Recommendations for moderate climbing in the North West

My partner and I are flying into San Francisco in June for 6-8 weeks climbing and mtnbiking and looking for quality climbing places between San Francisco, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Love climbing moderate 5.6 to 5.9 trad and sport, single and multi-pitch and hoping to pick 3 places we can spend 6-10 days each. Preferably with some mountain biking nearby.

Have previously climbed at Lovers Leap, Touloumne Meadows and Yosemite.

Currently thoughts are start in City of Rocks, Idaho, then move north and eventually end up in Southern Washington and Oregon.

So many options! Leavenworth and Index have a lot to offer in Washington, might as well pass through Smith on your way up. If you are into alpine terrain definitely spend some time in the North Cascades.

Why would you fly to San Francisco then drive all the way to CoR? You may as well fly into SLC if you want to start at CoR.

Reason for flying in and out of San Francisco is cost of car hire, it may be we can get a one way hire from City of Rocks back to San Francisco or Portland but will depend on extra flight costs?

Any recommendations on good car hire companies, so far have looked into Enterprise.

Thanks
Philip

There's not much trad in SW Washington, trust me I grew up there. Head to the North Cascades. Stop in Leavenworth for some cragging and the Enchantments for Alpine rock, such as the West Ridge of Prussik. Then head father north to Washington Pass for some easy access alpine rock, check out Black peak for a fun low 5th scramble. Then go west over the pass to town of Marblemount, head up to Cascade Pass to climb the West Ridge of Forbidden.

Given that you are flying in sometime in June (when in June?), and staying for 6-8 weeks, this puts you at least into mid-July at the end of the trip, and maybe later. This is notable because the areas that are "in-season" in early June are somewhat different from those for mid/late July. The best July/August areas will be still wet/snowy in early June, and the early June areas will be hot in July. Plan your trip accordingly, and visit the right areas at the right time.

Here's the trip I would recommend. It involves a lot of driving, but would be worth it to visit these really high quality areas. Start by driving to City of Rocks, spend 1-2 weeks there. It will offer lots of good climbing in your grade range, and good weather towards early June. From here, then work north and west, following cool weather as summer sets in. From City of Rocks, drive to Leavenworth, WA, for great multipitch granite. Spend a week or so here. Then pop over Stevens Pass to Index, for just a couple of days (climbing 5.6-5.9 is somewhat limited there). From Index, then head north to Squamish. Spend the rest of the trip in Squamish, planning on a minimum of 2 weeks. By this point it will be July, and the weather should be reasonably good. Squamish is one of the best summer areas in North America, and there is a ton of high quality climbing in your grade range. Finally, finish the trip by driving back to S.F., budgeting an extra few days to take the slow way back by driving the 101 along the Oregon coast (scenic!).

If you don't want to do so much driving, you could either (A.) fly into Salt Lake and out from Seattle, or (B.) Still fly in to S.F., and just spend the trip in California. You could easily spend your entire trip in CA, and never revisit a crag you've seen on previous trips. Consider visiting Shuteye Ridge, Donner Pass (and other Tahoe Crags), Rock Creek and Pine Creek (summer crags near Bishop), Mammoth-area crags, Whitney Portal, and many High Sierra objectives. Revisiting Tuolumne, Lovers Leap, etc wouln't be so bad either.

Thanks everyone for some great looking advice, especially thoughts on when it's best to climb in each area. Also we don't mind at all driving as a great way to see country. I do like the idea of squamish. Might have to try and squeeze a bit more time into trip.

Happy to receive any more thoughts on your best route! Fantastic to get some locals knowledge.

Phil

Philip Green wrote:I do like the idea of squamish.

Squamish is so so worth it. Great camping, great scenery, lots of great climbing. Don't bother showing up before July 1st, though; the later in the month you go the more reliable the weather gets.

Another note: some people upthread have mentioned Smith and Trout Creek. These central Oregon crags will be pretty hot in the summer. People still climb there in the summer, and make it manageable by getting up early and chasing shade...but why put yourself through this when you have lots of other options throughout the NW that are more in-season. I'd skip Smith and save it for a fall/spring trip, and only go to the proper summer crags on this trip. If you are absolutely dying to go to Smith, do so at the very beginning of the trip, in early June, before the furnace gets turned all the way up.

squamish may or may not be dry in june ... you will have to check the weather once yr here

last year you would have had a very dry june, the year before not so much

should it be a hot dry spring summer (YAY global warming) ... then squamish has exactly what you are looking for

- tons of moderate trad cragging to whet your feet

- tons of moderate trad multi

- generally continuous cracks so you can often get pro above you

- straighforward placements on the classics ... plug and play ... weird placements are the exception not the rule

- generally bomber rock ... no chossy limestone or sandstone here !!!

- grades softer than yr teddy bear

- 5 min walk from the sbucks to the crag

- most climbs are less than 30 min walk from the parking

- best bouldering in canada

- decent sport climbing and sport multi

- kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, wind surfing, scuba diving, etc ... for those rest days .. hell in june the ski hills might still be open

- the "gourmet" yuppie town of vancouver is just an hour away, you can have your fill of whatever food you like ... AZN food is absurdly cheap here

- all the chick heres wear lululemons ... nutting like tight yoga pants to increase your sending power

- we got the friendliest bears ... you like bears, we got em

;)

just to show you the absurdity of the rock quality here ... this is considered a MEDIOCRE crack climb here ... it rarely sees any traffic

old style 5.8, malamute

Cheers Bearbreeder, I run a Wine Tour business in Queenstown so the whole package with the gourmet offers of Vancouver nearby sound pretty fine.