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wiclimber
Trad climber
devil's lake, wi
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Jun 27, 2007 - 02:13pm PT
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Yeah Spud, and after work you go to the bar, or sit (more likely stand) on the train for an hour, instead of head out to the crag and climb. Then go "home" to your 700sq/ft apt for $800/mo.
I thought I could do the midwest long term by living on a lake near milwaukee, 1.5 hours from devil's lake and fly out west for my real climbing fixes.
Worked for a few years, but it doesn't cut it. Not if you truly love climbing. Sooner or later, it'll tear you apart.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 27, 2007 - 02:24pm PT
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hey, it's got pizza and humidity unmatched in CO/CA
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jun 27, 2007 - 02:44pm PT
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No climbing of quality in Colorado? and Never found any good climbing in Colorado? What does that say about those people? I've climbed, I can say, extensively in both Colorado and California. I've spent years visiting Yosemite and have climbed in many other places in California. I've bouldered at Stony Point with Kamps, spent hundreds of hours in Tuolumne, done all the major walls in the Valley, hundreds of free routes, have let Royal take me to all sorts of obscure Sierra formations, have crack climbed at Suicide, and yes I love all those places and those people, but I always get homesick for my Colorado areas, those places I have always felt were the best climbing areas in the world... minus the aesthetic offwidths and great granite walls (we have relatively equivalents, on Longs Peak, with its more severe weather, and in the Black Canyon). There is more good free climbing per square inch in the Boulder area than anywhere I've been, including England. Royal once observed, about Colorado, "You have the best climbing in the world here." He really felt the immediacy of it, the easy accessibility, the dynamic weather, the great variety of rock and different kinds of challenge than in Yosemite. Compare bouldering in Yosemite to some of the endless bouldering gardens of Colorado, Split Rocks, Horsetooth, Flagstaff, as just a few examples. There is no comparison, really, in terms of quantity of quality bouldering. Yet both areas California and Colorado are wonderful, and to compare them and create a rivalry where none need exist is to delve once again into that great wellspring of immaturity and petty competition... that black hole of contention, for pure contention's sake, and to reduce one or other of these areas is to reduce oneself and to reveal a very limited experience and perception.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 27, 2007 - 03:39pm PT
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Oli says
"delve once again into that great wellspring of immaturity and petty competition... that black hole of contention, for pure contention's sake, and to reduce one or other of these areas is to reduce oneself and to reveal a very limited experience and perception"
Dood, lighten up! What's the matter with some regional ribbing among friends? Jeez.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Jun 27, 2007 - 03:55pm PT
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California native here, and I love the place, even though I have spent the better part of the past 25 years in Europe. But damn the state is getting overpopulated.
Still it has loads of rock and some okay ice climbing, and of course more than some alpine stuff.
I haven't climbed in Colorado so I don't know about it. I understand the ice in Utah is some of the best. Idaho also seems to have some fine places for rock (Sawtooths, etc) and maybe some ice.
Wyoming has the Tetons, Wind Rivers, Devil's Tower and I am sure some other places.
Don't know much about the Montana climbing scene, while Oregon has some fine places as well. My dad's native Washington also has loads to offer - rock, ice, alpine.
Arizona apparently has a lot of rock (and rattlers), Nevada some rock as well. (I said some.)
South of the border, Baja seems to have some great places (but is hot like Arizona, and yeah, rattlers up the gazoo).
However, with the exception of perhaps the weather, I think that if I was a native of British Columbia, I could do some proud boasting.
Then there is Alaska.
Zut alors, I'd love to climb in all the above places.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Jun 27, 2007 - 03:59pm PT
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Let's see:
-Yosemite wall climbing: El Cap and Half Dome are unmatched for aesthetic and challenging aid and free climbing. Personal favorite - the Salathe. Free climb - Astroman
-The Black Canyon: Unmatched adventure to be found on big walls of variable-quality rock. Personal favorite - unrecorde big wall route on South Chasm View. Free climb - Scenic Cruise.
-Touolumne Meadows: Great multi-pitch slab routes. Personal favorite - Fairest of All.
-South Platte: Great single and multi-pitch cracks and slabs. Favorite crack climb - Wunsch Dhedral. Favorite slab route - Childhood's End.
-Lover's Leap: Small area with unque dike-hiking. Favorite longer climb - Traveller's Buttress. Favorite short climb - Surrealistic Pillar direct.
-Lumpy Ridge: Extensive area with excellent crack and face climbing, and unique "seams" climbing, as in "seams like a crack, but it's not, really". Favorite longer climb - The Nose of Sundance. Favorite slab climb - New Music. Favorite "seams to be a climb" - Renaissance Wall.
-High Sierra. Endless alpine granite walls and ridges. A limited amount of ice climbing. Favorite wall climb - East Face of Keeler Needle, right side. Favorite free route - East Face direct, Mt Whitney.
-Colorado Rockies: Really great alpine free climbing but not much in the way of big walls. Endless alpine cragging on variable-quality rock. Lots of winter ice and off-season ice. Favorite wall-type free climb - Yellow Wall. Favorite runout slab climb - Risky Business. Favorite ice climb - Deep Throat.
JTree- Unmatched desert cragging. One word - "Figures..."
-Eldorado: Rock made for free climbing. The Naked Edge one of my all-time favorites. Access can't be much easier.
And so on, and so on, ad infinitum.
To sum up, IMO California has better rock and in Yosemite some world classics, while Colorado has greater variety and (possibly?) more adventure; as well as - ICE!
-AdventureLovingJello
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Jun 27, 2007 - 04:03pm PT
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If I could work and eat better food there, I'd probably move to Utah.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Jun 27, 2007 - 04:08pm PT
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Gee... I'd go climbing right about now... excpet spud told me to go do something other than exercise my fingers.
AZ ranks up there. Hard to compete when you don't have Yosemite though...
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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Jun 27, 2007 - 04:13pm PT
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If I could work and eat better food there, I'd probably move to Utah.
there's actually some really good food to be had here - you just gotta look ;)
niiiice list jello...but how come no one is mentioning the elephant in the room ?
Jersey, second only to Buffalo NY :-D
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 27, 2007 - 04:15pm PT
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Yeah Nature, AZ is great. Sandstone towers, granite domes, limestone crags and basalt cracks. All without the crowds of Cal. and Col. But, no Yosemite, RMNP, Eldo, Sierra, etc.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:02pm PT
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Good job market in Colorado (Denver/Boulder). Can't buy beer in Colorado on Sunday.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:09pm PT
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Jeff, about the Rockies: "not that much in the way of big walls?" Well not like El Cap certainly, but the Diamond is always an adventure, at 14,000 feet, with wild, unpredictable weather, and the Diagonal, and Chief's Head... and those countless big walls in the southwest Rockies, such as the Black Canyon (as you mentioned). How about a more modest Hallet Peak? In some ways Sundance Buttress is like a big wall, pretty big anyway...
Someone above said I should lighten up, because there is nothing wrong with a little friendly ribbing. I agree, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about rivalries and comparisons, and that is a pretty contentious environment. There is nothing light-hearted or fun about people negating or dismissing in subtle ways each others' achievements.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:18pm PT
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Shhh! Nature, as I see it, part of the point of this thread is to draw attention away from some of those other states.
Eeyonkee, what is the deal with all the weird booze laws in every one of the Rocky Mtn states?? actually I know the answer, but don't want to be accussed of being 'faithist'.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:23pm PT
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Jaybro, I don't know the answer to that, but I rarely drink beer here on Sundays because I still hardly ever remember to stock up on Saturday. I suppose it's kept a pound or two off me.
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goatboy smellz
climber
colorado
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:37pm PT
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With a fast vehicle it's all within a day away.
It's the suckers back east I feel sorry for...
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flamer
Trad climber
denver
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:41pm PT
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Best point made....
"Yet both areas California and Colorado are wonderful, and to compare them and create a rivalry where none need exist is to delve once again into that great wellspring of immaturity and petty competition... that black hole of contention, for pure contention's sake, and to reduce one or other of these areas is to reduce oneself and to reveal a very limited experience and perception. "
Now to look like a hypocrite...It doesn't surprise me that this *thread* was posted by a Californian.
You can buy beer on Sunday!! It's 3:2 beer...but beer none the less!
Also you CAN climb rock here in the winter. This past winter was a bad one but typical winters see little snow on the frontrange...and what falls doesn't usually stick around for long. Plus the temps are quite moderate.
Calif. has some awesome stuff so does colorado. They are different and I think thats good!
I only wish we had an ocean!
josh
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:52pm PT
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Flamer, a bit of rereading is in order.
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:59pm PT
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"Colorodans are the worst drivers in America as far as I've seen."
you've never driven in utah have you...hands down dude, and this is from someone that drives in detroit, boston, denver...utah drivers are the worst I have personally Ever Seen...imho...
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TKingsbury
Trad climber
MT
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Jun 27, 2007 - 06:04pm PT
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When people out here say "colo" it sounds like "coli", which sounds like "cali", which makes me think that's where they wish they were from...
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