Best 5.8's and Down in North America

While you are in the Northeast, you should definitely check out the '8 and unders' at Ragged Mt. and other Connecticut traprock crags. They are an easy day trip from West Point and, though short, the quality of the climbing itself is often excellent. At Ragged there are many classics in that grade range ( though these are 'Connecticut grades'--you have been warned!!!), including Broadway, Knight's Gambit, Weissner Slab finished via either Weissner or Tower Cracks, Vector--as the routes names indicate, most of them first climbed by Fritz Weissner in the mid-1930s and quite probably the hardest technical climbs in the country at the time.

Following on the historic, Weissner theme, at East Peak, Rat Crack is a true 'adventure'. Black  Corner in the same section of the crag is a good 5.8.

At Cathole, Pegasus is a classic inside corner. Pinnacle Rock also has multiple easier classics, including First, Second, and Third Cracks ( creative route naming!!!) and at 5.8, Zambezi Hatchet Head and Emerald City. If you don't feel up to leading--often committing in CT, setting up TRs is definitely easier at the latter 2 crags than it is at Ragged.

I recommended a lot here--and there are plenty more, but it is close enough for several visits and a nice change from the Gunks.

Buck Rogers wrote:

Yes!  That is where I am.  So beautiful here!

Going to go to Rumney and the Gunks a bunch as I have two years left here.

 Also the Daks and Cannon/Whites to hit a few there that I did not do growing up, like Moby Grape, NE Ridge of Pinnacle Gully with the Fairy Tale Traverse, Gamesmanship, and The Diagonal.

And it has been my pleasure to serve but it is getting old now after 25 years and recent changes!

Time to get out and go climbing before all of the airborne jumps and deployments and rucking put the final nail in the coffin of hard hiking and climbing for me!

 

Add the 5.6 slab on Gothics, not the greatest climbing but certainly the greatest setting of any climb in NY, except maybe for Rogers Rock, there’s also some mega fun 5.8 multi pitch there.

and upper washbowl... 

Watch those 5.8 and some of the 5.7 at Seneca if that's your upper end. They never disapoint, but they can take you for a ride on the sandbag express.

Good luck and thank you for your service.

Haha, you can't begin to hit up all the good 5.8's and under in just six months! I'm going to add some possibilities that might not be showing up in other recs.  Of course, the nearby Gunks has an amazing collection, but one not so often mentioned is Westward Ha! which I think is the best 5.7 in the Gunks.

Depending on how you map out your itinerary, the Needles in Custer SP could be a good option (especially if you are thinking of Devil's Tower and the Tetons).  If so, the Conn Route on the Outer Outlet is one of the county's best 5.7's, 

and while you're there you might as well climb Cerberus (5.8).

 I'd continue on to Devil's Tower and do the Durrance Route (5.7), and then head to the Tetons.  Once you get into August, most Teton routes are just rock-climbing; the snow is mostly gone.  Irene's Arete is a classic 5.8, and any of the three ridges on the South side of Symmetry Spire (Durrance, Southwest, and Jensen) are great, and the Guide's Wall on Storm Point is an easy day out of Cascade Canyon.  But nice (and nowadays crowded) as all those are, I think I'd head instead for the Direct South Ridge of Nez Perce

And then there is Colorado...I don't know where to begin.  I think Eldorado Canyon is like the Gunks in that there are so many good routes, it is hard to pick one out, but Ruper at 5.8 is long and varied (just don't get your knee stuck on the offwidth crack...)

rgold wrote:

Haha, you can't begin to hit up all the good 5.8's and under in just six months! I'm going to add some possibilities that might not be showing up in other recs.  Of course, the nearby Gunks has an amazing collection, but one not so often mentioned is Westward Ha! which I think is the best 5.7 in the Gunks.

Ha!  Hell Rich!  I do not have Delusions of Grandeur here!

I know that there's no way to hit anywhere near all of the best 5.8's and down in all of North America in 6 months!

I'm just looking for suggestions from people all over the place with more experience than me and then I'll try to knock a few out over the next few years and then pick the ones that look the best to me to hit on my dream road trip!

And I appreciate your suggestions as well!  I've led Durrance (seemed more like .8+++ with all the polished holds when I did it two years ago!).  And I spent some time in Eldo doing Rewritten and Bastille and a few others as well as RMNP on the Petite Grepon and Sharkstooth.  Such great areas!

I'll have to con someone into leading Westward Ha! for me soon!

;)

Thanks again!  Climbing High E with you a few years ago is still one of my fondest memories on a day out!

Cerebus is pretty serious... But yes the Black Hills are amazing. 

If you make it to North Carolina Zoo View at Moores Wall is stellar. It might be the worlds steepest 5.7.  Then there are some long beautiful moderates in Linville Gorge like the Daddy (5 pitch 5.6) that you might find enjoyable and Looking Glass rock which has the Nose and Sundial crack which are both 4 start 4 pitch 5,8s.