Sacramento climbing?

Contemplating a move to Sacramento...tell me about the climbing in the region.

Decent gyms in Sac. Auburn and Placerville are the closest real rock ~ 45 mins. Sugarloaf prob best year round climbing ~1.5, Tahoe has good variety ~ 2 hrs. More after a recent storm. Sonora ~ 3 Yosemite ~ 4 Bishop ~6 Overall the town has a pretty active population, with good bike trails and some fishing. That said its a flat land town with alot of gym climbers.

After work can be tough sledding.

Gobs of weekend options.

Bump...what is good in different seasons? Winter options? How is the drive the Sierra East-side? What is a good day trip (i.e. within a 2 hour drive) and what makes a good weekend?
I'll be there this weekend, anything that's a must-see in Sac or Davis? Best places to eat?

Hey man,

Other than the fact that you will be climbing in the gym on weeknights, Sac is an absolutely amazing place to live for climbing (on the plus side, the gyms in Northern CA are far superior to any other place I have lived around the country.) Plus SF and the coast are an hour or so away, so you can experience tons of arts/music and the ocean. The amount of amazing rock within 4 hours is staggering. Start looking through these threads:

mountainproject.com/v/movin…

mountainproject.com/v/reloc…

mountainproject.com/v/movin…

mountainproject.com/v/which…

mountainproject.com/v/new-n…

Good luck.

csproul wrote:Bump...what is good in different seasons? Winter options? How is the drive the Sierra East-side? What is a good day trip (i.e. within a 2 hour drive) and what makes a good weekend? I'll be there this weekend, anything that's a must-see in Sac or Davis? Best places to eat?

Have you checked out the Sierra Foothills North section? All of these places are year-round crags that are under an hour, with the most popular options being the Quarry and Cosumnes River (both are fun, but nothing super special).

CLASSIC climbing also under two hours:
Lover's Leap
Phantom Spires
Sugarloaf (year-round)
Wright's Lake

East Side driving takes about 3.5 hours to Bridgeport, and 5.5 hours to Lone Pine.

Awesome..thanks! Any ice climbing?

Some fun Bay Area rock too, probably an hour or two away (depending on where you head). If you're into mountaineering Shasta is 3 hours (and I think there's some sport climbing up there too).

Tahoe has a few spots that are supposedly okay. Lee Vining Canyon on the East side of Tuolomne is the most reliable area during the winter.

There are a dozen or so Couloirs in the high Sierras that are (supposedly) pretty good, although I think only 1 or 2 are harder than AI3.

Haven't spent much time in Sacramento, but Davis is a fantastic town. Plenty of places to eat and drink, entertainment options, and really walkable. Hot as hell though. There are gyms in both cities, and I don't think I've gone on a climbing trip in the area without meeting someone from the area.

Pat

csproul wrote:Awesome..thanks! Any ice climbing?

Mostly on the East Side, but Tahoe apparently has some: people.cs.uchicago.edu/~mam…

Maybe someone with more experience will chime in...

There is a book for winter water ice climbing and summer alpine ice climbing on the Eastside. You can pick the book up here:

maximuspress.com/shop/prodd…

Lee Vining can be very good, but avoid it like the plague on the weekends. When the couloirs are in during the summer (which is dependent on the last winter's snowfall), they can be super classic. It can be pretty sweet to combine a weekend of sunny knob climbing in Tuolumne on one day and then literally drive 10 minutes and do this on the other day:

mountainproject.com/v/north…

As someone said, there is some ice in the Tahoe area, but not much. Don't forget that Mt. Shasta is a few hours to the north because you can get some good summer ice climbing done on some of the longer routes on the north and east glaciated faces (and at 14,000+ feet to boot).