UKC

Ok it is time for a change and time to organize an adventure. Unfortunately over the past 11yrs I have managed to fall into the trap of working to hard and focusing to much on my career. But as of September this 29 yr old feels it is time for a break and for the first time in my life I intend to go travelling for 6-12 months in the US. My question is, as a complete novice to travelling and the climbing hot spots in the US, where the hell do I go? I really want to experience the wilderness and I love the idea of spending some time climbing and hiking over mountains ranges and walking through huge forest. But my main concern is I need to go somewhere, where it will be easy to find other climbers along the way. Meaning I can spend the majority of my time lead climbing.

Obliviously Yosemite will be a great choice to head to but where else has a large climbing community?

This is my first attempt at researching information for this trip and so if anyone has any advice/recommendations that would be great.

Cheers

In reply to Paps85:

Gen up on US websites, create a profile, team up with an Ex-Pat possibly?

In reply to Paps85:

In terms of the wilderness experience,I would certainly like to go back to the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming.It may not have the most intense climbing,but it is such an expanse of untouched land and just beautiful.You could perhaps do it the other way round and go to Jackson Hole and team up with someone climbing out of there.Then you could head into the Wind Rivers with your new climbing friends.
I also like the cascade mountains in Washington state and then of course there is Alaska.
All of the above is more in the Alpine style and for more uniformly typical rock climbing you would have to go to somewhere like Smith Rocks in Oregan(not been there)or consider some of the insane crack climbing in Utah(doesn't appeal to me).
The suggestion to go on to a parallel site to this in the US is another suggestion I would give as mentioned in the previous reply.
Whatever you do, Good Luck.It will be fun.
Rob

In reply to Paps85:

This might give you some ideas

http://www.climbing.com/route/road-trip-201/

In reply to Paps85:

Others have made some good suggestions, but if you really want places with a substantial climbing community Boulder CO, Joshua Tree CA and Moab UT spring to mind. The great thing about climbing is it really is a global community and climbers in the US are just as friendly as anywhere else - so it shouldn't be a problem hitching up with others, at least for rock-climbing. If you want to do longer mountain routes (e.g. Wind Rivers - a great choice that others have mentioned), there might be more of problem.

In reply to Paps85:

i did the john mure trail a few years back and that was amaising if you want to get into the wilderness. me and a friend took 20 days whitch is slow (but enjoyable)you could also climb in Yosemite then do the walk after???

In reply to timmyhobby:

Hey, I have just watch the following link below (Well worth a watch if you have the time) and it has confirmed in my mind that I should head to California. That trail looks perfect and at the end of it I can spend a few months climbing in Yosemite, before deciding where to go next. Researching the US visa it looks like I can only spend three months in the states. Which sounds fine because after I could possibly work my way up to Canada.

youtube.com/watch?v=EAG2xURyvtY&

Cheers for the info, it really helped.

In reply to veteye:

Hey Rob, cheers for the reply and infor regarding US hot spots. I have researched visa's and it looks like i can go for 3 months with the possibility of extending it 6 months. I am going to head to California and if I can get the extension, working my way up to Alaska would be awesome.

In reply to Paps85:
http://www.mountainproject.com/destinations/

US equivalent of UKC - might give you some good ideas and a good place to hook up with partners.

In reply to Andy Reeve:

Great link, thank you.

In reply to John Stainforth:

Hey John, thanks for the reply. I agree that i think it will be easy to find climbers once i have found their campsites. Hopefully after spending a few wks getting to know some of the local climbers, I can convince someone to tag a long on a epic hike.

In reply to Firestarter:

Sweet, that has just made my life a lot easier. Awesome, thank you for link.

In reply to Paps85:

All of the "destination" crags/areas in the US will, in season, have a large contingent of road tripping climbers both American and foreign. With Yanks only getting 3 hours holiday a year, quitting your job and going on an extended climbing tour is not uncommon. So if you go to the right places you'll find it easy to meet people to climb with. I once went to the US and climbed almost exclusively with Germans.

There's a good quick guide to west coast tradding here:
http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,21295.msg387459.html#msg38745...

Imho the trad climbing over there is generally amazing whilst the sports climbing is somewhat less so. There's a reason all the American climbers visit Spain and Kalymnos. And the trad climbing in places like Yosemite and Joshua Tree is very trad.

In reply to Paps85:

Not climbing suggestions - but if you have all that time try coast to coast on the train like I did a few years ago. I went by sea to New York, but you could fly. Then there are two routes across. I used the southern route, dropped off at Flagstaff to go down into the Grand Canyon - a bus meets the train. I think the northern route goes near the Wind River range. Amazingly cheap fare if you sleep on a reclining seat. Someone like Trailfinders would have the info.