depends on how you define area.

Thanks for the help. So, by area I mean places like Red Rocks, Yosemite, JTree, Boulder Canyon, Indian Creek, Zion, etc.

I am talking about established routes. I'd like to know both the area with the most pitches and the most established routes.

Thanks so much!

Getting the pitch count will be tough. I wouldn't use the numbers in the database if you want it to be accurate. But you said you were writing an article, so based on current journalistic standards it probably doesn't need to be accurate :)

Anyway (one of the most annoying words in the English language according to a recent article I read) I would start by figuring out the route & pitch count for Red Rocks. I recommend you email Jerry Handren. He recently authored the most authoritative guide to Red Rocks. His contact info is here:

http://www.redrocksguidebook.com/contact-us.html

Once you have that, post it here and the peanut gallery can chime in with areas that have more or less routes.

FYI, my Swain Red Rocks guidebook, copyright 2000, says "...even with 1,100 routes this book is by no means comprehensive."

For volume of rock and pitch density, hard to beat Seneca in WV.

For sheer numbers in one area, J Tree [8000+?]. Your not a local until, what, 1000 routes?

-Brian in SLC

i always believed that Jtree had more established routes than any other climbing area. The last number i heard was 6,000.

In terms of established routes- my guess is that Red Rock is probably in the top 10, possibly in the top 5.

In terms of potential routes, it's definitely in the top 5- as, by my estimate, we've only discovered about 40% (at the most) of the climbable rock in the park. Most of the long stuff has been done, but there is miles of rock out there...

Jerry would be a good person to contact- he worked on that book for nearly a decade, so he'll likely have a good idea of the number. Add at least a hundred to the number he gives you, though- there's been an explosion in new routes since his book has come out.

I want to say that RRG has nearly 4,000?

dont forget about the New River Gorge in WV, loads of routes, definatly over 1,000....

The route database at RedRiverClimbing.com lists 1933 routes for the RRG.

I heard the new Wolverine guide to the New River Gorge is going to have over 2400 routes.

I wouldn't say that Tahquitz is extensively developed. I mean, lilly rock and suicide rock yes, but have you seen all that rock around that area? I haven't heard anything about development on those pieces of rock. Of course they're nothing compared to lilly and suicide, but I'll bet there are a few gems out there.

My guess: Red Rocks wouldn't quite make the top 5 in number of routes, but would make the top 3 in number of pitches.

It's strongly dependent on how you define an "area." For instance, if you define Bishop Area as an "area" as opposed to just Owens River Gorge, it might be a contender for the top 5 in number of routes - but if you break it down, then no.

If you define Yosemite as Yosemite National Park, including Tuolumne Meadows and all the High Sierra routes that are within the boundaries of the Park, then it's a very different picture than if you define it as Yosemite Valley. If you define Yosemite as everything in the Park, it will beat Joshua Tree on number of pitches even with 8000 "routes" in Joshua Tree (many of which are barely routes).

if you include the lost creek wilderness and the rampart range into the south platte, it is probably pretty high up there. in terms of POTENTIAL routes, it is definitely way up at the top. many lifetimes of rock in this sprawling area.

also, if you count 20' high grid-bolted road cuts, boulder canyon is gunning for the top. for sure.

As for 'cragging' destinations, I would imagine it's a tight race between jtree and rrg.