Summer Backpacking and Climbing Destination

Not really much to add for stipulations, although I'm sure a lot of ideas will be thrown out and with those ideas will come some realizations that I should have been more specific. I'm just trying to think of a good place to go backpacking with some friends that might have some good climbing as well. This will be this summer sometime, so it has to be not ridiculously hot. The idea of Sawtooth in Idaho was already thrown out there by a non-climber friend, and I think that we'd probably not be up for anything quite so intense and multipitch. Something with a reasonable rack that we can backpack with would be nice. Suggestions?

Lost Creek Wilderness, Colorado. Hike in from the Goose Creek Trail head toward Refrigerator Gulch for a good backpacking and adventure climbing trip. Wouldn't hurt to bring the fishing poles either. Utterly sublime, especially with a sexy lady as companion.Oh, there are no climbing guide books for this area. Enjoy.

The Wind River Range is the cream of the crop in the Lower 48 for both backpacking and climbing. Beautiful, remote, rugged, and good granite. Mosquitoes and T-Storms are potenital downsides. Also, the best climbing is centered around long, moderate alpine routes. If you are looking for single pitch cragging, this may not be the place.

The High Sierra is a second option that would also be very good. Equally great terrain, better weather (a bit warmer, but much dryer and fewer T-storms), although perhap a few more people.

Generally speaking, there don't seem to be much emphasis on backcountry single pitch climbing, and it will be hard to find good combinations of single pitch cragging and backpacking. This is for good reason...why lug a rack deep into the backcountry to go single-pitch cragging? If you want to do long alpine routes, backpack into the Winds or Sierras, set up basecamp for a week, and get going. But if you're looking for single pitch, perhaps it would be better to seperate the sections of the trip-- go for a backpacking trip and leave the rack behind so that you can travel lighter, faster, and more comfortably. Lugging a 70 pound pack with rope, rack, tent, sleeping bag, food, cookware etc really sucks; you will enjoy the backpacking more without the climbing gear weight. One you finish the backpacking segment, go somewhere nearby and do your cragging segment, near the car and other creature comforts. This give you the best of both worlds.

Perhaps a good trip would be to go to the Winds, do a sweet backpacking trip, come back out, shower and resupply in Lander, and then spend some time car camping and cragging.at Wild Iris, Sinks, Fremont Canyon, etc. Alternatively, backpack in the High Sierras and then go climbing in tuolomne, rock creek, mammoth, pine creek, lovers leap, etc etc.

Edit:

The Uintas (Northern Utah) would be another excellent choice. Uncrowded, good backpacking, great scenery, nice lakes, good summer weather, and realy great moderate single pitch cragging on quartzite.

Jon Moen wrote:Generally speaking, there don't seem to be much emphasis on backcountry single pitch climbing, and it will be hard to find good combinations of single pitch cragging and backpacking. This is for good reason...why lug a rack deep into the backcountry to go single-pitch cragging?

I was thinking as much on this, and I appreciate the honest input. These places probably would be beautiful to visit anyway for backpacking so I will look into the suggestions. It likely would be that we will end up doing two separate legs of the trip, just for the fact that the people I would be going climbing with would probably have to second on everything trad, and in that case, I would much rather take people to a sport area separately instead of trying to lead my way up pitch after pitch so people could follow. It was wishful thinking that there is some beautiful trad mecca out there in the backcountry wilderness with great single pitch stuff...

Mark Kauz wrote: I would much rather take people to a sport area separately instead of trying to lead my way up pitch after pitch so people could follow.

In that case, go to the Winds and backpack with your buddies, and then go to the Lander sport areas (Sinks, Wild Iris). I promise that you will not be dissapointed by either.

New England.

"Whoa, did this idiot just recommend going east for a climbing and hiking trip?"

- Do the Presidential Traverse. Depending who you ask, its a very strenuous 20-30 mile backpacking trip across the highest part of the White Mountains, including a ton of time above treeline.
- Head to Rumney. Sport cragging from 5.4-5.14.
- Cathedral and Whitehorse Ledges - Trad from 1 pitch to 10.
- Literally dozens of other less crowded cliffs and crags - MP.com has some of them.
- The 100 mile wilderness - the last 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail - ends on Katahdin.
- While we're on the topic - Katahdin. Crazy alpine trad, and recently relaxed restrictions on climbing.
- You'd also got the Gunks and Dacks in NY, oceanside toproping in Acadia, amazing bouldering at Pawtuckaway and Lincoln Woods, and hundreds of miles of other trails in the White Mountain N.F. And alpine routes on Mt. Washington. And tons of other crap I can't think of at the moment.

Now, it IS true that you will not get the "big, remote, vast wilderness" that you get out West. So if that's super-important to you, well, go West. However, this is an advantage for the East, too - almost everything I listed is less than a half day drive from anything else listed. Even Gunks->Katahdin is 8.5 hours.

I've heard a lot of great things about Wild Iris but Chris' recommendation sounds pretty sweet too. I'm looking forward to more recommendations, because I could hope to do all these things in a lifetime. Right now I'm going to start looking into Wind River Range though, and then hike out to Wild.

Go climb Lone Eagle Peak in the Indian Peaks of Colorado. It is a one day backpack to get to the base, and it is one of the nicest places to camp. If you have non-climber friends, you can all get to the top.

With the climbers, go up the North Face route (10 pitches or so of climbing, but some of them can easily be soloed or simul-climbed, only one pitch of 5.7 climbing as the crux).

Your non-climber friends can leave later and go up Solo Flight, the 4th class hike up to the top (make sure your friends are comfortable with exposure, as the 4th class scrambling at the very end is very exposed).

I did this last year and it was a fun, mellow trip. The climbing is casual, with the hardest part being figuring out how to get down. Of course, it is climbing in an alpine environment with 10 pitches of climbing, so I wouldn't take beginner sport climbers up there...

Mark,

Couldn't possibly blame you for heading to the Winds - I'm trying to wrestle enough time off from work to head out there myself sometime soon-ish.

Anyways, if plans change, feel free to shoot me a message and I'll be happy to give you some more specifics, camping beta, that sorta thing. Be warned that June is high bug season - the mosquitoes suck, but its the dreaded black flies that really drain blood. Much better by midsummer.

-Chris

Chris Drover wrote:Be warned that June is high bug season - the mosquitoes suck, but its the dreaded black flies that really drain blood. Much better by midsummer.

This is the best kind of beta. I'm super conscious of the bugs. My uncle told me of a beautiful backpacking destination that people dream of going to, the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The only downside is the mosquitos are so bad they can suck a small animal dry. Thats the myth anyway... darn mosquitos

Jon Moen wrote: Edit: The Uintas (Northern Utah) would be another excellent choice. Uncrowded, good backpacking, great scenery, nice lakes, good summer weather, and realy great moderate single pitch cragging on quartzite.

+1

Read some NOLS promotional that they do some top roping near the Lower Alpine Lake area near "The Fortress". Hiked through there last year and while I didn't climb did eye a nice camp site right in front of a cliff band that was about 30-60 feet high that you could access the top via a ramp. The Alpine Lakes area is really remote, involves a good bit of cross country travel and navigation (no trails) but it is very scenic and you likely won't encounter another party back there.

If you're interested contact me and I can give you some waypoints for the area.

You might want to consider climbing at Smith and backpack near either the Sisters Range or Jefferson.

Or, you could climb at Index/Leavenworth and backpack in the Stuart Range.......

Or, you could climb at Frenchman Coulee and backpack around Adams....

Personally I have always thought the Cascades are way cooler than the Rockies....