where to live

If you could live anywhere in the US and have access (within a 1 hour drive) to the most year round hard sport climbing (5.13 and harder), where would you live?

I'll help narrow this one down...NOT Massachusetts!

Carbondale, Colorado or Lexington, Kentucky.

Aimee Rose wrote:If you could live anywhere in the US and have access (within a 1 hour drive) to the most year round hard sport climbing (5.13 and harder), where would you live?

There's really only two places east of the Mississippi that fit that bill. The Red and the New. Lexington is a real city thats less than an hour from the Red. Fayetteville is a very a nice place to live and is less than 20 min from most of the climbing at the New.

I would never want the Red to be my home crag. Not enough variety in the climbing and there is really nothing else there... except meth trailers. Unless you like single pitch trad, all you can do is pull on pockets. Jug haul mania... I would just get bored. Absolutely nothing to do on a rest day either.

The New is a much better climbing destination and Fayetteville is a much nicer place to live. There is all kinds of climbing on usually more solid rock. More technical climbing than the Red and more potential for new routes. Entire areas that haven't been discovered yet. Excellent paddling in the area as well and good biking.

If I only wanted to climb sport I wouldn't live in the US. Our sport climbing is kind of a joke compared to what they have in Europe and Asia.