Top 10 Best Climbing States

I love how Montana is never considered. I know that there are not the destinations as in other states but consider the whole states climbing rather than a single location in another state, and i think it would make the list. or maybe people just dont know how good it is there, which is another reason its so good!

Jon Moen wrote:Taking some liberties with state lines, here is a list of what seems, to me, to be a good ranking of climbing regions. My lines are, of course, totally arbitrary. For instance, I lumped Zion in with Red Rocks, instead of with Moab. This is just a function of how the geography has coalesced in my mind and experience. You could categorize this things differently, if you wanted. The order is also pretty arbitrary; all of these places are great. I also did include bouldering, since I think that bouldering is a really important aspect of climbing. 1 The Sierra Nevada. Includes foothills. Tahoe to the Needles, Jailhouse to the Eastside. Somewhat limited with regard to sport climbing, and overwhelmingly heavy on the granite, but otherwise our best collection of world-class areas for bouldering, trad cragging, alpine rock, and big walling. 2. Western Slope and Colorado Plateau. Rifle, the Black, Ouray, Moab, the Creek, etc. Definitely the best variety in rock types and climbing styles of any region. I am arbitrarily putting the Wasatch crags separately- it is a separate mountain range that, unlike the La Sals, doesn't touch the CO border. 3. Vegas-St. George: Covers 4 states, but cleanly linked together by climate, geology, and, above all, I-15. Includes Red Rocks, Charleston, Clark Mtn, VRG, Utah Hills, Zion, and all sorts of other stuff. Holy cow, thats a lot! The only reason that this isn't in second place if that I like the Creek too much. Again rather arbitrary, but this is my post, dammit! 4. Da' Red: A region unto itself, albeit a very compact one. Perhaps the best concentration of sport climbing in the english speaking world. You could, conceivably, include this together with the New as one region, since they are only 4 hours apart. Now that would be something- lets do it. Ok, Red + New. World class sport climbing in the midwest. WTF? 5.Rainy granite in the PNW: Index, North Cascade alpine, Gold Bar, Leavenworth (less rainy), Exits 32&38, etc. I think that Squamish should be lumped in here as well, due to similarities in climate and geology, plus just being really nearby. 6. Canadian Rockies: If we are going to include Squamish, we should probably also give some credit to Canada's other mega-destination. Ice, ice, baby. Lots o' rock, too, especially if you like choss. There's even some solid stuff to be found. Remember- the Bugaboos are a part of the Can. Rockies. Oh dang. 7. NW Wyoming & North-central Wyoming. A big enough state that you can break it up a bit. Tetons, Winds, Lander, Tensleep, Cody go in this section. I excluded Devil's Tower from this region since it is geologically linked to the Black Hills, and Vedauwoo because of it's proximity to the Front Range. 8. TAG. Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia. Basically the 2-hour radius circle around Chattanooga. Hope you like sandstone. 9: Northern Utah: Wasatch, Uintas, Wasatch Plateau (includes Joes). Maybe City of Rocks could get thrown in here as well, since it is just across a state line. 10. Front Range: Shelf to Vedauwoo. Eldo, Splatte, RMNP, CCC, and much more. Lots of variety, year round season. 11. Black Hills: SD plus far NE WY. Needles, Rushmore, Spearfish, VC, Devil's Tower. It is tempting to also try to put Tensleep in here too, but it geologically belongs to Wyoming. 12. Hueco + Southern NM. Some obscure limestone sport climbingand one very-not-obscure bouldering area. Ends up so far down the list, despite the obvious quality of the bouldering, because it doesn't have the variety in climbing styles of the other areas. 13: New England: Nice little crags and quaint little villages. Great climbing, and year-round if you also like ice. Lake Willoughby alone bumps this to near the top for ice. You could also include the Dacks and maybe even the gunks in this catagory. If only it would stop sleeting. 14: Northern Arizona: Not an area I know all that well, or I may have ranked it higher. Sounds cool, though 14.5: Southern Arizona: again, not an area I know well. Should these two areas be separated? Who cares? 15: North Carolina: Why so far down the list? I haven't climbed here much, so I don't quite know how to rank it. I've only climbed in the Cashiers area, which was a bit too much scary slab for my taste. Boone sounds cool, though. Not much sport climbing, though, which is a major detractor for me. 16: SoCal. Generally overrated, if you ask me. The weather is nice, but the climbing never seemed that special to me. Hooray for slab! J-Tree is grainy choss. Yes, the trees look weird, but you could have the same experience, and save yourself the planefare, by dropping some acid. Still, SoCal deserves a place on the list because of history, climate, and the fact that so many people inexplicably love the climbing. I just don't get it. 17-25: Much, much more. I've thus far ignored the great climbing in Montana, Central Oregon, Idaho, NW Arkansas, Northern NM, Quebec, and more. Not to mention the worthwhile, although not destination quality, climbing of the Bay Area, Wisconsin, the mid-Atlantic, Oklahoma, Austin area, So. Illinois, etc. There is a lot of climbing out there...

Nice collection and organization. Takes into account geological similarity and region, not state boundaries.

Where's the West Virginny respect?!

NRG and Seneca.....not to mention coopers as a nice complimentary touch

WV would have to be above KY b/c of these reasons but below TN in my opinion.

Jon Moen wrote:J-Tree is grainy choss. Yes, the trees look weird, but you could have the same experience, and save yourself the planefare, by dropping some acid.

LOL!! But a little off. On the odd 70 degree January day, after solid routes in Echo Cove and the Wonderland, maybe throw in Bachar playing soulful sax...

Yes, this is sounding like a trip, isn't it? But the memories are real, and it's not all choss.

Thoughful list and grouping, though.

Ian Cavanaugh wrote:I love how Montana is never considered. I know that there are not the destinations as in other states but consider the whole states climbing rather than a single location in another state, and i think it would make the list. or maybe people just dont know how good it is there, which is another reason its so good!

Woah there! Montana is one giant choss pile! Nothing good here! I recommend you don't make the drive.

I like Milf's list as well as the others. Wyoming and Utah are hard to beat!

Josh, joke's as old as "See you next year" in the last week of December. But curious, what non-chossy rock is there in MT?

Edit: Question is not meant to be pointed (apart from the slap at the cheesy "stay-outa-my-state" joke). I'm not familiar with Montana rock.

Yeah it's an overused attempt to hide some of the quality here. There actually is quite a bit of very high quality rock here. Down the Bitterroot there are the big walls of Blodgett Canyon, a plethora of excellent mixed pro routes in Kootenai, Lost Horse Canyon as well as many other great smaller crags.

Up North there is Stone Hill which is pretty high quality. Most of the rock up here isn't published online or in books. If you're in Montana hit up the Bitterroot.

California's got my pick... does any other state have a 3000 foot wall with a ten minute approach? how about the highest peak in the lower 48? cheers!

Tristan Higbee wrote: I've never been to Tennessee or Kentucky but does the amount and quality of climbing there compare with Idaho's City of Rocks, Castle Rocks, Massacre Rocks, and the Sawtooth Range?

Do apples taste as good as oranges? Can't really compare the two as the Sawtooths and Red River Gorge are two completely different areas. But yes there is a shitload of high quality climbing in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Mike Anderson wrote: If so, I have a major beef with California...it has great granite climbing, but not near the variety of many other states on your list.

You might want to look into california a little closer. In just the San Francisco bay area you can climb on multiple kinds of volcanic rock, granite, limestone, sandstone, and others like serpentine.

Please leave NC off of any list that will increase traffic at our crags, and don't move to Asheville. Chattanooga will better suit you in every way.

The length of the climbing season has to be taken into consideration.

1. Utah - variety of rock, amazing landscapes
2. California
3. Arizona - more climbing days per year than almost any other state, huge variety of rock.
4. Colorado
5. Wyoming

Lower on the list are east coast states which have incredible climbing but shorter seasons - West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee.

Eric D wrote:The length of the climbing season has to be taken into consideration. Lower on the list are east coast states which have incredible climbing but shorter seasons - North Carolina, Tennessee.

that's such BS! I have consistently climbed every month of the year in the SE. No doubt out west is drier, but the season runs year round over here...you just might have to harden up a bit!!

Never mind it always rains down here, the winters suck cause its cold and we dont get ice, and everything is super runout slab fests that ensure the rampant use of depends.

Along with the weather arguments for the Southeast not making any top ten lists, there is also a relative lack of geologic diversity if we are using state boundaries as criteria for "best' status. The showpiece crags in KY, TN, or WV are all sandstone. Yes, I know that the sandstone weathers into incredibly diverse features (especially at the New), but this really pales in comparison to a place like, say Flagstaff, Arizona, where within a three hour drive you have quality sandstone, basalt, granite/quartz monzonite, and limestone. NC has a bit more diverse a selection, with both granite and some metamorphics, but it lacks diversity in styles (i.e., very little sport climbing).

Along the same lines, the thing that differentiates the Southeast from Western climbing areas is that fact that the climbing in ALL Southeastern states congregates around the same geological feature: The Appalachians (with exception of Piedmont areas like Moore's Wall, and maybe Boatrock in Atlanta). Contrast this to places like UT, ID, WY, or AZ, where there are multiple, intersecting geological features within the same states. The result is not only more diversity in the West, but more likelihood that if one area has shit weather, you can find another that does not; it is common in the Southeast that if one area is wet, they all are, were, or will be shortly.

Finally, it is a bit stupid to list top climbing "states," since most states– especially the "square" ones of the West– were politically designated with little regard for topographical boundaries. Las Vegas is an awesome climbing city because it is so near diverse rock (Jtree, Red Rocks, VRG, Zion), but the rock of Nevada is much less impressive (Red Rocks, Mt. Charleston, and some random basin and range crags?). For this reason, it would be better to list top climbing cities, or top climbing regions, like the Front Range, central Appalachia, The Canyon Country, or the Sierras' East Side, some of which lie within one state, others of which do not.

Anyway, beyond all this pontificaton, here's my list, based on first hand experience with diversity of rock, styles, and season:

1. Utah
2. Arizona
3. Wyoming
4. Colorado
5. California
6. Idaho
7. Nevada
8. West Virginia
9. Tennessee
10. North Carolina
11. New York

Some places are just hard to rank. Arizona has HUGE amounts of very mediocre climbing, but amazing weather. Contrast that to Oregon and Washington with smaller amounts of extremely good climbing and terrible weather.

Honestly, I'm not sure which one I prefer.

"NC has a bit more diverse a selection, with both granite and some metamorphics, but it lacks diversity in styles (i.e., very little sport climbing)."

Yes, we like that it has very little sport climbing.

Shawn Mitchell wrote:Josh, joke's as old as "See you next year" in the last week of December. But curious, what non-chossy rock is there in MT? Edit: Question is not meant to be pointed (apart from the slap at the cheesy "stay-outa-my-state" joke). I'm not familiar with Montana rock.

Montana has lots of great rock form the granite of the bitterroots and the beartooths, limestone bigwalls of blackleaf, Gneiss and limestone in the gallatin canyon, sandstone in billings, and the granite of the butte batholith. if you like exciting climbing and exploring new rock this is the place to go. There is an unlimited supply of new rock to be developed! and the reason im telling you this is because i know that no matter how much i talk it up and who i tell, no one is going to move there!

New England is not a state.

I created an online survey so we can do this more systematically (and b/c I'm a data geek). Only #1 is required. Will post the results.

rock_fencer wrote: that's such BS! I have consistently climbed every month of the year in the SE. No doubt out west is drier, but the season runs year round over here...you just might have to harden up a bit!!

Being "able" to climb all year and enjoying climbing all year are two different things. When choosing between:
a) Wet springs in which most weekends have a 50% chance of rain. Hot, humid summers. Cold winters.
b) Little rain (I got rained out of climbing only three times in five years in Tucson, AZ). No humidity. Controlling your temps year round by either gaining or losing elevation, resulting in pretty much perfect climbing temps every month of the year.

I will choose B. But, if A sounds more appealing to you, to each their own.