Best Destinations

I'm spending much of next year on the road travelling and climbing. I want to start putting together a general plan that I may, or may not, adhere to. Currently, I live in the Southeast and have spent a lot of time climbing in the surrounding area. I've also spent a lot of time at the red and the new. I've never gotten the chance to venture out west to climb which is where I'm going to concentrate my efforts. I'm hoping to acquire a list of awesome destinations and some important information about each of them such as...

1)Is it easy to meet partners? I will be travelling alone.
2) Are there moderate grades?
3) When is the best time of year to go there? Is there a time of year that I should totally avoid?
4) Is it easy to dirtbag?
5) Is there free and easily accessible camping? What's the camping like? (I'll be primarily sleeping in my car)
6) Are there easily attainable jobs in the area if I need once? (I currently work online... but may need extra cash to supplement)
7) Is there somewhere close by to get reliable Wifi (I need it in order to work)? Or is there usually cell service that I can use to get on the internet?
8) How far do I have to travel to re-up on resources? (food, water, etc)
9) Is there other prime destinations close by that I should know about?
10) What's the climbing like? Is it trad, bouldering, sport, aid, or a mix? (I will be mostly sticking to ropes but enjoy trad and sport. I am new to aid but want to get more into it)
11) What's the nature of the rock? Techy, vertical, slabby, overhung? Is it pretty well developed or more adventurous climbing? Multipitch or single pitch? Well protected or scary and run-out?
12) Are dogs allowed?

Any information you have is greatly appreciated!!

I'd suggest looking through the route guide on this site for some areas that catch your fancy, and posting any questions you may have in the regional forums for those areas. A lot of your questions can be answered by looking through guidebooks for various areas, or by reading through the information on this site for various areas.

A few generalities:
1. As a 23 year old female you will probably have less trouble than most people finding partners. Post something on the partner finder on this website a few days before you get to an area and you should be able to find someone to your liking.
2. There is little or no legal free camping in the various national parks. Many national parks have strict limits about how long you can camp, although there are ways to get around this.
3. Most national parks are not especially dog friendly.

Thanks! I've definitely started looking through the destinations and already have a lot of places picked out... but I get a little overwhelmed with so many options but I will be more diligent about it in the future. Your advice is appreciated.

Brittany, play with this to get some additional ideas.
mountainproject.com/scripts…

Just drive around climbing, don't make plans, wear no clothes, pretend you are free.

Brittany Decker 1 wrote:10) What's the climbing like? Is it trad, bouldering, sport, aid, or a mix? (I will be mostly sticking to ropes but enjoy trad and sport. I am new to aid but want to get more into it

I'm assuming that this means you mostly want to top rope?

Being female makes it easier to find partners, but not leading means your basically an anchor on any team you join, and the kind of people who will pick up that kind of partner are either really nice or really sleazy.

I would say learn to lead trad asap if you want to find better quality partners and make the most of a climbing trip out west. Otherwise you just end up begging people to haul you up climbs.

Also multipitch climbs and dogs are usually mutually exclusive. Maybe someone out there has found a way to make it work.

Maybe she can, I tend to travel to California and bum around for a few months climbing every year, always looking for climbing partners. Mostly alpine, hit me up if you are keen.

This post violated Rule #1. It has been removed by Mountain Project.

DannyUncanny wrote: I'm assuming that this means you mostly want to top rope?

Why would you assume that?

Any particular reason why my post was deleted?

I'm trying to warn this young woman about potential trouble.

Not sure why that's a problem.

EDIT: Mods, feel free to PM me if you'd like, there are pages and pages of material if you'd like to see I'm not full of it. The guy is a danger to women, especially young women traveling alone.

Alexander Blum wrote: Why would you assume that?

Well the sentence: "I will be sticking mostly to ropes but enjoy trad and sport" doesn't really make sense, because both trad and sport involve ropes, so my brain interjected the missing word to make "I will be mostly sticking to top-ropes", and enjoying trad and sport means following.

Or it could mean

"I mostly enjoy roped climbing, both the traditional and bolt clipping subsets of such climbing appeal to me."

It makes total sense, when viewed in a context other then her gender.

Alexander Blum wrote:Or it could mean "I mostly enjoy roped climbing, both the traditional and bolt clipping subsets of such climbing appeal to me." It makes total sense, when viewed in a context other then her gender.

"I will mostly be sticking to roped climbing, but enjoy trad and sport" ?? why would sport and trad be a counterpoint to roped climbing?

DannyUncanny wrote: I'm assuming that this means you mostly want to top rope? Being female makes it easier to find partners, but not leading means your basically an anchor on any team you join, and the kind of people who will pick up that kind of partner are either really nice or really sleazy. I would say learn to lead trad asap if you want to find better quality partners and make the most of a climbing trip out west. Otherwise you just end up begging people to haul you up climbs. Also multipitch climbs and dogs are usually mutually exclusive. Maybe someone out there has found a way to make it work.

You are reading way too much into that statement and I agree with Alexander... making assumptions. I am certainly not asking people to hang my top ropes. I lead both trad and sport. In fact, I climb a lot more trad than I do sport. I was simply trying to convey that I will be focusing my efforts on roped climbing - but I don't care what kind of rope climbing it is. Unlike many people I know, I am not out looking to exclusively clip bolts or exclusively plug gear. I knew that would open up the suggestions that I'd get from people which is why I made the statement to begin with.

Alexander Blum wrote:Or it could mean "I mostly enjoy roped climbing, both the traditional and bolt clipping subsets of such climbing appeal to me." It makes total sense, when viewed in a context other then her gender.

Thank you. You interpreted it exactly how I meant it.

Nick Wilder wrote:Brittany, play with this to get some additional ideas. mountainproject.com/scripts…

Hey thank you! I totally forgot about this feature on mtn project ( I don't get on here too much) but this is super good beta and makes life way easier. Much appreciated!!

A year trip, that's exciting. As a T-wall climber, you should be able to handle all the classic areas. For a year trip of the classics, I like the following (in no particular order):

1. Red Rocks (long sandstone routes, mostly trad, lots of moderates, most of which are very crowded, if you hike in 2 or more hours, the crowds thin out)
2. Rocky Mtn National Park (long granite routes, Lumpy Ridge is fun too for shorter routes, both places have moderates, Lumpy is crowded)
3. Indian Creek (sandstone, perfect cracks, crowded, desert towers too!)
4. Cochise Stronghold< AZ (granite with a wild west feel, trad and sport, uncrowded)
5. Wind River, Cirque of the Towers (granite, long, wild routes, uncrowded, long approach but worth it)
6. Squamish, BC (more perfect cracks and some fun slabs)
7. Maple Canyon, UT (unique cobbles, mostly sport)
8. City of Rocks, ID (uncrowded climbing park, granite formations and towers)
9. Needles (of California) (uncrowded gem, multi-pitch, other-worldly granite towers)
10. Toulumne Meadows/Yosemite high country (beautiful granite domes with interesting crystal knobs, lots of moderates, runout, crowded)

For your situation, crowded means you can probably find a partner there.

Most of these are trad areas, with some sport climbs. There should be wifi nearby for everything but the Cirque, the Needles and Toulumne. As far as I know, dogs are OK except for Rocky Mtn Park and maybe Toulumne.

I learned to climb in 'Nooga, so would be glad to help you out. We may know some of the same people. PM me if you want more details,

If she is traveling alone she will have to do a heap of solo top rope or solo leading. Or she could just come soloing with the boys, there will be a MT Whitney East Buttress-East Face link up trip coming up, no ropes.

When you are traveling alone there are only 5 options.

1. Top rope solo
2. Lead solo
3. solo
4. Boulder
5. find a climbing partner in the Weekend.

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DannyUncanny wrote: "I will mostly be sticking to roped climbing, but enjoy trad and sport" ?? why would sport and trad be a counterpoint to roped climbing?

But is literally a conjuctive. why what she said was colloquially phrase strangely, it literally made sense. you are wrong.

Gwut wrote:If she is traveling alone she will have to do a heap of solo top rope or solo leading. Or she could just come soloing with the boys, there will be a MT Whitney East Buttress-East Face link up trip coming up, no ropes. When you are traveling alone there are only 5 options. 1. Top rope solo 2. Lead solo 3. solo 4. Boulder 5. find a climbing partner in the Weekend.

Never been on a solo road trip have you? your post is hilarious to anybody that has traveled the US solo.