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Top 10 Best Climbing States

J. Albers · · Colorado · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,926
Jon Moen wrote: And those sorts of drive times are what Californians do regularly to get to their "home" crags in their own state.
hmmmm. I'm pretty sure I don't drive 4 or more hours to get to my home crags. Its not a half an hour either, but 1.5-3.5 gets most folks to incredible amounts of great rock.
Colin Parker · · Idyllwild, CA · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 2,370

Now that the Riverside Quarry is fully developed, SoCal folks have great sport climbing within 1 hour. An hour more and you have Tahquitz. An hour more and you have Joshua Tree. I spent three years climbing in Josh and now that I've left cali I tend to agree that the rock quality there is slightly overrated, but it is still an incredible place and has a unique feel unlike anywhere else.

My point is that folks in California don't drive too far to 'home' crags. They drive that far to 'world class' crags, eg, Bay Area to Yosemite (~3 hours).

I agree with the sentiment that Utah, Colorado and Cali are in a 3-way tie. I know little about Wyoming though.

Tristan Higbee · · Pocatello, ID · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 2,970
Spri wrote: By "Easy" do you mean the 7 hour drive to Colorado, the 5 hour drive to Lander, or the 12 hour drive across the great basin to get to CA? Yeah, it borders other good states, but the drives are not for the faint of heart... or for those without 3+ days off in a row.
Yes, that is actually what I mean by "easy." Salt Lake to Yosemite, for example, is much easier than Denver to Yosemite. Or Salt Lake to Seattle vs. Los Angeles to Seattle.

And yeah, obviously we're not talking about day trips here.
Pete Spri · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 347
Tristan Higbee wrote: Yes, that is actually what I mean by "easy." Salt Lake to Yosemite, for example, is much easier than Denver to Yosemite. Or Salt Lake to Seattle vs. Los Angeles to Seattle. And yeah, obviously we're not talking about day trips here.
Hmm, dont get it. I think it shows your prevelance to the West. Someone from Denver would say they are closer to the Red, or NRG, or Seneca, or the Gunks.

I think we just rate things differently. I still rate Utah in the top 3, I just dont think it contends with Cali. Tomato, tomatoe.
Pete Spri · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 347
Christian "crisco" Burrell wrote:You need to explore more...again, only the most excited FAers are getting out there and finding the stuff.
Well if you are talking about unclimbed stuff, you'll have to admit that Alaska has the most. :D
Bryan Ferguson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 635

Without reading the thread, I know it's been said. I'll say it anyway - California, without a doubt (on my part).

fossana · · leeds, ut · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 13,318

final count from 3 days of responses:

results from top climbing states survey

Edit: Only states that received >/= 1.0 point are displayed.

Go Back to Super Topo · · Lex · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 285
fossana wrote:final count from 3 days of responses:
outside of the top 3 thats a joke......^^^^^
Christian "crisco" Burrell · · PG, Utah · Joined May 2007 · Points: 1,815
Dave Cummings wrote:Grand Junction is a great for being right in the middle of it all!
I lived in Grand Junction for 9 months. Another one of those towns that has way more stuff than most would imagine.

Plus the mountain biking is pretty darn good there!
Umph! · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2004 · Points: 180

WTF? No one has mentioned North Dakota here? What a cheezy-azz review.

LucasSpiegel · · Castle Rock, CO · Joined May 2010 · Points: 725

I'm surprised Oregon isn't ranked higher on peoples lists. Smith Rock and Trout Creek are both world class!

Eric Krantz · · Black Hills · Joined Feb 2004 · Points: 420
Eric D · · Gnarnia · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 235
Lucas79 wrote:I'm surprised Oregon isn't ranked higher on peoples lists. Smith Rock and Trout Creek are both world class!
I have never climbed at either but I believe it. Though, it takes a lot more than two great crags to make a whole state great.
Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665
Evan Sanders wrote: Tennessee Wall which is definitely comparable to the Red (one is mainly sport and one is mainly trad, but they're still comparable as national climbing areas)...
Ummm... I was wondering which of those two places you've never climbed at... because it must be one or the other. I like both, and I climbed at both for 5 years, but they are certainly not comparable.
camhead · · Vandalia, Appalachia · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 1,240

"Tennessee Wall which is definitely comparable to the Red (one is mainly sport and one is mainly trad, but they're still comparable as national climbing areas)..."

Ummm... I was wondering which of those two places you've never climbed at... because it must be one or the other. I like both, and I climbed at both for 5 years, but they are certainly not comparable.

Yeah, T-wall is awesome, but is in no way the trad equivalent to the RRG. I think that the only trad cragging areas that would compare to the RRG in terms of volume, concentration, and accessibility would be either the Creek or the Gunks. T-wall is more on par with the Obed.

And the reason that I would not put Oregon on the list is largely because it is only one type of rock (extrusive igneous), and because of lack disciplines beyond cragging, like bouldering, multipitch, bigwall, etc.

LucasSpiegel · · Castle Rock, CO · Joined May 2010 · Points: 725

While most of Smith Rock is volcanic tuff....the lower gorge at Smith is columnar basalt. Same with Trout Creek....columnar basalt splitters. There are a bunch of good crags, as well as, alpine/ice climbing opportunities on and near Mt Hood.(See photo below of Illumination Rock near the top of Mt Hood) There are also several notable bouldering areas littered throughout the state. Not worthy of a top 5 spot probably....but top 10 worthy for sure. Here goes....
1. CA
2. CO
3. UT
4. WY
5. NH
6. OR
7. AZ
8. TN
9. NY
10.WA

Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665

It is quite cragger-centric here... to see that Alaska is gettin' no love whatsoever, isn't it?

Tim McCabe · · Tucson, AZ · Joined Oct 2006 · Points: 130
Tony B wrote:It is quite cragger-centric here... to see that Alaska is gettin' no love whatsoever, isn't it?
This has been an interesting discussion so far. The thing with AK I should think is that its great for big stuff but totally lacking everything else. Not to mention the near total darkness for half the year.

Even if there aren't any full on cave sport area's I think CA gets the top billing for everything else it has to offer.

CO is a certainly a close second but unless you are all in for snow and ice winters get to be slim pickings I should think. Whereas CA has something for everyone year round.

After that there are a lot of close ones but IMO they are almost all west of the big muddy.

Though the NE no one state but the region has a lot but again full on winter sets in.

No doubt the SE has a lot of great craging but no real elevation for mountaineering.
Cory Harelson · · Boise, ID · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 2,410

Here is a bit of a numbers look at it, with the assumption the MP.com is the be-all end-all of climbing routes (i.e. if it's not on here, it doesn't exist) :)

Top 10 most routes (on MP):
1)California, 23,680
2)Colorado, 22,555
3)Utah, 11,998
4)Arizona, 6,500
5)New Hampshire, 4,091
6)New Mexico, 3,850
7)Wyoming, 3,605
8)Nevada, 3,360
9)Washington, 2,642
10)New York, 2,426

Top 10 routes per capita x 10,000 (as of 2010 census) which might be an indication of uncrowded climbing:
1)Wyoming, 64
2)Colorado, 45
3)Utah, 44
4)New Hampshire, 31
5)South Dakota, 20
6)New Mexico, 19
7)Nevada, 12
8)West Virginia, 10.4
9)Arizona, 10.3
10)Idaho, 8

Top 10 routes per square land-mile x 1000, which might be an indication of close climbing:
1)New Hampshire, 457
2)Rhode Island, 264
3)Colorado, 218
4)California, 152
5)Utah, 146
6)Massachusetts, 124
7)Connecticut, 110
8)West Virginia, 80
9)Wisconsin, 66
10)Arizona, 57

Weighting these three scales evenly and assigning 10 points for a #1 finish, 9 for a #2 finish, etc., we arrive at the total best climbing states:
1)Colorado, 26
2)New Hampshire, 23
3)Utah, 22
4)California, 17
5)Wyoming, 14
6)New Mexico, 10
6)Arizona, 10
8)Rhode Island, 9
9)South Dakota, 6
9)Nevada, 6


Note that this doesn't count weather, and perhaps another useful scale to add into this would be a ranking of climbable days per year . . .

Draw from this info what you will, even if the only conclusion is that I'm bored and have too much time on my hands :)

Eric Krantz · · Black Hills · Joined Feb 2004 · Points: 420

@Cory - population certainly influences these metrics. Population most likely can be directly correlated with how many routes are posted. For an example, see Alaska versus Cali. This influences how popular the area is in a metric such as "Top Ten Most Routes". Then, the "Top 10 routes per Capita" should be weighted towards the lower-capita side to account for fewer people getting a hard on about posting routes (yes I'm bored too)

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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