HELP ME PLAN MY CLIMBING TRIP THIS SUMMER

I'm also starting to plan a road trip this summer! Thinking of hitting up City of Rocks June 26-27 on the way to Smith. Unless somewhere nearby is better? (have some time constraints otherwise I'd stay longer and explore)

Classic areas out West with many traditional multipitch routes and not too hot:

devils tower - chase the shade - share a campsite to save money

RMNP - free once you pack in

Wind rivers - deep lake, cirque areas for large number of routes in one place at many grades - free

Elephants perch in Sawtooths - free except for the boat ride

Squamish - share a site

entire east side of Sierras - free

Tuolomne- share a site

Needles - chase the shade, free

city of rocks - chase the shade but not multipitch in general - better to just chill out and re- energize for the mountains. Free if you go outside to camp or share a site right in the park

Canmore area in Alberta - depends on where you go for camp costs

Bugaboos- hut fees 

Tetons- free once you hike in

Be sure to check snow depth prior to planning trips as many of these mountain areas are snowed in until early to mid July. It just started to really snow in the southern areas which might lead to a June that is hard to get in to higher altitudes. With the exception of a few of these you can get all the climbing beta and approach info off this web site as you will probably be doing one big route a day. For places like the city and needles and Tuolomne and Squamish a guidebook will save you a lot of hassle when searching for routes as you can do many per day.

During the summer it is way too hot in Southern Utah and Red rocks and J tree or Yosemite to justify a road trip there in the summer when you could as easily go to these other special places further north or higher altitude - some which have very short climbing seasons. Realize that most of the trad routes in a few of these mountain areas are old school and the ratings don’t really correlate with gym ratings so choose somewhere with a broad range of grades near and a bit below your comfortable leading limit so you don’t go there and get skunked after all the effort required to hike in and set up a camp. If you want single pitch or sport climbs there are many areas between these places for more casual or shorter days.

Have fun! A lifetime of memories await you.

lsning wrote:

I'm also starting to plan a road trip this summer! Thinking of hitting up City of Rocks June 26-27 on the way to Smith. Unless somewhere nearby is better? (have some time constraints otherwise I'd stay longer and explore)

I think your post got missed. City is awesome, but what were you after? Nearer to Smith? Where are you driving from?

Best, OLH

Driving from Denver to Smith, looking for a good 1-2 day stop to break up the drive. I mostly sport climb.

lsning wrote: Driving from Denver to Smith, looking for a good 1-2 day stop to break up the drive. I mostly sport climb.

City of Rocks/Castle rocks would be good, then! Hit up the hot springs in town while you're there. Sport climbs galore, and almost everyone there will be there for climbing.

I would do Sierras to Squamish stopping at Mammoth/June Lake area, Yosemite (Tuolumne), Lake Tahoe and Shasta or Baker if you want some alpine.  I could personally be happy for three months in just the Sierras, but if you want a road trip in summer, that's what I'd pick.

Squamish! I was there for two weeks in July and wish I could've stayed the whole summer.