What’s it like living in Portland?

I looking at potential job opportunity in Portland, I’m wondering what the climbing community is like out there. There seems to be some decent steep crags close by as well as smith and other crags within a 3-4 hour drive. How are the gyms? What is the climbing season?
Any beta would be great! 

Climbing season in the city is most dependable in the summer when the rain is not in full force, every so often it dries out enough in the winter to hit the crags for a day or two. Fall and Spring are hit and miss.

Local crags (as with most places, raptor closures impact local crags in the spring):

- Broughton bluff (trad and sport)- state park, about 25min from downtown (be wary of poison oak, I've not had problems with it but many have)

- Rocky Butte(mainly top rope)- area park, about 5 min from downtown (be wary of the campers at the base of the cliff, and sometimes syringes/trash at the base of climbs)

- Ozone(more sport than trad)- cliff band overlooking the gorge, gorgeous views for the top outs, super busy on weekends

- Carver(trad, sport, boulders)- private property- need to pay a 5 dollar membership fee at a local gym and get a card (the landowner is pretty on top of this and will kick you off the property)

- Mt Hood- various crags scattered throughout the national forest, French's dome (sport) and Klinger Springs (trad) are probably the best options 1-1.5 hour drive. If you are into mountaineering of skiing living in Portland is a big plus.

-Smith- needs no introduction, year round climbing, get a state parks pass

- Trout Creek- basalt column single pitch crack destination, long approach, 2-3 hour drive

- Horsethief butte (bouldering and top rope)- longer drive (1.5hours), but will oftentimes be dry when other areas are not

- Beacon Rock (mainly trad)- 1 hour drive, great long routes, have to wait for the raptor closures to lift in the early summer

Weather: this is a pretty good dashboard that someone threw together, http://pdx.toorainy.com/

Gyms:

- Planet Granite (lead, sport, boulder)- clean, new, big, have to pay for parking

- Portland Rock Gym (lead, sport, boulder)- clean, older, medium, street parking available

- Circuit Bouldering (bouldering), various locations, street parking or lot parking available

Passes:

-Northwest forest pass- generally covers Mt hood in the summer, spring, fall

- Oregon State Parks Pass- Covers smith rock

- Washington state parks- covers horsethief

- Washington sno-park pass- covers mt st helens hike/ski

- Oregon sno park pass- covers mt hood in the winter

I will add that living in the city is...fine.

The protests don't really impact your day to day unless you live next to the federal courthouse. However if you street park you may walk out to your car in the morning to find that someone broke into it, smoked a cigarette inside your car, ashed it into your cupholder, and then ate half a pack of strawberry now-and-laters. 

On the downside your car now smells like cigarettes, but on the upside you now have some strawberry now-and-laters to snack on.

You are also pretty close to WA Cascade climbing for a long weekend trip, if that's volcano / alpine climbing to rock climbing (all aspects).  

Saint Helens: 2hrs

Adams: 2hrs

Rainier: 3hrs

INDEX: 4hrs

Vantage: 4hrs

Leavenworth/Stuart Range/Enchantments: 4-5hrs

North Cascade NP: 4-5hrs 

Baker: 5hrs

*all rough estimates without traffic

Mike Cwrote:

However if you street park you may walk out to your car in the morning to find that someone broke into it, smoked a cigarette inside your car, ashed it into your cupholder, and then ate half a pack of strawberry now-and-laters. 

On the downside your car now smells like cigarettes, but on the upside you now have some strawberry now-and-laters to snack on.

Can Confirm. 

First off, wcayer, nice work on Pinch Fest at Ruckman Cave.  That thing is so good (but also so slimy). 

Local Climbing is remarkably good in the 5.11+ to 5.12+ range.  Climbing at Bat Wall at Broughton is objectively fantastic (albeit very stylistic and technical)- It stays dry nearly every day of the year.  As far as steep climbing, Viento is really fun and thuggy in the Summer and shoulder seasons.  Obviously, Smith Rock is the favorite weekend trip, and a worthy spot to frequent.  Other areas that people outside the PNW may not hear much of are, Index (mentioned above) and Trout Creek.  Two world class climbing venues.  

Portland kind of sucks right now.  I used to think it was the dopest city ever, but I just dont feel that way anymore.  Without ruffling too many feathers, I think we can all agree that Homelessness (lack of affordable housing) is a massive problem.  Untreated Drug addiction and mental illness are ubiquitous.   

One of the proudest moments as a Portlander was marching across the Burnside Bridge with thousands of people Honoring George Floyd and demanding justice and change. 

Now I just read the local news every day and shake my head as Leftist, Anarchist, chaos junkies, white saviors, etc vandalize businesses night after night after effing night.

Night after night after night of vandalism??? I'd check the date on whatever headlines you are looking at.

Portland certainly sucks, but so does the covid world.

MattBwrote:

Night after night after night of vandalism??? I'd check the date on whatever headlines you are looking at.

Portland certainly sucks, but so does the covid world.

Raise your hand if you work in downtown Portland. 

Raise your hand if your place of work has been vandalized this week.

Raise your hand if you’ve lost income cause your place of work has been closed do you concerns of public safety.

Sorry all that's happening to you, really am. 

My bike was stolen last week.... probably by one of the tent dwellers or RV caravan peeps in my hood, the ones I help out (just barely) and encounter everyday. I don't blame them all, just the one or two or three that did it. Oh, and that bike is what I use for work. Having known a dozen or so of my local homeless for years, they are some good people, and some major scum. 

Vandals suck... but the lowly vandals/ looters have very little to do with political leanings. It's just angry, short-sighted fools, who listen to loud angry fools. Politics is the new religion. 

Fact: rightists have never heard of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli or Reichstag Fires, nor dumpster fires. Everything is as it seems

Thanks for the info all, didn’t mean to this to get political. I’m in California so the homeless situation doesn’t really bug me too much.

Seems that there is some decent climbing within 2 hours. Probably better than what I have now, a little further from truly world class trad and bouldering though, bishop and Yosemite are 6 hours for me. I’m mostly into sport climbing, but also like trad and bouldering bit. Not really into mountaineering much.

How are the vineto wall and cave? Looks like some good concentrated sport climbing.

I’m getting pretty psyched to being closer to some Washington crags that I have never been to. 

wcaylerwrote:

How are the vineto wall and cave? Looks like some good concentrated sport climbing.

Viento is really fun hero climbing, steep with good holds all facing the wrong way, lots of knee bars.  It's definitely chossy.  Of note, despite being steep, Viento typically seeps in the winter and is too shady and windy for climbing.  I'm sure you'll learn to love Smith Rock once you get used to the style.  Bat wall (Broughton) which is dead vert stays dry pretty much all winter,  its very reasonable to climb their every month of the year. 

Sorry to make it political (though that's one thing Portlanders do best, the PDX climbing community too).  Needless to say,  Portland truly is a rad place.  Great food, beer, coffee, music venues, cycling infrastructure, good vibes, chill people, lots of climbing gyms, immediate access to descent climbing, access to tons of hiking, mtn biking, ww kayaking, wind surfing, skiing. Its a very health conscious place, a huge focus on the outdoors, running, local food.  Its cheaper than Seattle or SF or LA. 

If you climb 5.12 sport, you'll stay busy with local projects year round for a quite while, without having to drive more than an hour.