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stevematthys
May 15, 2002, 2:52 AM
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Where do you guys think the mecca of trad climbing is? No aid climbs, just free trad routes. Personally I like Eldorado Springs, Colorado a lot.
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blindslap
May 15, 2002, 3:00 AM
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i like little cottonwood canyon. not yosemite climbing but i live ten minutes away from it so i love it.
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tim
May 15, 2002, 3:18 AM
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Uh, I'll take "Yosemite" for $100, Alex.
Damn Boulderites.
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danl
May 15, 2002, 3:25 AM
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Gunks..a place for all abilities
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phil_nev
May 15, 2002, 4:09 AM
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Mount Aarpiles, in Australia. U know those micro nuts, the RP's, they were designded specificly for Araps. With over 2000 climbs, all being trad except for maybe 40 routes, it caters for evyone with grades ranging from grade 3(5.3) to 32(5.14c/d). It has it all..... It has over 1000 TOP quality routes, from long multipitch rambles, to short pumpy powerfull faces and overhangs.
IT IS THE TRAD MECCA!!!!!!
Check out these sites if you dont belive me.....
www.arapilies.com
www.arapilies.net
www.neilshaulbag.com (Under the trip reports for arapiles)
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milesdesbrie
May 15, 2002, 4:15 AM
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Gotta be Yosemite.
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crap
May 15, 2002, 5:44 AM
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I'd like to know more about Mount Aarpiles, in Australia. But till something moves closer to my front door, I gotta vote for my home town rock, Red Rock NV.
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jhump
May 15, 2002, 6:13 AM
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If you've never been to Seneca, you have to try it. The climbing is unique and in an amazing setting.
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tim
May 15, 2002, 6:37 AM
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I can think of several places that are more amazing than Seneca. (I was there this past weekend) Yosemite, the Needles, Tuolumne, RMNP, Looking Glass, Table Rock SC, and Sky Top come immediately to mind. And that's just in the USA.
Come on people, have a sense of history. Yosemite is where US-style trad climbing was born and reborn. There are three places that are so far beyond veneration in climbing lore it's not even a question -- Everest basecamp, Chamonix, and Camp IV in Yosemite. The determination of which one is the 'trad mecca' is left as an exercise for the reader.
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crux_clipper
May 15, 2002, 9:38 AM
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You would cream your pants if you saw Araps, it's that good
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traddaddy
May 15, 2002, 1:54 PM
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For me, I would have to say Seneca Rocks WV and Red River Gorge KY run neck and neck for 1st place. But I'm biased, being that I live in the middle of the flatland and real climbing is 4 hours away. There is nothing wrong with Colorado or the mountain states, but that is one long freaking roadtrip!! WHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!
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killclimbz
May 15, 2002, 2:02 PM
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I would have to vote for Yosemite. Eldorado is sort of a trad area, but an awful lot of the trad climbs have a sport feel to them. Clipping pins every 5 feet etc...
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tim
May 15, 2002, 4:40 PM
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Quote:
For me, I would have to say Seneca Rocks WV and Red River Gorge KY run neck and neck for 1st place. But I'm biased, being that I live in the middle of the flatland and real climbing is 4 hours away. There is nothing wrong with Colorado or the mountain states, but that is one long freaking roadtrip!!
And that, my friend, is why it is a Mecca. People make pilgrimages from Germany, Thailand, India, Australia, Canada, Finland, and Britain to climb in Yosemite, and that's just the ones that have hitched rides from me when I was living in SF! It does sound like the Arapiles is way cool, and of course the Rockies, Squamish, the Frankenjura, the North Cascades, and Patagonia are also way-high on my list. But when push comes to shove, asked to name one place that commands pilgrims come from all around to bask in its glory, I will name Yosemite, the crown jewel of the Sierra Nevada. (well, one of the crown jewels of that range, at least )
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bradhill
May 15, 2002, 6:59 PM
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I'd have to go for Boulder. There is no "one spot" in Colorado that compares to Yosemite, but the variety of climbing accessible for somebody living here is stunning. Eldorado canyon is just one little-teensy-bit of the available climbing.
For sandstone trad you have Eldo and the Flatirons. There are dozens of roadside routes in Boulder Canyon you can hit on a lunch break. An hour up the road you have five-star granite at Lumpy Ridge and a host of excellent multipitch wilderness climbs in RMNP including the 1600 foot vertical east face of Longs Peak with free routes up to 5.13b topping out at 14,000+ feet.
It's also just a one day road trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Rifle Mountain Park or many destinations in Utah.
We get 300+ days of sunshine a year, the weather is good enough to climb 10 months out of the year and boulder year round, and there's plenty of ice and alpine around for a change of pace.
Downsides: It's damn expensive to live here and filled with rich college brats.
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quart
May 15, 2002, 7:07 PM
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Smith Rocks, of course.
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danl
May 15, 2002, 7:26 PM
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You asked for a trad mecca...people go to Yosemitie to aid to do trad bolted faces etc. the red and the new are mostly sport areas. People go to the gunks for one reason only. To trad climb.
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polarwid
May 15, 2002, 8:17 PM
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YOSEMITE, bolted faces? Most of the faces I have done there are WAY run out, and Tuolumne has like one bolt every 100 feet!!! Have you ever heard of the COOKIE CLIFF, Serenity CRack, outer limits, lunatic fringe, astroman, etc,etc... these are CRACKS, not faces...
COLORADO (most places), YOSEMITE, GUNKS and Cathedral Ledge are where the trad ethic is still enforced, SMITH rock is sport, as is the NEW RIVER GORGE, etc. TRAD RULES!!!
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stevematthys
May 15, 2002, 9:02 PM
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yea, smith rock is sport
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benfieldj
May 15, 2002, 9:11 PM
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Got to be the Llanberis Pass in North Wales
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indigo_nite
May 16, 2002, 5:23 AM
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if mecca is where you go to worship or be close to... so far, Joshua Tree has been my mecca. but if mecca is where I want to go to be inspired by rock, that's a growing list... tahquitz, yosemite, red rocks, zion, needles, gunks, squamish. it's the next beckoning place that I've never been.
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climber1
May 16, 2002, 7:56 PM
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the original question was free climbing, not aid. would have to say Eldo, Joshua Tree, Red Rocks, Tahquitz, Mt. Lemon, too many.
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dsafanda
May 16, 2002, 8:10 PM
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I had no idea people had such a strange view of Yosemite. Yosemite is trad central USA. On any given day, 95% of the climbing going on is traditional free climbing...not aid climbing.
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cedk
May 17, 2002, 1:55 PM
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I can't believe this is even being argued. Yosemite!
One day I'll make the pilgrimage to Yosemite.
The thing about Yosemite is that it's not just a trad mecca. It's THE rock climbing mecca.
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radistrad
May 17, 2002, 2:12 PM
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Yosemite has to be the best climbing around. We are talking trad heaven. If you've never been to Yosemite you must go. The walls are steep, clean and some of them go on for over 3000 feet.
If you can climb 5.10 in Yosemite I do believe that you can climb 5.10 any place.
There is no such thing as a bolted trad climb. I avoid most of the bolted lines in the Valley, they tend to be run out and hard!
Sure lots of people go to do aid routes in theValley, but the majority of the climbers are there for the TRAD
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climbjs
May 17, 2002, 2:15 PM
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Devils Tower, Wyoming.
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