Best College for climbing

For me its a long way off (4 years) but what would you say is the best college for climbers? by that I mean either largest climbing community or best nearby climbing. To me it looks like CU might be a good one.
Note: I do not intend to use this information to pick a college... but it might influence it.

i cant claim to know much about colleges out west, but out here on the east coast, we got some good ones.

SUNY New Paltz- Gunks. im thinking about grad school up there.

I used to go to SUNY Plattsburgh, only an hour from chapel pond/ Adirondacks, Paul Smith's is closer to the 'dacks.

fer ya smart fellers, Dartmouth is centrally located for NH's White mountains and Vermont fun-ness. UNH is also surprisingly close to the whites.

My current school is a small PA school and is only 10 minutes away from the dealware water gap (Pa/Nj border) and 2 hours form the gunks. I'm never lacking for routes to climb, only time and partners

sorry to hijack, but rob, i was thinking about climbing at the water gap sometime soon but cant get my regular partner to make the drive with me, shoot me a pm and maybe we can set something up

btw, in Va, JMU is pretty good, the NRG is a few hours away, the red is 7 hours, plus a lot of local crags and really good bouldering close by.

Kevin Brooks Henry wrote:For me its a long way off (4 years) but what would you say is the best college for climbers? by that I mean either largest climbing community or best nearby climbing. To me it looks like CU might be a good one. Note: I do not intend to use this information to pick a college... but it might influence it.

Well, living in Boulder is certainly great for climbing. After moving here, I don't really want to ever leave.

That being said, college is only 4 years and you want to get a good education and prepare for your future. Unless you are at the level where you are considering becoming a professional climber, I would put other factors ahead of climbing when choosing a school. CU is mediocre at best in many fields and paying out of state tuition for a mediocre school doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless climbing is all that you care about.

Is Boulder better than most places for climbing? Yes. (There are other excellent places to climb, but I don't know of any place with a college and such easy access). But if you are looking at schools, I think Boston/NYC area offers lots of better choices (just an example, lots of good schools in CA, etc as well). Both metro areas have excellent rock gyms to visit during the week, and then you have the weekends to spend at the Gunks, which has more than enough good climbing for four years.

Or try a school like Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. It is less than an hour from Rumney, 1.5 hours from Cathedral, etc.

Besides, the best climbing season in CO is the summer... you can always look for a summer job in Boulder...

Western State

I thought this was settled several links and months ago: Chattanooga area for sure!!!

I go to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Its on the cutting edge of pretty much every science and engineering field, has one of the best political science departments in the United States, and everything else is really world class too. Plus we have a great climbing club here with over 50 years of history, and gear thats free to be used by members at any time they like. Its a great deal and a great group of people. There are also a few great places to climb, trad, boulder, and a bit of sport and ice, not far from here (less than an hour). Mainly its Devil's Lake, which will definitely make you a better climber than you could ever imagine in a lot of ways. If you can climb a Lake .11, you can climb that grade or far harder anywhere else.

However, if I could or would want to transfer, I'd go to the University of Kentucky in a heartbeat. I'd be at the Red 3 days a week.

The University of Arizona has a lifetime of climbing in the area and probably the best climbing weather during the school year of any place I can think of.

CU Boulder...everyone knows that one...

UTEP (El Paso) -> Hueco Tanks Baybee!!

UC Merced -> an hour to the Valley!

U of Oregon -> 90 mins. to Smith!

UN Las Vegas -> 40 mins. to Red Rocks!

However, if you want easy access to climbing (well, bouldering...) and proximity to the best stone on the planet check out UC Berkeley or Stanford...good luck getting in.

My Alma Mater, Colorado State University. Access to bouldering and cragging close by plus the Park....

For full disclosure, the degree I earned was worthless and I spent more time and money going to trade school for a career that really took off.

u of Utah! wasatch baby, wasatch.

and it's more than 90 mins to Smith from Eugene.

Durango, Fort Lewis College.

The school is not necessarily on the cutting edge of anything, but the chemistry dept. is well known, and the student:teacher ratio is excellent. This school tends to attract some strong caliber professors because of the location and quality of life. It's arguably better than Boulder, and I've lived in or near both places for years. (Apologies to all the current Durango residents, as they are probably going tired of the influx of people.)

-Close to the most rugged mountains in the state.
-120 miles from Indian Creek and the rest of the desert.
-About as far away from the big city as you can get and still be in the state.
-Stacks of climbing, skiing, boating, mountaineering, ice (Ouray is 70 miles) alpine routes galore, bouldering, etc.

If anyone seeks to be a well-rounded climber, this place is choice for training.

Northern Arizona University for diversity of climbing, year long climbing season, and close weekend trip proximity to many world class areas.

Mississippi State.

University of Hawaii Manoa has great surfing.

Mark Kauz wrote:I go to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Its on the cutting edge of pretty much every science and engineering field, has one of the best political science departments in the United States, and everything else is really world class too. Plus we have a great climbing club here with over 50 years of history, and gear thats free to be used by members at any time they like. Its a great deal and a great group of people. There are also a few great places to climb, trad, boulder, and a bit of sport and ice, not far from here (less than an hour). Mainly its Devil's Lake, which will definitely make you a better climber than you could ever imagine in a lot of ways. If you can climb a Lake .11, you can climb that grade or far harder anywhere else. However, if I could or would want to transfer, I'd go to the University of Kentucky in a heartbeat. I'd be at the Red 3 days a week.

Don't come to Wisconsin for climbing. Madison seems like an awesome college, and Devil's Lake is one of my favorite places in the world to climb, but I grew up an hour from the lake and can't wait to leave the Midwest.

If you chose to go to school at Madison for its academics, Devil's Lake and the local climbing community/Madison club are an awesome plus to what you're getting. If you're looking for an awesome place to climb, period, don't come to Wisconsin.

Garrett Soper wrote: If you're looking for an awesome place to climb, period, don't come to Wisconsin.

You aren't allowed back. You're going to be stopped at the borders. Just kidding. But you better bring beers if you want to climb at the Lake.

Okay, so its true, we don't have the best climbing, but for all around experience, with the good academics, great partying (like, we have been known as a top party school, and what goes better with/after climbing, right?), we're getting a new wall on campus and we have a sweet gym, its good. For outdoors, yeah, its not the best, but bouldering is developing pretty awesomely lately out here, and the Lake is great for sketchy, heady trad leads on great rock. I'll admit its not as good as Colorado or Kentucky... or Utah, or California, but its still great in its own regard.

Nevermind college picks right now (since it's 4yrs away), go be an exchange student for a year with some family out in the Chamonix valley. Or somewhere in the Dolomites, or really anywhere in the Alps. Wish I would have done that during high school.

Weber State University in Ogden Utah. Campus has a climbing wall, also it's very close to local climbing, and only an hour from SLC.

Check out CSU in Fort collins
It is 45,000$ cheaper than CU over 4 years, has some great programs and fort collins is a fun and mellow town of 100,000. Horse tooth reservoir is a premier bouldering location which is about 15 minutes from campus, RMNP is 45 mins from campus (closer than CU is), it's climbing wall is good and boulder is only about an hour drive from fort collins... also CSU has prettier women

Come on people! I think it's pretty obvious that CU has the edge over any school in the country. The school is NOT mediocre...we could have an entirely separate conversation about the number of engineers/architects/lawyers that come out of CU-Boulder. But to avoid a lame conversation about the education you could receive here, the climbing in and around Boulder County is incredible. You are within 15 minutes of bouldering, sport, and trad. Numerous climbing legends who could live and train anywhere in the country choose to live in Boulder, CO. The gyms here are in steep competition with each other, and as a result, the diversity of indoor training options here is untouchable. Oh yea...the Flatirons are here. You also wanted to know about the climbing community available. Anyone heard of the Sun? It's basically impossible to go cragging or spend a few hours out on the rock without running into someone you have MP'd with or climbed with before, or at least debated the merits of sport vs. trad with at the Sun. But it's also not too small. There are so many great people here to climb, it is impossible not to find a group of people that you can go out with and have great time. There are snobs, gym rats, tradsters from the 70s, and transplants. But that makes it great, diverse, and always interesting.