Denver, hard against the Rocky Mountains and surrounded by cragging opportunities, is one of America’s great big cities for climbers. Photo: Justin Roth
Denver, hard against the Rocky Mountains and surrounded by cragging opportunities, is one of America’s great big cities for climbers. Photo: Justin Roth
10 TOP AMERICAN CLIMBING CITIES
By now, everyone’s heard of the little diehard climbing
towns that just can’t be beat: Chattanooga, TN; North
Conway, NH; Bishop, CA . . . the list goes on. Small, with loads
of rock in their backyards, these spots are great road-trip stops.
Heck, you could even live in ‘em . . . if climbing’s your No. 1
priority in life, you can work from home, you’ve go a fat
roll of Benjamins, or you’re lucky enough to score a job in the
outdoor industry . . . .
Still, for those folks looking to, say, start a career, or who crave arts, culture, and nightlife as well as world-class stone, these climbing hotspots rarely cut the mustard. But fear not! “Urban climber” isn’t an oxymoron. As proof, we present 10 cities (the Big Five and five runners up) where you can have your cake and eat it, too. They’re also excellent trip destinations, as they’re all close to major airports, and offer rest-day activities beyond slacklining and mosquito-bite counting.
Our criteria here were simple: the cities on our list needed to be big (populations of 500,000 or more), within a few hours’ drive (close enough for weekend trips) of multiple top-shelf climbing destinations; offer good colleges/universities and varied job options; and hold a rich variety of cultural, recreational, and gustatory opportunities, too. As a bonus, many of these metropolises are also close to the little core climbing towns we mentioned, so you can easily escape to a quieter place when the noise, traffic, and crowds start to give you a case of the “hypos” (to quote Ishmael, from Moby Dick)
Feel like we left your city out? We want to hear about it. Tell us what makes your big city good for climbers at word@urbanclimbermag.com.
Garret Gregor at Stoney Point's Boulder 1, 30 mintues outside of LA. Photo: Damon Corso / damoncorso.com
Garret Gregor at Stoney Point's Boulder 1, 30 mintues outside of LA. Photo: Damon Corso / damoncorso.com
LOS ANGELES, CA
Los Angeles is by far the most populous city in the Big Five, and the biggest geographically, but it’s more like a bunch of different cities next to each other than one cohesive unit. For comparison, the island of Manhattan has about a half of LA’s population . . . in approximately a twentieth the land area. Because LA’s so huge, it’s hard to pin down, but it’s a great place to be if you want to work in the arts, the movie industry, or media. It’s easy to get fresh food in LA (there’s especially good Mexican, Korean, and Japanese, says one local). But what about the climbing?
Well, major areas like Yosemite, J-Tree, and Bishop
are all close enough for weekend trips, and more
local spots like Pine Mountain, Black Mountain, and
Malibu Creek State Park are even closer. (And with
about 15 inches of precip a year on average, you’ll
never get rained out.) True, say the locals, there’s
smog and traffi c, and the cost of living is through
the roof, but you can go from snowboarding, to
climbing, to surfi ng all in the same day. Seems like
a pretty good trade-off. . . .
Cost of living: $$$$$
Population: 3,833,995
Median age: 31.6
Land area: 469 sq. mi. Closest core climber town: Bishop, CA
Climbing season/weather: Year-round. Daytime temps never drop much below the 60s, even in mid-winter, and highs only break the 80-degree mark for a few months out of the year. Rainfall is scarce from April through December, with moderate precip from January through March.
Nearby areas: Stoney Point (bouldering, 25 min.), Malibu Creek State Park (sport, bouldering; 30 min), Tramway (bouldering, 1 hour 45 minutes), Big Bear (sport, trad, bouldering; 2 hours), Black Mountain (bouldering, 2 hours), Pine Mountain (bouldering, 2.5 hours), J-Tree (trad, bouldering; 2-plus hours), Yosemite (trad, sport, bouldering; 5.5 hours), Bishop (bouldering, 6 hours)
Age: 29 How long have you lived in LALA land? Seven years.
When did you start climbing? 2003.
Why’d you move there? The weather. And I had an important family member living out here I wanted to see.
Why’s LA a good city for climbing? You happened to call me on the first rainy day I can remember in eight months. And even when it’s hot, you can go up to Tramway.
Can you recommend some good places for food/drink? Groundwork (Santa Monica, groundworkcoffee.com), Johnny’s Pastrami (Culver City, 310-397-6654), Tito’s Tacos (Culver City, titostacos.com); Crossroads Café and Tavern (Joshua Tree, crossroadscafeandtavern.com)
Where in LA do you live? Santa Monica.
Do need a car in LA? Yes. A lot of people drive. There isn’t really good public transportation. But I survived with a skateboard, mountain bike, and the bus.
Is LA shallow? Yeah . . . but that’s not everybody. If you’re looking for your friends in really expensive restaurants, nightclubs, and ritzy bars, yeah, you’re going to find a lot of shallow people.
What do you do in LA when you’re not climbing or working? Ping pong, surfing or skim boarding, skateboarding, Monopoly, eating. . . .
Melissa Lacasse on Bierstadt (V10) at Mount Evans, high altitude granite bouldering a sub-one hour drive from Denver. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
Melissa Lacasse on Bierstadt (V10) at Mount Evans, high altitude granite bouldering a sub-one hour drive from Denver. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
DENVER, CO
Within eyeshot of the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s a city
for outdoorsy types: climbers, skiers, hikers, mountain bikers,
kayakers, etc. Within an hour, there are literally dozens of
crags and bouldering zones, not to mention a host of worldclass
ski resorts (Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge . . . ), mountain
biking, white water rafting, and more. Denver’s been called
a cow town, but it’s a full-on urban center, with a variety of
neighborhoods offering everything from arts and science
museums, to bars and breweries, to performing arts centers
and professional sports teams. Denver sees 300 sunny days a
year, and the brewery-density (Denver pumps out more beer
per capita than any other city in America) means you’ll rarely
have to drink the same brew twice. For a big city, Denver’s
relatively affordable . Plus, there are lots of climbers to partner
up with, and the time to the crags is pleasantly short.
Cost of living: $$
Population: 598,707
Median age: 33.1
Land area: 153 sq. mi.
Closest core climbers’ town: Boulder, CO
Claims to fame: “Mile-High City,” Rocky Mountains, home of the gold rush, Rockies baseball, DIA (biggest airport in America)
Climbing season/weather: Spring and fall are best, with year-round opportunities
Nearby areas: Too many to name; highlights include: Clear Creek Canyon (sport, bouldering; 15 minutes), Morrison (bouldering, 20 minutes), Table Mountain (sport, 30 minutes), Eldorado Canyon (trad, sport, bouldering; 30 minutes), Flatirons (trad, sport, bouldering; 45 minutes), Boulder Canyon (trad, sport, bouldering; 1 hour), Mount Evans (bouldering; 45 minutes), Rocky Mountain National Park (trad, bouldering; 1.5 hours), Rifle (sport, 3 hours)
THE LOCAL: THOMAS BETTERTON, BANKER, OWNER OF THE DENVER BOULDERING CLUB
Age: 26
How long have you lived in Denver? Four years. But I grew up in Colorado.
Why’d you move back? I wanted to live near mountains again.
Tell us about the Denver Bouldering Club . . . You become a member and you get a code and can go there any time. It’s geared towards the serious climbers.
Why’s Denver a good city for climbing? It has all the things you want in a city — it’s near an international airport, but at the same time it’s near mountains.
Where do you live in Denver? I live a little west of downtown, in the Villa Park neighborhood . . . . But Washington Park or Capitol Hill are the real hipster neighborhoods, and there are a lot of people getting lofts in downtown Denver, too.
What’s the climbing scene like there? Pretty big. You’ll see people driving around with Petzl stickers on their cars; you run into climbers all the time.
Do you need a car in Denver? Yes. I know some people who don’t have cars, but most people do.
What sucks about Denver? The traffic can be kind of rough, and the weather’s unpredictable.
What do you do in Denver when you’re not climbing or working? Go out with my girlfriend for dinner and drinks.
Jerome Boutaud on Barbed Wire (V10), at Lincon Woods, RI, an area about an hour from Boston. Photo: Kevin Riley
Jerome Boutaud on Barbed Wire (V10), at Lincon Woods, RI, an area about an hour from Boston. Photo: Kevin Riley
BOSTON, MA
Masshole stereotypes aside, Boston is one of
America’s finest (and oldest . . . and priciest) cities.
The historic home of that Tea Party thing, Boston
today contains over 80 colleges and universities,
several among the most esteemed in the nation
(Harvard, MIT, Tufts . . . ). Laid out in the days well
before cars, the streets are narrow and traffic
can be fierce. (The Big Dig, which routes cars
through a subterranean roadway, has apparently
lessened the congestion.) And while New York
City’s Rat Rock has garnered media attention
disproportionate to its quality, Boston’s mediocre
local slab-and-pebble spot, Hammond Pond, is
not nearly so well known. New York, too, gets a
lot of press as an urban climbing center, but in
truth, Boston is closer to more stone and greater
varieties of climbing. In fact, within a few hours,
Bostonians can get to Lincoln Woods, Pawtuckaway,
Farley, and Rumney . . . even the Gunks is
only a few hours farther from Boston than from
Manhattan. Also worth noting, the median age in
Boston is 31 — it’s a young town with a big brain
and a taste for partying. And oh yeah, there are
the Red Sox, too. . . .
Cost of living: $$$$
Population: 609,023
Median age: 31.1
Land area: 48 square miles
Closest core climbers’ town: North Conway, NH
Claims to fame: The Red Sox, clam chowdah, historic stuff, brainiacs
Climbing season/weather: Fall and spring for roped climbing; winters for bouldering or ice climbing; summers (black fly season) are good toward the north shore.
Why is Boston a good city for climbers? There are lots of areas to climb within an hour. And there’s awesome sport and trad climbing up in New Hampshire, about two hours away. When you’re climbing, it’s out in the woods, and you feel very far from the city. The quality of the climbing is really high, too, in terms of sport climbing, bouldering, or trad climbing. Though I’m not much of a sport or trad climber.
Where do you live in Boston? In Davis Square, Summerville, north of the city. It’s very hipster, very school friendly.
What’s the climbing scene like there? There are lots of people who climb. The people are friendly and welcoming. For the most part, people who’ve been climbing for some period of time will know each other — you go to your local crag and you’ll know the people who climb there on regular basis.
Do you need a car in Boston? It’s good to have a car. . . . You at least need to know someone that has one, to get to the climbing. To get around the city, a lot of people don’t have cars. There’s a subway system called the T.
What do you when you’re not climbing or working? Go to bars. Hang out in Davis Square or Harvard Square. Get coffee (people like their coffee here). People watch. Go clubbing. Go see sporting events, like the Celtics or the Red Sox.
Jonathan Siegrist at Equinox, a crag less than two hours from Seattle. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
Jonathan Siegrist at Equinox, a crag less than two hours from Seattle. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
SEATTLE, WA
Due to its proximity to the Cascade and Olympic
mountain ranges, there’s an old tradition of diehard
mountaineers in this Northwest city. Stoic to
a fault, these mountaineers refrain from spray at
all costs — an attitude that’s rubbed off on the rock
jocks, too. That’s probably why you haven’t heard
of all the strong-mos who crush at areas you also
haven’t heard of, like Index, Little Si, Equinox, or out
on the boulders at Leavenworth. The Emerald City is
also home to the nation’s first commercial rock gym,
Vertical World (about to open its fifth branch), and
boasts a rocking music scene, good food, museums,
and the lifeblood of climbing, coffee shops (Starbucks
started in Seattle).
Cost of living: $$$
Population: 598,541
Median age: 35.4
Land area: 83 square miles
Closest core climbers’ town: Squamish, British Columbia
Claims to fame: Rain, coffee, crusty mountaineers, Puget Sound, grunge
Climbing season/weather: Summer for areas in the Cascades; fall and spring for areas east of the Cascades.
Nearby areas: Little Si, (sport, 30 minutes), Index and Goldbar (sport, trad; 1 hour), Equinox (sport, 1.5 hours), Leavenworth (trad, bouldering, 2.5 hours), Vantage (trad, sport; 2.5 hours) Squamish (sport, trad, bouldering; 3.5 hours), Smith Rock (sport, 5.5 hours)
Plastic Paradise: Stone Gardens (stonegardens.com), Vertical World (Seattle, Everette, Redmond, Bremerton, Tacoma; verticalworld.com)
How long have you lived in Seattle? My whole life.
Where do you live? Ballard, an average little neighborhood — suburban Seattle.
What’s a good neighborhood for climbers to live? For a cool spot that’s close to the freeway, the University District is the place to be — lots of coffee shops and restaurants. Either that or Capitol Hill.
What are some food/ drink recommendations: Dick’s Drive-In (ddir.com); pretty much any local coffee shop is gonna be better than Starbucks.
What’s the climbing scene like in Seattle? I think it’s bigger than most people think. It’s really cool because there are a ton of strong climbers out here, but you never hear about them.
Do you need to own a car in Seattle? Yeah, ‘cause you have to drive into the Cascades or up to Canada for the climbing . . . If you live in the U district or Cap Hill, getting around on a bicycle or taking a bus is pretty easy.
What sucks about Seattle? The winter season sucks. For rock climbing, winter is bad.
What do you do when you’re not climbing or working? I’m just one for hanging out with my friends . . . The Space Needle is pretty cool. I like going to the Mariners games — watch ‘em lose.
Anything else? I definitely think Seattle doesn’t get the respect in the climbing world it should. We have some really cool stuff, and people need to come see it.
Greg Kottkamp at the Alexander Lake Boulders, Panola Mountain State Park, 30 minutes from Atlanta. Photo: Andrew Kornylak / www.akornphoto.com
Greg Kottkamp at the Alexander Lake Boulders, Panola Mountain State Park, 30 minutes from Atlanta. Photo: Andrew Kornylak / www.akornphoto.com
ATLANTA, GA
One of the South’s biggest cities,
Atlanta’s half-mil population doesn’t include
the sprawling metro area, which
claims about 10 times as many people. Outkast
is just one of many Atlanta-spawned
acts, and the music scene here is big. Home
to Coca Cola, CNN, and Delta, Atlanta is a
corporate city with southern charm. Summers
are hot, winters mild, and no other big
city offers such quick access to so many of
the Southeast’s classic sandstone outcroppings.
The Chattahoochee River offers nice
summer activities, like kayaking, when
the ATL is baking, and the climbing scene
is cohesive, centered around local access
issues (many of which have been solved
thanks to the Southeastern Climber’s Coalition).
Also nearby is the small town
of Ellijay, a single-track mountain biking
hotspot. It’s worth checking out Georgia’s
famed peaches and peanuts while you’re
there . . . and the fried chicken and waffl es
(no joke). Another ATL plus: for a metropolis,
the cost of living’s way more bearable
than, say, LA or Boston. Atlanta has the
lowest cost of living on our list.
Cost of living: $
Population: 537,958
Land area: 131 square miles
Closest core climbers’ town: Chattanooga, TN
Claims to fame: the Braves, Coca Cola, Ted Turner, traffic, Outkast, Southern hospitality
Climbing season/weather: Climbing temps are good from October through April, but January through March sees frequent, heavy rains. Summers are hot.
Nearby areas: Too many to name; popular/larger areas include: Boat Rock (bouldering, 15 minutes), Sunset Rock (trad, bouldering; 2 hours), Rocktown (bouldering, 2 hours), Foster Falls (sport, 2.5 hours), Sand Rock (trad, sport, bouldering, 2.5 hours), Tennessee Wall (trad, 2.5 hours), HP40 (bouldering; 3 hours), Steele (trad, sport, bouldering; 3 hours), Little River Canyon (sport, bouldering; 3 hours)
THE LOCAL: BRAD MCLEOD, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT, SOUTHEASTERN CLIMBERS COALITION TREASURER
Age: 46
How long have you lived in Atlanta? Since 1993.
Why’d you move there? I went to the University of Georgia, and I needed to find a job to pay off student debt. I wanted to do the Chattanooga thing, but there weren’t job opportunities.
Why is ATL a good city for climbing? We have a really strong climbing community. Also, knowing that Atlanta has one of the largest airports in the world, I can jump on a flight and go almost anywhere direct. It’s a pretty vibrant city — the music scene’s active. If you’re young, especially, it’s a good place to come and start your career.
What sucks about Atlanta? Being two hours from the crags. Traffic. And there’s a higher cost of living than in smaller towns like Birmingham or Chattanooga.
Any food/drink recommendations? Six Feet Under (sixfeetunderatlanta.com), next to the cemetery, and Taqueria del Sol (taqueriadelsol.com), downtown, is another good one.
Where do you live in Atlanta? Sandy Springs. Kinda up on the north side — another one of the little suburbs. It’s right on the Chattahoochee River, about 15 or 20 minutes from town.
What’s the climbing scene like there? I think the gyms have a strong pull and bring a lot of people together. I climbed in the gyms for years and know a lot of people from them. We also have a pretty active social scene based around access. The local shop, High Country, has a slide show every month or every other month. We have an annual Boat Rock comp. It’s a pretty cohesive scene — a lot of people know each other, or if they don’t know a person, they know of him or her. Local people are on the message boards or on Facebook. You’ll go to some of these events and you’ll see late-40s tradsters and the young crowd, too.
Do you need a car in Atlanta? Yeah, it’s not like Boulder. They’re building a ring of parks around the city. . . . We’re getting there, but . . . It’s a big transportation hub and a commercial business hub. I see people biking around here, but it’s still not quite there.
What do you do in Atlanta when you’re not climbing or working? Paddling. There’s some fantastic rivers all around within two hours of Atlanta. If you’re into mountain biking, there’s Ellijay, a little town an hour north of Atlanta.
Whitney Hoose burlin’ out on Box Car Arête (V8), the Gunks, NY. Photo: Justin Roth
Whitney Hoose burlin’ out on Box Car Arête (V8), the Gunks, NY. Photo: Justin Roth
RUNNERS UP
NEW YORK CITY, NY
America’s biggest city, NYC has bouldering in Central Park, (semi-legal/illegal) bouldering an hour or less away, and the super-classic Gunks about 1.5 to 2 hours away. Want more than that? It’s gonna be a long haul. The gym scene for years was rough, but the newly christened Brooklyn Boulders (brooklynboulders. com) has folks stoked again. And if you’re talking food, art, culture, media, etc., it’s pretty easy to argue that NYC’s the greatest city in America.
Robin Maslowski enjoying the perfect sandstone edges of Red Rock Canyon, NV. Photo: Justin Roth
Robin Maslowski enjoying the perfect sandstone edges of Red Rock Canyon, NV. Photo: Justin Roth
LAS VEGAS, NV
If quick access to sport climbing’s your thing (or poker,
or strippers), you’d be hard-pressed to do better than
Vegas. The full-on desert climate makes for gorgeous
sunsets and awesome winter climbing. Red Rock
Canyon National Conservation Area is an amazing
place for single or multi-pitch sport routes, and there’s
a growing bouldering scene, too. Mount Charleston,
though chipped, offers hard routes and is better for
summer climbing. The climbing scene here is relatively
large, and growing.
Mike Doyle working the FA of Lucifer (5.14c), Purgatory, Red River Gorge, KY. Photo: Justin Roth
Mike Doyle working the FA of Lucifer (5.14c), Purgatory, Red River Gorge, KY. Photo: Justin Roth
LOUISVILLE, KY
Louisville’s a nice enough town,
but it’s on this list for one reason
— the Red River Gorge. With
2,000 routes (sport and trad),
the RRG is one of America’s
best sport-climbing destinations,
and Louisville’s only two
hours away (Lexington’s closer
by an hour, but didn’t make
the population cut-off). Other
great things about living in
this part of the country include:
Kentucky Bourbon, warm
weather, thoroughbred racing,
and pickup trucks.
Carrie Cooper on another funky Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT, arête. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
Carrie Cooper on another funky Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT, arête. Photo: Andy Mann / andymann.com
SALT LAKE CITY, UT
Depending on how you measure
population, SLC might or
might not make the cut for our
list. Still, it’s close, and it’s so
good for climbing that it’s hard
to leave it off. The city life isn’t
exactly kickin’, but, locals say,
it’s getting better all the time.
Meanwhile, the city is surrounded
by world-class boulders
and routes, and outdoor
activities of all kinds abound.
Plus, when you’re really bored,
you can go blow a gasket on
the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Amna Shiekh bouldering at Jimi’s Beach, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Photo: Jim Thornburg / jimthornburg.com
Amna Shiekh bouldering at Jimi’s Beach, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Photo: Jim Thornburg / jimthornburg.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
In town, there’s Indian Rock, a historic
bouldering spot, and Yosemite’s a fi vehour
drive. The cost of living is about
as high as it gets, but the weather,
scenery, food, and music are to die for.
LA wins out over SF due to the greater
number of easily accessible climbing
areas, but SF takes the cake when it
comes to gyms — there are a dozenplus
big ones in the Bay Area.
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