I am planning a trip for in July. I am a 11+ in the gym and an 11- outside. everyone else is about 5.8 to 5.9 outside. In order to spend our time most wisely where would you suggest climbing. Single pitch, no trad, preferrably top-roped, or non-strung out sport climbs.

-- Phillip Eugene Roberts (diety187@aol.com), June 07, 1999

Answers

Hey,

Well i cant really see going to the valley and not wanted to do any trad. Isn't that a sin or something?! I'm sure there are some great sport climbs...maybe try cookie cliff. Definetly get the guide book and ask people in the mountaineering shop or camp 4.

-- Brian (SloBRI@aol.com), June 17, 1999.

Depending on where you live I can suggest an excellent place. Rumney in New Hampshire. I have the awesome advantage of going to College 10 minutes away from the crags, and I am climbing 4 days a week, sometimes I have ot do homework. There are about 300 routes within the crag system with many climbs arround the 5.7 to the 5.9 rating, also there are a lot of good climbs in the 11's if you can bribe someone to be your belay slave for a while. Good luck

-- RJ Monton (r_monton@mail.plymouth.edu), February 24, 2000.

In colorado there are loads of places you could go. I live in Golden and here are the places I go: Golden clifts has quite a few 5.10's and lower and a lot of easy toprope opportunities, perhaps a better place (longer, better routes) would be Clear Creek Canyon. Richard Wright and others have put up numerous easy, very well bolted routes, unfortunately not much that you can toprope but leading is really safe. Castlewood canyon has many topropes but not a vast selection of 5.8 to 5.9 but some nice 5.10's. Shelf Road near Canyon City is a great place with a couple of areas with easier climbs, well boted routes but no topropes. All these places are reasonably graded - no sandbags! Friends of mine who are similar ability to to and your friends recently whent to Durango and had a great time, I think they did a lot of cracks and slabs on toprope. I've really only scratched the surface of what is available here - Colorado is not just great trad routes. The only problem is July can be hot and might restrict your choise of shaded climbs.

-- Edward Jenner (ejenner@mines.edu), May 11, 2000.

Try the Bishop area in California for sure. Its close to the valley and full of sport. Owens River, Clark Canyon

-- Chris Randall (dutch123@earthlink.net), August 22, 2000.