Best College for climbing

Naropa University, in Boulder

They have a major in Contemporary Vertical Ascension

Second the University of Utah. Great school. Lifetime of climbing in the Wasatch range (within 45 minutes of campus). Do not let the 'everyone is LDS' myth scare you off. Campus is much like any other I've been to (comparing this mainly to Penn State University). The city is not all Mormon, it's a fun place. I thought long and hard about the decision, got into many other good schools with great climbing (UT Chattanooga, UC Denver, UK etc.) I chose the U. Never looked back. Cannot beat the diversity of rock types here. Little Cottonwood bouldering is 20 minutes from downtown...best decision I ever made. Also as far as gyms go there is The Front and Momentum (both great). Out of state tuition is expensive, but the U likes to accept out of state students as they have a high rate of in state students compared to many schools.

Mark Kauz wrote: 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.

Haha, no I agree. I love Devil's Lake. It's absolutely my favorite place anywhere to go climbing. The problem is that I still have to drive an hour to get there, everything is basically one pitch, and winter leaves only a few sunny, kinda warm days to get out there. I'm super thankful that I do have the lake, but hopefully I won't be living in the Midwest when I'm done with college and whatnot.

I am not looking to got to college, but judging from the answers here, Ft. Lewis, or NAU look like the best schools for close proximity to climbing. Of course, Boulder is pretty hard to beat.

Bill Duncan wrote: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.

+10

Stanford (good education, good climbing, and great climbing community) -- hey you have four years to get your grades up =)
UC Davis

Check out Prescott College in Prescott Arizona

Its within two hours of some of the best climbing in Arizona and you can take classes on rock climbing! No joke you can take month long or semester long classes on how to progress from basic top rope climbing all the way to multi-pitch trad leading. I am a current student @ Prescott college and have gone to colleges in both Squamish BC and Durango CO and I get to climb more often here.

And there is a great climbing community.

Without a doubt, The Colorado College is the best combination of education, location, and high concentration of dedicated climbers. Check out the CC Alpine Journal. Garden of the Gods, Turkey Rocks, the Black, the Park, you name it, and CC has crushed it. coloradocollege.edu/campusa…
-Joe

Lauer wrote: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.

Seriously, Tucson is an amazing "climbing city." I am always surprised that it is not mentioned more in these discussions. When attending the U of A , I would often go to Mount Lemmon and climb after classes. The Lemmon is awesome and it literally has a lifetime of routes. Given the diversity of the elevation, you can ALWAYS find a place to climb and there is never an off-season. If you want variety, you have J-Tree, Cochise, Queen Creek and a huge number of other climbing destinations within a few hours drive. I have not lived in Tucson for almost 15 years, but I believe that the cost of living is still fairly reasonable and that it has a great climbing community.

Oh yeah... the U of A is a good school also. ;)

When you get to that point of seriously looking at schools, check out UMass Amherst, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Amherst College in Western Mass. All are good schools and you are within 2-4hrs of popular climbing areas like Rumney, Gunks and Daks plus about 45mins from Farley which has good single pitch rock/ice and great bouldering. Also there are a ton of boulders(big ones at that) scattered throughout that area that are waiting some FA's. Most have been found and cleaned by a local that I know.

CU Boulder is amazing. I've been a student in the physiology department for about 4 years now, and it has been an excellent educational experience. Great professors, awesome campus... SO MUCH GREAT CLIMBING!!! It really is hard to beat. Another good one would be Fort Lewis in Durango. As people have said before it's an awesome town with lots of great climbing, mountain biking, pretty much everything fun to do in the outdoors.

The climbing in and around Boulder is WAY over hyped. There are some good routes here and there, but in terms of world class climbing, nope. If you're just looking for sheer quantity of climbing to be had, sure thing, there's a boatload of rock...but 75% of it is mediocre. You'll be entertained for a little while, but then you'll turn out like most other people here and spend the majority of your time figuring out how to leave Boulder and go elsewhere to climb.

I've lived here 2 years and am all set on the climbing...leaving for Chattanooga in the fall to start grad school.

I'd 2nd Western Mass...amazing people, amazing rock, fantastic climbing zones. Good schools...which is what's most important.

wow blake, ever been to eldo? hundreds, if thot thousands, of great routes. i guess its just a matter of preference.

back on topic. I attended CSU (great access to bouldering, vedauwoo 1 hr, lumpy ridge/rmnp 1 hr, eldorado/boulder canyon/etc 1hr.--hard to beat for the proximity to a variety of great climbing). Also went to Univ. of Wyoming which was great, but vedauwoo has a fairly short season. Finally, went to UK, which is an hour from the red river gorge; pretty hard to beat for a sport climber.

anyway kevin, lots of great schools/locations mentioned in the above posts. i think its freakin awesome that with four years to go you are already thinking about college and climbing. the world could use some more educated climbres.

I went to school at the University of Kentucky. If you want to climb at the Red regularly, this is THE place to go to school. I mean, you can be at Miguel's in 45 minutes (a little more depending on where you live in Lexington). School is in session during the prime climbing seasons (fall and spring). So you climb a few days a week during the prime season, and then in the summer when the temps/humidity get too hot, it doesn't matter because you don't have school and you can dirtbag it to Colorado where the season is just getting perfect.

This is pretty much what I did for my last two years of college and it was excellent.

The school has a rock wall but it really isn't' much if you are trying to train for harder grades. And there isn't a gym in town so that is pretty weak. however, I know of at least three home gyms that allow more or less anyone to come and climb any time you want. The one I frequented had one of the sickest bouldering caves I've climbed on indoors.

Getting an education at UK is really cheap compared to other schools. We have a lot of out of state people come to UK because out of state tuition there is still cheaper than in-state tuition at other state schools like OSU (we have a huge ohioan population for that reason). The cost of living is also pretty low. You can get an apartment split with a few friends for 350 each if you live a couple of miles off of campus.

Yeah, I love Eldo, climb there a ton...but it's not enough to make me want to live here. There are way better climbing areas IMO. Yes, probably a matter of preference.

Grant Gerhard wrote:also CSU has prettier women

Obviously you have never been to a CU vs CSU game and seen who is wearing gold and who is wearing green.

Appalachian State University for the boulderer/tradsters! Good luck getting a job.

Wasted State (Western State) in Gunnison is the ticket if you're looking for world class climbing in a "relaxed" atmosphere. World class mountaineering, ice climbing, and rock climbing are all within an hour or two's drive. The nearby local climbing, Hartman's for after class bouldering and Taylor Canyon for multipitch hardcore trad, are 30 min. away.

Not to mention the friendly locals!

mountainproject.com/v/color…

To emphasize how good the local climbing is there, my grade point average after my first year and a half was a 0.7!

And then if you want to add skiing, Crested Butte is 30min away, and the surrounding mountains have arguably some of the best back country skiing there is. Think champagne powder, not Sierra cement or Vermont blue boilerplate.

Of course if you like the hectic, high profile limelight, there's always CU Boulder.

Joe Forrester wrote:Without a doubt, The Colorado College is the best combination of education, location, and high concentration of dedicated climbers. Check out the CC Alpine Journal. Garden of the Gods, Turkey Rocks, the Black, the Park, you name it, and CC has crushed it. coloradocollege.edu/campusa… -Joe

+1 for Colorado College. Great education, not exactly cheap...but as far as climbing, its in colorado springs (50 minutes south of Denver). So, close to shelf road and south Platte areas, but the real key to it is the schedule they have there....Its on a 'block plan', so you take 1 class for 3.5 weeks, then the next class, and so on, in 8 blocks through the school year. The beauty of this system is the time between blocks; you get wed-sun off with NOTHING (no projects, papers etc) hanging over your head. So basically a mini spring break every month to climb/ski/etc wherever you want.

Hey Bro, I'm a pimp for Boulder, and a Colorado alumni. There are lots of great choices out there, but when you consider the combination of weather, accessibility and community, there's nothing to equal Boulder and CU. No matter what anyone tells you, there is no school in the US that is of the caliber of CU with climbing as close and accessible. You can literally be climbing here 15 minutes after getting out of class on world class routes. Sport, trad, multi pitch, bouldering, whatever you're looking for. And you can climb in Boulder all winter as well: the best days in Eldorado Canyon are typically in the winter. As a counterpoint, I've tried to climb at the T-Wall in Tennessee 3 times with only one successful outing. One time in August it was simply too hot. You honestly could not touch the rock. One time in February it was too cold and miserable. The 'wintry mix' was in effect. Same thing in New Paltz, and truly anywhere east of the Mississippi you're going to have limited climbing days. No matter what anyone tells you, there is no school in the US that is of the caliber of CU with climbing as close and accessible and as many climbable days a year.
If you're really into climbing and you want to go to school, work and climb almost every day, there is no place that compares. If you want to go somewhere that you can talk about the climbing accessibility in terms of hours, there are lots of choices, but if you want to talk about it in terms of minutes, there's only CU. IMO if the climbing is more than a few minutes away, you're relegated to weekend warrior status. Only in Boulder is the climbing close enough that you can climb outdoors the way people in other locales climb at the gym. And with all respect to Blake Cash, he's totally wrong about the climbing here. It is if anything underrated. Some people just don't like Boulder and go out of their way to trash it. But the reality is that the climbing within an easy hour of Boulder is pretty much unlimited. Eldo is not even climbed out. New routes go up all the time and the Flatirons are the same. There would be as many routes within cycling distance of your dorm room than in all of JTree. And the rock quality is great. Now that being said, you do have to be a competent, even bold trad climber to take full advantage of it. Which is why some people cannot appreciate it. I had some Swiss friend visit me once and they showed up with a rack of quick draws and a rope and they were disappointed with the trip. They were impressed by Eldo, but they couldn't get off the ground.