Colorado or Washington ?

If you could move to one state, would it be Colorado or Washington? There are so many climbs in Colorado and areas that I would love to go to or call "my home crag" plus being relatively close to Moab. Never been to Washington but it looks awesome. Which would you prefer based solely on climbing/ weather?

I have lived in both. Colorado by a mile. Unless you are really into snow-slog mountaineering (in which case Washington wins).

To elaborate: Washington has some amazing climbing, but Colorado has vastly more quantity, better variety, and a much longer rock season (better weather).

if you are an avid skier or snowboarder, Washington has terrain that is unmatched in the lower 48.

plus the additional corn volcano ski mo season which is first class.

Rock climbing in WA is limited. Ice is even more so. You still can climb high quality stuff though.

WA does have amazingly diverse geography, rainforest, maritime, high alpine, desert, all in one state.

Thanks man.

My one issue with Colorado is the dry/arid type of landscape. I think the Pac NW has a more diverse offering in terms of topography.

But for rock climbing, Heady-rado is mind blowing.

i forgot to add,

if you move to leavenworth/wenatchee/methow valley (in WA) there is abundant rock climbing on superb granite in a beautiful setting. Many first class aplinists call this area home.

the west side of the cascades is wet and chossy, with a few exceptions. Index is good granite.

I think CO still wins just for total amount of climbing and diversity in climbs. But WA is a great place, and if your in the right area, can be amazing for a climber.

If you have aspirations for bigger ranges (AK, Himalaya, Andes) no doubt that WA is a better training ground then CO.

I'm from Washington. There's a lifetime of climbing at Index alone. Squamish or Smith for long weekends. Stellar alpine granite at Washington Pass. Excellent granite slabs at Darrington. Basalt and andesite on the east side of the Cascades for the winter. The ski terrain is epic and our snowpack doesn't have an angry layer of facets at the base.

Leavenworth is the only real "climbing town." In Seattle, there are really three questions to ponder:
1) How do you feel about lots and lots of light, drizzly rain? There are maybe 5 days of sun in each of November, December, and January.
2) The traffic sucks, and is getting worse.
3) Amazon is swallowing the entire city alive. One of their big selling points is "outdoor recreation nearby." Expect worsening crowds of techies.

Edit: If you're a sport climber, there's really not much in Washington, although I haven't tried the difficult sport climbs at Index.

James Sledd wrote: Edit: If you're a sport climber, there's really not much in Washington, although I haven't tried the difficult sport climbs at Index.

There's Exit 32 that's all sport with many 10's up to hard 12's.

My climbing life started in WA. So, it is definately my first pick. It depends on what you like to do outside of climbing. It has just about every climate in one state. When I lived in Seattle, it was snowboarding in the winter and backpacking & climbing the rest of the year. Yeah, it does get a little more rain. But, it's not as bad as people think. Besides, which ever state you pick, you can smoke weed easily in both!

Cascades foot hills (Exit 32/Little Si sport climbing):
forecast.weather.gov/MapCli…

Front Range foot hills (Boulder Canyon):
forecast.weather.gov/MapCli…

Your choice... looks like Little Si needs about two weeks to stop seeping after this rain event.

You can definitely climb in WA year round, just expect much of it will be indoors. Nothing like climbing here when conditions are good though. Plus, Washington is way more beautiful and diverse geographically than CO.

If 10,000+ accessible rock, ice, and mixed routes within an hour or two of your house is your thing, CO probably has you covered though.

folks ROCK climb in squamish all year long ... plenty of folks drive up from washington up here

next week should be PERFECT temps for slab sending

the rain is exaggerated ... ive climbed at minimum 8-12 days outside every MONTH in the PNW on rock in the winter the last few years

you just cant be a wuzz about it

;)

I'll add another +1 for the Methow Valley in WA. Plenty of great climbing in Mazama area, with more development going on, and you're really close to tons of great climbing in the Washington Pass Area. Bryan Burdo (and others) are currently developing a bunch of great new areas along Highway 20.

If you can visit Washington first, and not in the summer.

Perspective: Lived in WA 24 years, live in Utah now.

You are coming from ATL, I am assuming your mainly rock climb, in which case Colorado is probably more up your alley. That is a broad generalization.

Here are the basic points:

You can't just live anywhere in either state and expect good climbing. You want to live in Leavenworth, sweet, so do I, find me a job there first. Also, don't end up in the East in Colorado, you might as well be in Kansas.

The climbing in Colorado is much easier to access, and there will be more variety.

The climbing in Washington is better. (Sry Colorado - Google: North Cascades) but it is much harder to access, and the weather is much more fickle. Honestly, coming from ATL (I lived in the South for two years) some of these approaches will feel like Alaska to you.

In all reality I would play it safe, move to Colorado first, build your skills for a few years, and then if you are up for it move to Washington if you want to get into more committing mountains. If it's just for rock climbing then you just move up the road to Lexington.

christoph benells wrote: Index is good granite.

really? just good?

James Sledd wrote: There's a lifetime of climbing at Index alone.

damn right. and its amazing granite.

don't mind me, I just love Index. It saved my life.
and everything else Sledd said is true too...

i would say index is just at the "good" on the worldwide scale of granite. i'd give it 7/10.

Of course these are all just opinions.

And now for some REAL facts

99% of mass shootings happen in CO

People in CO are a bunch of fucking wackjobs. They think they are the hottest shit and all the climbs and terrain there is the best in the world. I've met a few folks from out there who got their asses handed to them in the real mountains cause they thought they were CO badasses.

a couple of coloradans i met in Talkeetna last spring thought because they skied Mt. Rainier's fuhrer finger they were ready to ski Denali's messner coulior.

they kept saying "it doesnt get gnarlier than the fuhrer finger"

YEah RIGHt!

then talking to the NPS, "well we are from CO so we will be fine up there"

"we've done mount x, y and z in colorado and they are so gnarly"

needless to say they were wrong, rangers told them to be humble

they got avalanched off the damn mountain and lost all their skis, hurt their legs. 3 partial buries. all this happened about 200 feet from the cattle trail and the fixed lines. went home crying.

Sorry if you De-gnarly guys are reading this...

I was thinking of posting a similar thread to this, so if I may piggy-back:

Say you prefer alpine climbing/mountaineering to straight up rock climbing, which is better?

For my own part, I can see the North Cascades as waaay more spectacular, but there's the access and weather. June, July, August in WA were awesome, April/May...not so much.

I suppose there is some stuff in CO as well (lots of couloirs), but nothing glacial. But then there's ice in the winter, no?

It's a difficult proposition, so does anyone have anyone have input on the alpine-side of things?

as much as i am hating on CO,

the alpine climbs are better. real ice climbing over granite rock at high elevation. that just goes for technical climbing. The mountaineering stuff is better in WA because of the glaciers and volcanoes. I would recommend doing that stuff on skis though.

the north cascades are really more about pure wilderness, bushwhacking, ever changing topography and glacial destruction.

there are river valleys in the north cascades that haven't seen human traffic in decades, if ever.

The rockies will teach you to climb, the cascades will teach you to suffer.

christoph benells wrote:And now for some REAL facts

Oh good, facts will help.

christoph benells wrote:People in CO are a bunch of fucking wackjobs.

Hmm... that seems more like an opinion... what kind of sample size are you basing this on?

christoph benells wrote:I've met a few folks from out there

...seems legit.

ColinW wrote: There's Exit 32 that's all sport with many 10's up to hard 12's.

Goes well beyond hard 12s! Maybe it's because I'm not strong enough, but I've never been that excited about 32. The rock is weird, slippery and sharp. It may be the best sport climbing in the state, but compared with somewhere like Murrin Park at Squamish, the ORG, Smith, Rumney, etc. it's pretty uninspiring. Index is so much better that I always headed there.

You should definitely move to Washington.

Scott McMahon wrote:You should definitely move to Washington.

Bennels should definitely stay in WA. By the way, the whack job that shot up the movie theater in CO had just moved here from the West Coast. But the news doesn't talk about that, maybe because it takes away from the fairy tale they like to spin for suckers like Bennels.

And one of the kids in the high school shooting moved to CO just a few years earlier.