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usa or canada climbing in august- places to go |
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15-Jun-2010 6:45:34 PM
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need a bit of help with great places to climb in the states or canada in august that are not too hot. my friend climbs mostly sport. anyone got any ideas?
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15-Jun-2010 7:24:05 PM
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Most places in western canada are pretty good in august. There are a few sport areas around squamish, in particular cheakamus canyon.
Lake Lousie has some sport, but camping options seemed to be very non convenient and expensive.
We found some very hard limestone sport climbing on vancover island at horne lake.
In the states in august your options are pretty much alpine areas or chasing the shade. Rifle canyon in colorado has heaps of sport climbing on both sides of a narrow canyon. So you can climb on one side in the morning and the other in the arvo. Castle rock state park in idaho has quite a bit of sport climbing and you can avoid the sun most of the day.
Hope this helps
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15-Jun-2010 7:28:20 PM
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Perfect time of year for Squamish. Peak of the season.
Smith rock would also be good.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/North_America/United_States/Oregon/Smith_Rock/
Of course the Gunks on the east coast would work too.
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15-Jun-2010 7:28:28 PM
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I heard Skaha in Canada is very good, quartzite like Araps but bolted. Not sure what the trad/sport mix is - do your own research.
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15-Jun-2010 9:58:43 PM
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lots of sport climbing near seattle. good temps. but camping blows. skaha is ok. lots of bolts. just sack up and spend the month at squamish. lots of climbers to hook up with so you don't need cams. and great camping, nice town. and when you come back to Oz, you will be one of the few aussie climbers who can climb cracks.
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16-Jun-2010 10:12:57 AM
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On 15/06/2010 patto wrote:
>Smith rock would also be good.
Smith would be way too hot then. Squamish would definitely be the pick
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16-Jun-2010 10:21:46 AM
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Will you have a car?
Are you thinking of going to 1 place or a road trip?
Have you thought of going to the sierra and climbing slabs and going bouldering?
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16-Jun-2010 12:26:43 PM
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Squamish would be awesome but not much worthwhile sport stuff (its trad).
Skaha is fun, shorter & not as inspiring as Araps but some bits are equally as good rock. DON'T go in August unless its raining in Squamish, it'll be 40deg c. Skaha is best April-now or Sept-Nov.
The Rockies is perfect weather in August - esoteric but still good climbing. The bolted stuff follows the good rock more than trad routes can, plenty of lower cragging & good multi-pitch sport routes with a big mountain backdrop. Tonnes of bolted stuff to do. a few routes at the back of the Lake remind me of Araps. 80% of the ppl who go there only clips bolts, but its always worth taking a small trad rack there.
Colorado is high elevation so no doubt there'd be stuff to do there - loottts of good micro brew beer in Colorado also!
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16-Jun-2010 1:18:12 PM
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Theres plenty of sport around Banff and Canmore. Canmore has a great community of climbers.PM me if you would like a few names and numbers. If you are taking a Rack and dont mind the cold dont miss out on the Bugaboos. There are pleanty of amazing lines up there that you dont need to cross the glacier for.
Cheers
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16-Jun-2010 1:22:07 PM
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Another option are the crags around Salt Lake City (American Fork, Maple Canyon etc). Lots of moderate sport climbing. Close enough to base to check out other utah, idaho and colorado crags.
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16-Jun-2010 2:45:02 PM
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On 15/06/2010 gfdonc wrote:
>I heard Skaha in Canada is very good, quartzite like Araps but bolted.
> Not sure what the trad/sport mix is - do your own research.
>
You heard wrong! Well, you're mixing up two crags which are hundreds of kms apart.
Lake Louise is fantastic quarzite climbing, mostly sport but also trad and mixed. Very similar to Frog in terms of ease of access, number and concentration of routes, and consistently superb quality of routes. The rock is A1, I rate this place very highly!
Skaha (Gniess, not Quartzite) is more like Blueys B-grade sport crags; good routes, nothing spectacular, a bit samey after a couple of days, rock varies from quite good to quite flakey.......the grades are soft, so if your prime motivation for travelling is stroking the ego, it could be for you.
Much better is Pet Wall at Squamish, only 30ish routes but what f---ing balltearers! Magic rock, super moves, real lines.....but the grades aren't bargins and the bolts are getting on Taipan spacing so a lot of people ignore its existance in favour of the vanilla soft serve known as Chek and Skaha.
I really like Horne Lake on Vancouver Island. Steep limestone cave overlooking THE model pine-tree beaver lake (you want "canada"? doesn't get much more "canada" than this) . Camping is probably a shitfight in school hols, was a ghost town after they end. As with the gramps caves, if you can't do 22 warm up and 26 proj, you will get spanked.
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16-Jun-2010 5:03:35 PM
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can i hijack this thread a little and ask the same question for early Spring/ late Autumn months that are not too cold?? and nearer to seattle the better!!
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16-Jun-2010 5:31:16 PM
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On 16/06/2010 widewetandslippery wrote:
>American Fork, Maple
>Canyon etc).
There are a couple of people whose opinions I value quite highly when it comes to crag quality. Henry Barber made a classic call in an interview which went something like "First the sport climbers dicovered Smith, which is a beautiful place to climb. Then they discovered American Fork, which is a steaming pile of dogshit!"
Might not have been his exact words, but that was the drift. As a result I will never visit American Fork.......life is short, just say no to pox!
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16-Jun-2010 5:45:34 PM
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Tuolumne and the Sierras would be pretty good in August.
Mostly trad though.... some of the "lower" crags have bolted routes e.g Gong Show, Rock Creek etc.
Maple Canyon is awesome fun and a great novelty crag. Go there if you are passing, but I wouldn't plan a trip around it.
American Fork = pox.
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16-Jun-2010 6:03:00 PM
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for linze:
spring and fall near seattle is WET. few options other than driving a ways. are you visiting or roadtripping? cracks or bolts?
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16-Jun-2010 10:44:46 PM
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On 16/06/2010 Neil wrote:
>Tuolumne and the Sierras would be pretty good in August.
>Mostly trad though.... some of the "lower" crags have bolted routes e.g
>Gong Show, Rock Creek etc.
American Fork is pretty crappy and Maple a novelty indeed. Tuolumne has some sport routes, just ask anyone "how do we get to the BNY?".
Tahoe is nice in those months as well and if you don't have much gear you can toprope a lot of stuff easily, particularly at Snowshed.
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16-Jun-2010 11:00:13 PM
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alot of really great advice here. we are going to meet up begininning of august and spend a month. not sure what to do about a car.
prob start off in vancouver to head to squamish?
id love to climb trad but dont think i can carry my rack and just seriously thinking about not taking camping gear (this is the start of a 2 month trip that could end in china)
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17-Jun-2010 4:58:02 AM
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dont absolutely need gear in squamish. just harness, shoes, device. loads of climbers to hook up with. but, no cheap places to stay unless you camp. there is bus service from vancouver to squamish and back several times a day so daytrips are possible.
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17-Jun-2010 8:57:00 AM
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On 16/06/2010 Linze wrote:
>can i hijack this thread a little and ask the same question for early Spring/
>late Autumn months that are not too cold?? and nearer to seattle the better!!
The closest quality crag to Seattle is called Index. Its relatively hard granite crack climbing. Its at a really nice spot next to the river and there is free camping. However I've gotta agree with the comment about the weather, around seattle at this time will be really wet. This would probably be a good time to head to Smiths rock
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17-Jun-2010 10:16:03 AM
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there is a good hostel in squamish now, almost at the base of the chief. partners with racks wont be hard to find, there is squamish forum at squamishclimbing.com or the forums at www.gripped.com
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