Mountain Project Logo

Boone, NC vs. Asheville, NC for a climber?

Original Post
Tapawingo Markey · · Reno? · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 75

Hey All,

Yes, its' another, "where should I live?" posting. I'm thinking about making the move east from CA for a fresh start after college.

Have my eyes on Boone and have heard great things about Asheville as a city in general. Anyone have any input on best spot to live for climbing or just in general?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Joe Virtanen · · Charlotte, NC · Joined May 2010 · Points: 241

Hey Mitch,

Here's my take:

Boone
Pros: Lots of climbing options minutes away; sport, trad, world-class bouldering. Hiking and beautiful views abound.
Cons: It's a very small college town and options are limited when the outdoors don't call. Jobs that require a degree are even tougher to come by than in Asheville.

Asheville:
Pros: Great trad and a few good sport lines less than an hour away in Pisgah and Rumbling Bald. Rumbling Bald bouldering has a high concentration of awesome problems. Downtown AVL scene is great for music, beer, and restaurants.
Cons: Jobs are also hard to come by if you don't want to wait tables (even if you do it can be hard). If you find a 9-5, after work climbing is tough to do.

rock-fencer · · Columbia, SC · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 265

id say take a look at chattanooga as well. Bigger cities. Greenville SC is a great place to live but youll have to drive at least an hour 15 to get to established rock in NC. Cant really comment on either of the NC cities you listed. Honestly your going to have to drive when your east coasting it. Question is how far do you want to drive.

Tapawingo Markey · · Reno? · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 75

Cool thanks fellas. I live in a pretty remote college town in CA right now, and except for some beach TRing and Bouldering, everything is an hour to 3 hours drive so it'd be nice to be a little closer, but not necessary.

Hey Joe, how about the people and such? I live in a pretty liberal area here and I know Asheville is pretty open minded, but how about Boone?

Jaime M · · Chattanooga, TN · Joined Jan 2013 · Points: 85

I second the Chattanooga suggestion.
<---- Obviously.

There are several large employers here, blue and white collar stuff. A budding tech industry. Decent sized uni with growing enrollment. Lots of restaurants, bars, music, etc. And lots of other outdoor activities for your "off" days--trail running is huge here, as is SUP and kayaking, and mountain biking.

And tons of climbing within minutes of downtown--nuts, bolts, and boulders.

Boone and Ashville are both known for being pretty liberal. Chattanooga is know for political parties being able to actually work together to make Chattanooga an awesome place to live. In all these places, while you are in the city, it's "more" liberal (certainly not cali liberal, though), but once you are outside the city, not so much. You are in the middle of the conservative, bible-belt south.

Joe Virtanen · · Charlotte, NC · Joined May 2010 · Points: 241

Any city in NC, Asheville included, will have the full spectrum of people. The transition from metropolitan area to full on country is incredibly fast. Asheville city folks tend to be really liberal and just outside you'll mostly have your regular, semi-rural Southern people.

Boone is a college town so you'll have your set of politics there, but mixed with the mountain locals.

Nick Stayner · · Wymont Kingdom · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 2,315
rock_fencer wrote: Honestly your going to have to drive when your east coasting it. Question is how far do you want to drive.
Boone: ~10 min to world-class bouldering, ~15 to great trad and sport.

Pretty minimal as drive times go, certainly beats 3 hrs...

I lived in Boone for about 3 years and have spent significant time in Asheville (and Chattanooga). Seems to me it would be hard for a climber to go wrong in any of those locales, though Chattanooga might have the NC places beat for sheer volume of rock (maybe?).

I'd have to give Chattanooga the award for the climbing, Asheville the award for being an awesome city, and Boone the award for having great people!

What else are you looking for out of your prospective new place? What sort of career field are you in? How important is having quick access to cultural amenities? These questions might help you narrow it down (and help other provide more specific answers).
Tapawingo Markey · · Reno? · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 75

Good call Nick and thanks for the reply. I'm an Environmental Science major, so anything from land convervation, natural resource issues, sustainable living and environmental education are kind of the fields I'd be looking to get into.

In terms of culture, I love me some bluegrass and dixie music so I feel the music scene around there suits me just fine. But really, it'd be nice to have a couple good bars that do live music, maybe some art or festivals here and there, but outside of that I'm not picky.

AField · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2011 · Points: 55

One thing that you might take into consideration if you move to W. NC is the climbing season is much more limited than you're probably used to. The season for Boone is a bit longer, but the humidity and insects at most of the areas around Asheville prevent Type 1 fun during four or five months of the year.

Also, there are very few sport areas, since the NC climbing scene tends to have a "ground-up" ethic, and an emphasis on traditional style. There are a few places, particularly closer to Boone which have bolted lines, but the majority of the lines in places like Looking Glass, or Rumbling Bald will be trad or "mixed."

The bouldering is world-class in either location.

drock3 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 13

I'm gonna be a bit of a debbie downer here.

I think moving to NC would be a mistake. If you're looking to get away from your current spot, you should stay on the west coast. (Denver/Boulder, SLC, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, CA).

I used to live in Raleigh and I can't say I fully explored the western NC climbing, but I'd describe it as good to great, but not world class. For eastern states, there is a good amount of rock around boone and asheville. Compared to western states though, there isn't that much rock. The boone folk love to talk about how great it is, but look at the mountain project database. There's like 1k routes in all of NC. I'm in SLC now, and within 60 min there's 4k routes (obviously not all routes are in the database). On weekends I can go alpine climbing in the tetons, or tower climbing in the desert (and everything in between). That sort of selection does not exist on the east coast, while it does exist in many places in the west. A weekend trip from western NC will get you to some great crags in TN, the new or the red (all legendary) but nothing as epic as the stuff in the west.

I'm not saying western NC isnt a good place to go climbing, but if you have the choice of anywhere, that would not be anywhere near the top of my list.

Chattanooga would be my top pick for southeast climbers paradise however. T-wall basically in town, foster falls a few min away, Obed not far either...

Tapawingo Markey · · Reno? · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 75

Ya thanks for your input...I'm not expecting NC or any southeast climbing destination to match what we have here in the west. I'm more or less looking to relocate out of the west, been out in CA for 8 years now, and wanted to find somewhere with a good vibe and still some good stone with a relatively short drive to the ocean.

I'm sure NC folk talk it up, but I kind of like that local pride of your crags. SLC is a great city, but its a big city and for some reason it seems like it lacks the good solid community vibe that I'm searching for and definitely lacks the ocean. Plus, I can always get my 2 weeks every year to do a west coast run to knock out some alpine routes that are on my list.

rock-fencer · · Columbia, SC · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 265

No need to talk up NC the rocks just good here in its own way. And there is tons of it, just not necessarily the altitude or easy approaches or best weather.

Ill ads Boston to the list of east coast cities

Jonathan Dull · · Boone, NC · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 415
drock3 wrote:. The boone folk love to talk about how great it is, but look at the mountain project database. There's like 1k routes in all of NC.
Dude, there is probably over 1000 routes in the Linville Gorge alone, including a crag with hundreds of sport and mixed lines. Mountain Project is a great resource but barely scrapes the surface in terms of actual number of routes in the state.

Concerning the original post, I wouldn't take advice from the guy who lived in the metropolitan shit hole of NC, and who admittedly hasn't "explored western NC climbing extensively".

If your looking for volume, diversity, quality, and big routes. Look to Boone or Asheville, neither will disappoint.
golder · · Asheville, NC · Joined Sep 2012 · Points: 0

I'll second the fact that Linville has a lifetimes worth of routes to climb.
Admittedly I started climbing after I moved to Carolina and I haven t climbed too many places outside the region, but being a climber here I've always felt like we have it pretty damn good. Plus the boating and Mtn biking and hiking all all great. I live in AVL, and I love it here. I thinly chattytown and Boone are great options too, probably better if closer climbing is your priority, but if the town itself is important to you, asheville has its own flavor that I find hard to beat. (Ill agree it can be hard to find work here...)

Good luck w the move.

golder · · Asheville, NC · Joined Sep 2012 · Points: 0

I'll second the fact that Linville has a lifetimes worth of routes to climb.
Admittedly I started climbing after I moved to Carolina and I haven t climbed too many places outside the region, but being a climber here I've always felt like we have it pretty damn good. Plus the boating and Mtn biking and hiking all all great. I live in AVL, and I love it here. I thinly chattytown and Boone are great options too, probably better if closer climbing is your priority, but if the town itself is important to you, asheville has its own flavor that I find hard to beat. (Ill agree it can be hard to find work here...)

Good luck w the move.

AField · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2011 · Points: 55

Seriously though, western NC has a lot of rock. Because the scene favors a slightly old-fashioned approach, and also because access has historically been touchy, particularly around Boone, folks don't tend to put areas they've discovered or developed online. Most prefer that people hear about it via word of mouth, others prefer to do limited runs of small guidebooks, or just not tell anybody about it at all until another person discovers it and asks around. Spending time talking to people at the more popular cliff bands and boulderfields is really the best way to get to know the area.

Tapawingo Markey · · Reno? · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 75

Ya, I try not to limit the main source of information on climbing areas to MP. I've looked up some routes and photos and have some local bouldering vid of boone and it all looks fun and plentiful to me. I just wanted to get a sense of if there is a big difference in the communities of boone and asheville and which one is closer to the good stuff (trad or bouldering). Any input on which smaller towns outside of asheville are worth looking into? I prefer a smaller community (live in a town of 15,000 right now) and am curious as to what the towns of WNC have to offer. Thanks again for all your input!

rock-fencer · · Columbia, SC · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 265
Mitch M wrote:Ya, I try not to limit the main source of information on climbing areas to MP. I've looked up some routes and photos and have some local bouldering vid of boone and it all looks fun and plentiful to me. I just wanted to get a sense of if there is a big difference in the communities of boone and asheville and which one is closer to the good stuff (trad or bouldering). Any input on which smaller towns outside of asheville are worth looking into? I prefer a smaller community (live in a town of 15,000 right now) and am curious as to what the towns of WNC have to offer. Thanks again for all your input!
Brevard, henderson/ Mills River
Jonathan Dull · · Boone, NC · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 415

Boone is a town of around 15,000 and Appalachian State has around 16,000 undergrads, thus the town doubles in population when school is in session. Asheville is more of your bigger city in the mountains, and I use the term "bigger" very loosely (around 85,000). For bouldering I would say go to Boone and get to know the locals, there is a lifetime of high quality bouldering all around the high county. And when I say high quality, I mean HIGH QUALITY, and lots of it! There are lots of smaller crags around Boone with a mixture of sport and trad; way more than you see on mountain project or that are in any of the guide books. They make for good afternoon sessions after work and what not. Boone is about 45min away from the Linville Gorge, there you will find a lifetime of high quality multi-pitch trad of all grades.

Asheville has a different feel than the rock of the high county and it's also high quality. About 45 min south of Asheville will put you at looking glass. This is mostly trad multi-pitch climbing; if your into hard aid and multi-day climbs, you will also find this at Looking Glass. Rumbling Bald is also very close to asheville, again the rock quality here is high. You have a mixture of trad and sport. From Asheville your also close (hour and 40 min) to the "big walls" of the east. Laurel Knob and Whitesides both tower at about 1000' and offer some very adventurous climbs.

It really depends if you want the "big" city or the "smaller" town feel. For someone just out of college both these destinations would seem like a good choice. I live in Boone and would be glad to partner up in the future if you ever need a partner and what to get to know the ins and outs of the high county.

I could blabber on forever about the climbing in NC and how amazing it is. Anyone who climbs extensively in North Carolina can attest to the quality, volume and diversity of the climbing here.

Chris Massey · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2012 · Points: 5

Nothing worth climbing here. Try TN.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Southern States
Post a Reply to "Boone, NC vs. Asheville, NC for a climber?"

Log In to Reply

Join the Community

Create your FREE account today!
Already have an account? Login to close this notice.

Get Started.