Thinking of Leaving the Bubble...

roadcutclimber wrote:holy sh#% you people are spoiled

It's by choice my friend, it's by choice.

kyle kubes wrote:Eldo, Lumpy, RMNP mediocre and shitty? What? That's a strange point of view...

My exact thought also.

I feel really lucky to live around here because there is so much diverse climbing. Sandstone, Granite.....Yep, the Platte is great, but it's so big and scattered that I tend not to go there much. Maybe if I lived a little closer...

And then there is the "PARK" What more can I say? Eldo is the holy grail for me. I know it's an aquired taste for some but I can't get enough of that place. I was lucky that I started climbing there my first season.

I think Glenwood Springs would be a great central location. It's much closer to the desert and from what I hear has some good local craggin'. It's also close to the "Black".

Glenwood's great too, not exactly in the population range specified, and the job market is tight as a frog's ass when he swims, but at least the housing situation has eased up a lot since I lived there a few years ago.

I'll chime in since I've lived in both Boulder and Portland.

The climbing in the PNW is what you make of it. In Boulder I could walk from my house and be up in the Satellites in 40 minutes, whereas here in Portland I'm more likely to take an entire weekend away to go to Leavenworth, Squamish, or Smith. There are guys who live full-time in Portland and Seattle who can crush V12 just as there are in Boulder, but here they do so by spending more time in the gym and weekends out of town.

It's not as though there isn't any good climbing up here, but it's more of an effort to get to it. The mountaineering here is every bit as good as Colorado (in my humble opinion) but it's going to take a 3-day weekend instead of just a Saturday to really get to it.

WTF???

"The saving grace of the whole front range is the South Platte"

"climbing on the front range is pretty mediocre"

slim/nuts,
could you please explain???

just having the park so close, doesn't get much more
usa topnotch than that. unless you can't handle alpine. . .

SLC has amazing climbing and if you like skiing or boarding it makes Boulder look like a joke. There are a lot of people who aren't Mormon, but you do have to put up with that.

Yes Boulder sucks and all the crags here suck. No one else move here.

Funny I talked with Andy Raether once and he said just that - there in pretty much NOTHING on the entire Front Range for him to climb (or be really inspired to climb). Incredible and somewhat depressing when you are at that level.

Unless you are Sharma and paid to travel the world. Then it gets cool.

Dude there is more to life then climbing. If you are just graduating and in your 20's see the world. You can always move back here.

my comment about mediocre climbing around boulder means within less than an hour (ie eldo, boulder canyon, clear creek, etc). lumpy is definitely great, and RMNP is definitely great. both of these i consider weekend sorts of destinations. the platte (from 1 to 3 hours, depending on where you go) is the best climbing in the state. hands down. and some of the best climbing i have done anywhere.

in my opinion, boulder is a really good place to live. i climb nearby after work, but i usually consider it training for something else. one thing that helps filter out the mediocre climbing is doing your homework and investigating/researching the routes you want to do. if you are lazy about this you can end up spending a lot of time climbing choss.

i am pretty sure i am not alone in my assessment of climbing around boulder.

I couldn't resist asking! ;)

thanks for sending an 'email'.

Beached Nuts wrote: Eldo, Lumpy, CCC, BC, or Morrison are not worth traveling to if you don't live within a day trip.

What would be examples of places that are worth traveling to? (I would have thought Lumpy for sure and maybe Eldo and BC when you consider a traveler could just get on the best routes and avoid the schwag that locals climb; I agree CCC and Morrsion aren't destination quality.)

I'm guessing places like Devils Tower, Red Rocks, Squamish (3 places I've been to that I would consider to be "best of the best")? And I imagine Yosemite, but I've never climbed there.

Dudemanguybro wrote: It has everything to offer in any season and you will not run into any yak-dick Boulderites who send more e-mails than routes.

Since you're such an expert on phallices I assume you know some whales have 6 foot members? Silly me, of course you did.

No, it's not a holy grail, but it's 15 minutes from town. There are plenty of much more spectacular climbing venues, like in northern Alberta, and Antarctica, but when you take everything into account, as in ease of access, SLC is the only place that compares to Boulder.

quality of "destination" is relative to quantity of time and money. if you happen to live near one climber's ideal "destination", then it really is not one to you (by definition), and is your "local" crag. fortunate are those that consider a "destination" such as Yosemite, Red Rocks, Indian Creek, a local crag.

Back in the early 90's I met Patrick Edlinger and his English-speaking climbing/traveling partner in Eldo. His friend explained to us that they believe that Eldo has some of the best rock routes *in the world.* He also explained that a big part of the reason they even traveled to the States (over the course of many trips), was to have an opportunity to climb in Eldo.

You guys can pretend that Eldo is not that great, but I was always impressed that the best climber in the world (arguably, at that time) thought Eldo was as good as it gets. . . pretty much my own opinion.

Paul Hunnicutt wrote: Funny I talked with Andy Raether once and he said just that - there in pretty much NOTHING on the entire Front Range for him to climb (or be really inspired to climb). Incredible and somewhat depressing when you are at that level.

I'm sorry, but that's just ego talking. Maybe the guy just doesn't like climbing that much unless he's really pulling down hard.

Not that I'm climbing anywhere near his level, but at my peak when I was climbing easier .12 trad and harder sport, I still loved getting over to Tahquitz and Josh and climbing 5.7s, just because they were fun. Was I "inspired" to climb them? No. Did I still have a blast? Absolutely.

greg,

i would give serious consideration to north conway n.h. absolutely some of the best climbing i have ever done, georgous environment, really, really cool people...i only had opportunity to climb at cathedral and thought the rock quality was second to none (including yos) and the routes were awesome! you would be close to rumney (never been but hear its fun), close to the coast (super bonus), near enough some big metropolitan areas, great food, and i will mention again, some of the coolest people i have ever met / climbed with. while not so much for me, i also understand that there is great ice, lower elevation but smoker condition "mountaineering" opportunities and even a few ski areas for good measure. i am considering some post grad work and for the reasons just mentioned, am putting n.e. schools at the top of my list (and i LOVE eldo...well... the entire front range but i do think eldo is a holy grail)! good luck and have fun! (n.e. translation: live free or die)

scott

Ben F wrote:A friend of mine who now lives in Chatty used to live out here. He put it this way - "Any pitch at T-Wall is at least as good or probably better than any pitch at Eldo. It's just that they're stacked on top of each other at Eldo." (T-Wall mostly ranges from 80-100 ft.).

A pal of mine in SLC referred to Eldo, when I was stuck in the mid-worst as "Like T-Wall, but stacked 5 high."

T-Wall is better than eldo, but not as high - more stable rock, ease of approach to most all of the climbs - I describe T-Wall to my friends out here as an outdoor trad gym.

Eldo is still the bomb, it doesn't have one thing that T-Wall has - HUMIDITY!

oh yes it does! (although not nearly as bad). it was pretty humid after work at eldo this summer, and fairly buggy. not bad by east coast standards though.

slim wrote:oh yes it does! (although not nearly as bad). it was pretty humid after work at eldo this summer, and fairly buggy. not bad by east coast standards though.

Yes, but you can still climb in eldo in July, ever tried that at T-Wall?