Best sport crag/area in the US

David Ywrote:

No problem: Endless is a mostly trad crag that also happens to be the best sport crag in the US. Somehow allowing Endless feels unfair though...

Waimea @ Rumney is super inspiring but maybe fails the "has good moderates" criterion? Only one 5.10 and one 5.11 (there are technically more but they don't get climbed often.) On the other hand the 10 and 11 are both strong candidates for best of their grade at Rumney.

While Waimea itself doesn't have many easy routes if you walk about 30-50 feet left you get to triple corners which has some fun moderate. And it you walk 5-10 min above Waimea you get to Jimmy cliff which is one of the most popular beginner-moderate areas at Rumney. Have had great days hopping between those 3 crags with friends climbing grades ranging from 5.7-5.13. 

Maple Canyon, Utah and Uninta Utah

Curtis Gwrote:

Maple Canyon, Utah and Uninta Utah

Are not the best sport crags in Utah. 

the schmuck wrote:

Are not the sport crags in Utah. 

As long as you don't say AF is the sport crag from Utah I'm good with this statement. 

Not that you asked but the best TR crag in the US is the gunks. Top. Ropes. Everywhere. 

Love the New vs Red debate from the jabronies. 

All of the crags on the front side at Smith share one pit toilet and therefore should be considered one continuous area for this topic. Within that small pooping radius you can find several great routes at any grade from 5.6-5.14d. I'm not sure that any other bathroom in the country provides access to such a diverse array of stellar lines.

Tal M. where is this Devils head??? what state/country?? 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Tal M. where is this Devils head??? what state/country?? 

Front Range near Denver.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Tal M. where is this Devils head??? what state/country?? 

Devil’s Head...I have a love hate relationship with Devil’s Head. There are a lot of climbs, many very good, but it has its problems. Camping and parking are a challenge to say the least, especially with the scooter crowd. Not to mention that you may be taken out by a 6 year-old tearing down Rampart Range Road at 60mph on his two stroke, going the wrong way. Then, the approaches tend to be death marches, and you will spend as much time wandering around as climbing if you are not intimately familiar with the place. 

Frank Steinwrote:

Devil’s Head...I have a love hate relationship with Devil’s Head. There are a lot of climbs, many very good, but it has its problems. Camping and parking are a challenge to say the least, especially with the scooter crowd. Not to mention that you may be taken out by a 6 year-old tearing down Rampart Range Road at 60mph on his two stroke, going the wrong way. Then, the approaches tend to be death marches, and you will spend as much time wondering around as climbing if you are not intimately familiar with the place. 

Devil's Head is awesome.  I might be a little biased as I've spent a bunch of time crashing at my buddy's place on Jackson Creek Rd.  If you can climb there weekdays its especially amazing, never been at a crag with more than one other group and its usually no one else at all.  Buy the book from Tod Anderson and you'll never wander around.  Plenty of wondering though, mostly at the beauty of the place.  Great for solitude and views of pikes peak wilderness.  Lots of great rock still ripe for development out there along Rampart as well.  I will concede the parking/camping challenge tho, and apparently its not getting any better in that regard. 

Not sure what you're driving but I think that kid will probably take himself out first if anything haha

does it really have 10 pitch sport climbs?  but no place to park a sprinter? 

Maple then the red

James Mwrote:

Not that you asked but the best TR crag in the US is the gunks. Top. Ropes. Everywhere. 

Love the New vs Red debate from the jabronies. 

Says the dude living in C-Springs   

James Mwrote:

Not that you asked but the best TR crag in the US is the gunks. Top. Ropes. Everywhere. 

Love the New vs Red debate from the jabronies. 

Great thread idea. Better than this one.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

Says the dude living in C-Springs

Seems that the dude living "anywhere dry" doesn't get the concept of modern transportation or moving...

But I am psyched to go back and climb there more, the Gunks, the New, even Safe Harbor and Birdsboro are all missed. Driving 2+ hours (or 6+) every time I wanted to climb and endless weekends of rain, are not missed.

James Mwrote:

Seems that the dude living "anywhere dry" doesn't get the concept of modern transportation or moving...

But I am psyched to go back and climb there more, the Gunks, the New, even Safe Harbor and Birdsboro are all missed. Driving 2+ hours (or 6+) every time I wanted to climb and endless weekends of rain, are not missed.

Hey no judgement, it's just funny that you think that the Red/NRG are full of jabronies to you when your local crags are GOG, Shelf, and CCC lol. My point was that some of the worst crags in WV and KY have routes that blow all those places out of the water.

Haha the jabronie comment was just referencing earlier posts in this thread (always a Red vs New debate, hotly contested even tho both places are rad)

Honestly every time I climb in WV I find something to be more stoked about. Even the little sport crags near Seneca are pretty fantastic   

There are so many good ones its hard to choose.  

For a fall/winter/spring crag the sport climbing at Red rocks near Vegas is hard to beat

Smith is epic and the history of it is cool.  One of the birthplaces of American sport climbing

Rifle is amazing and unique in its own right and has a lot more moderates than it used to.

Some of the stuff in Wyoming is really good too but not on the level of the 3 I listed above. but ten sleep, wild iris, and sinks are definitely worth the drive

Mydanswrote:

For a fall/winter/spring crag the sport climbing at Red rocks near Vegas is hard to beat

Lol red rocks isn’t even the best sport climbing near Vegas