Climbing
7 US climbing holidays that'll rock your world
Ditch the ordinary and embrace these tourist-friendly rock climbing venues around some of the USA’s wildest landscapes.
New York City? Fuggedaboutit. Disney World? Do yourself a favour. From the desert crags of Utah to the high altitude of Aspen, to the sea cliff of Maine, the USA is a veritable playground for climbers – and much of it remains untapped by tourists.
The range of climates in the USA also means that you can find somewhere to climb whatever the time of year, and in places like Arizona you can drive from the equivalent of Mexican desert to Canadian alpine forest in the space of 40km!
Best of all, the skills you learn at your local climbing wall are totally transferable to outdoor adventures. OK, so the traditional routes may require a guide, or for you to to learn some gear placement and anchor-building skills, but there’s a wealth of options to choose from.
1. Independence Pass, Colorado
Matt Ray gets stuck in high above Colorado
© Aspen Alpine Guides
While perhaps best known for its ski slopes, Aspen is a high-altitude gateway to some of the USA’s finest granite climbing. The crags along Independence Pass often bask in golden sunshine as climbers make burly moves up the corners and mantles of multi-pitch trad route Grotto Wall, a traverse high above the winding mountain road. It’s a proper adventure all right, but Aspen Alpine Guides can take you up it as long as you have basic rope climbing experience.
If sport routes are more your thing, then crags like Ptarmigan Creek offer crimps and cracks on punchy single-pitch routes. Sheltered by the pine trees of the forested mountainside, the high quality granite is worth the trip alone. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
Once you’ve washed the chalk off, head back into the well-heeled mountain town of Aspen with its art galleries and adventure stores. Stop for a beer at counter-culture icon Hunter S Thompson’s favourite Aspen bar, the J-Bar at Hotel Jerome, before taking the short walk to centrally-located lodgings at the Limelight Hotel to rest your weary head.
2. Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
Red Rock Canyon was designated as Nevada's first National Conservation Area
© Bureau of Land Management/Wikicommons
You might be surprised to hear that the vast Nevada desert outside Las Vegas hides more than buried mobsters. Cash in your winnings for a hire car and just 40 minutes outside the City of Sin lies Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
The red sandstone is home to literally thousands of rock climbing routes covering everything from short sport climbs in The Gallery, to 20-pitch monsters rising out of the canyons. If you’ve ever wanted to boulder in a T-shirt in January, then Calico Basin and the super high-quality black, varnished sandstone of Black Velvet Canyon is the place to do it. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
The Strip is the only place to be in Las Vegas. Check in to the Aria if you’re a high roller, which boasts impeccable service, world-class gaming floors and – if you're baller enough to stay in one of its Sky Suites – toilets with a self-rising lid and heated seat. Belying its central location, getting on the highway from the Aria is easy, but if you do want to sleep out with a desert sunrise you can always camp out at Red Rock Canyon Campground. Just reserve a spot first at Recreation.gov
3. Devils Tower, Wyoming
The imposing Devils Tower, Wyoming
© Kennan Harvey/Aurora Photos
As soon as Wyoming's Devil’s Tower hovers into view, dominating the low-lying horizon, your fingers start to itch. Resembling a mythical mountain fortress cloaked in vertical ribs of volcanic rock, its weirdly regular hexagonal columns form a crack climbers’ paradise. It’s also considered sacred by 14 Native American tribes; the Lakota call it Grizzly Bear’s Lodge.
Countless parallel cracks run up the 1,559m mountain, some big enough to swallow you whole, some perfect for dialling in your finger and hand jamming techniques – the longest crack line stretches for 122m upwards. Word to the wise: you’ll need your camming devices for this venue, or to climb with a guide, because the long, sustained routes are mostly unbolted – and take two ropes for the airy abseils back down again. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
Wake up to a view to remember at the Devils Tower Lodge, a B&B ‘ranch house’ frequented by climbers and Steven Spielberg fans (the tower was frequently referenced in Close Encounters of the Third Kind) alike. It’s a straight walk through the woods to the base of the monolith, maximising your time to crush – just avoid June when climbing is paused out of respect for its sacred status.
4. Yosemite Valley, California
Honnold pictured with El Capitan in the background
© Jimmy Chin/Free Solo Movie
If you've not heard of El Capitan, the dizzying granite monolith that looms two kilometres high over Yosemite Valley in America’s most famous National Park, you must have been living under a rock.
The valley is stuffed full of single and multi-pitch climbs in places like Swan Slabs, with its low-angled short pitches, and Cookie Cliff with one and two pitch ascents. You can even get a taste of climbing on El Cap by taking on the routes at its base. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
While most dirtbag climbers may want to keep things a bit more down to earth, The Majestic Yosemite Hotel, built near the base of Half Dome, is a good option for luxury seekers. For US$6 per night you can get the iconic Yosemite experience of pitching a tent at Camp 4, set deep in the valley, west of Half Dome and east of El Cap. This first-come, first-served campsite has been the springboard to some of Yosemite’s most famous feats…
5. Moab, Utah
Fisher Towers area, near Moab, Utah… note the climbers
© Murray Foubister/Wikicommons
Looking across the desert landscape near the small Utah town of Moab, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d been beamed up to Mars. Rich, red sandstone has been carved and sculpted by irresistible forces into epic bowls, honeycombed cliffs, ribbed canyons and lonely desert spires.
The climbing ranges from The Titan, the United States’ tallest freestanding tower of rock, at 270m high, to single-pitch, roadside sport climbs and the world famous splitter crack climbing of Indian Creek with its Wingate Sandstone. Many climbing guides operate out of Moab, so you’ll never be short of a partner, and it would be rude not to also check out the mountain biking – the Porcupine Rim Trail is far more fun than it sounds! Click here for more info.
Where to stay
Retreat from the crowds for the mountain lodge experience at Whispering Oaks Ranch, close to the La Sal Mountain Loop Road with its panoramic red sandstone vistas, or get closer to the action at the Aarchway Inn, a few minutes walk to the centre of Moab on I-191.
6. Acadia, Maine
Acadia National Park has great cliff climbing
© Jeff Gunn/Wikicommons
There’s some magnificently atmospheric cliff climbing to be had on Acadia National Park’s pink granite faces. Atmospheric as in waves crashing into the rocks at your feet while you scale Otter Cliffs or Great Head through a haze of sea spray while carrying a rack of trad climbing gear.
Happily, grades in this collection of islands on the Atlantic coast of Maine range from beginner to pro, and some of the low-angled slabs are positively friendly. Anyway, the effort is all worth it when you see the evening sun set the pink granite on fire. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
Bar Harbour Inn is right by the water and will get you acclimatised to the sea – it has a pontoon that goes right out into the deep water bay so passing boats can moor up, and it’s the ideal spot to sample the famous Maine lobster.
7. Mount Lemmon, Arizona
Don't be bitter you're not at the top of Mt. Lemmon
© Matt Ray
Arizona’s Catalina Highway threads its way up the Santa Catalina Mountains, climbing more than 1,600m and slicing through five of North America’s seven life zones, which means you go from the ‘badlands’ of cacti and rattlesnakes, to alpine forests within 40km. Handily, this makes it an all-year around climbing destination.
Mount Lemmon has many bolted routes worth checking out. Crags like Pinhead Wall, a fin of rock that juts out of the hillside at 760m, have an array of classic routes like the 24m Go Speed Racer (5.10+ or 6a+) with its steep face and excellent rock. That said, it’s still an adventurous Arizona location that you’ll share with gila monsters, rattlers and bark scorpions – best leave the flip-flops at home. Click here for more info.
Where to stay
There are no hotels on around Mount Lemmon although there are some camping grounds. Tucson is 1hr 15m drive from the top of the mountain and if you want to soak off the desert dust in a jacuzzi then the closest accommodation is Lowes Ventana Canyon Resort.
