Where in the world can you climb without a car

Train / bus / cable car gets you pretty far in Switzerland.

Car not needed for access to lots of limestone cragging, 20+ pitch alpine adventures, cresciano granite boulders, and everything in between. "Long approach" means more than 30 min walking...

The key to climbing without your own car is to know someone that has one. I know this.

Maybe no one has mentioned it because Boulder is kind of a cliche, but Boulder is by far the best place I can think of for access to lots of high quality climbing without a car. All of Eldo, the Flatirons, lower Boulder Canyon, plus tons of great bouldering are relatively short bike/bus rides away.

If you want to take a climbing vacation I would say Krabi, Thailand or Halong Bay, Vietnam. Ticket there is expensive, but once you're there everything else is dirt cheap. I can't speak from personal experience for Halong, but I went to Railay (where you climb in Krabi) last December and it is awesome. You can rent a private bungalow for 10 bucks a night, there hundreds of quality routes on these gorgeous limestone walls right on the beach. Best part, from your bungalow you can walk to it all, get pad thai from a boat on the beach, then go out to a bar afterwards. There aren't roads, you have to take a boat to get there. Oh, and there is deep water soloing.

The minimum wage there is not so good... so I wouldn't suggest moving there and getting a job. But you can live on very little for a long while.

squamish ...

Dude, my clutch went out on Friday and I'm ready for that thing to be running again. Even a beater car is worth it. Plus, it sure helps when you can drive to the gf's house, knowamean? Get that 1993 Geo Prism and put a bike rack on it.

boulder

Going carless and you lose out on the experience of driving 450 miles on a road trip in a vehicle you barely trust enough to get you to the grocery store. Oh, the nights driving home in the dread of night staring at the temperature gauge and seeing it creep up higher and higher. The sick, depressing sound of a dying starter on a cold morning. The ill feeling of a clutch pedal going to the floor and staying there.

And what, you are trading that for stiff bike seats, numb palms, and grinding bike gears in the rain? Yeah, it hasn't rained on me yet, but it's coming I'm sure. Ha ha ha.

It rains on me quite a bit up here, but you get used to it. And you buy rain gear.

Thanks for all the responses. I guess someday I'll have to check out boulder....It sounds like thats the only viable option in the states. Squamish/Vancouver does sound cool, but those 6-8 months of rain get me down. I'm definitely going to look into Switzerland and Barcelona some more.

My ideal setup would be somewhere where I can have a decent job and access to the amenities of a city or at least a decent town, and not need a climbing gym to climb every day. I like owning a car, and I like driving, but I think it is stupid and a waste of time and resources to drive everywhere all the time.

dylanfllr wrote:Thanks for all the responses. I guess someday I'll have to check out boulder....It sounds like thats the only viable option in the states.

Maybe a coincidence he lives in Seattle, but there is a really cool story about temporarily living without a car and still getting outside.

pupuplatters.com/pupuplayer…

Google: "Dirtbag Diaries: No Car No Problem" if the link doesn't work.

Boise... If you live up on table rock

Or you can ride your bike to several hundred basalt sport routes...

The bus stops all along Boulder canyon, you can walk to the flatirons from town, biking to eldo is easy.

dylanfllr wrote:Lets say we run out of petroleum tomorrow..

Any place in Europe will beat even the best place (Boulder) in the US.

Colorado Springs, pretty easy to ride a bike to climbing and I'd bet there's work for an architect

Charles Vernon wrote:Maybe no one has mentioned it because Boulder is kind of a cliche, but Boulder is by far the best place I can think of for access to lots of high quality climbing without a car. All of Eldo, the Flatirons, lower Boulder Canyon, plus tons of great bouldering are relatively short bike/bus rides away.

If you've opened it up to anywhere in the world, when I was living in Tokyo, i climbed atleast 2 days a week and 3 weeks ( Christmas/ New Years timeframe, Golden wek the last week of April and Oban ( respect for the dead week) in August.) along with my vacation time. Using the train system and sometime buses, i was always getting out rock, ice or alpine climbing....

Eric Engberg wrote:Any place in Europe will beat even the best place (Boulder) in the US.