UKC

Hi UKC,

I'm shortly moving to America, namely Seattle! However, I don't know if I'll be able to survive without the UKC crag map - I know some crags in the US are indexed on here, but clearly not as many. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an equivalent service for finding crags, reading comments, grade voting etc, that's widely used in the US?

Thanks!

In reply to Giles Eperon:

Mountainzone, summitpost, supertopo, 27crags and mountainproject spring to mind. In no particular order...

In reply to Giles Eperon: Of the ones I've used Mountain Project is best for info on climbs (better than UKC on popular stuff). Supertopo is best for forum fun (better than UKC on climbing posts).

In reply to Offwidth:


I would have said that Mountainzone would be better for banter than Supertopo...

In reply to HeMa: Not when I've looked but thats not very often. My climbing is west coast centric so maybe thats an issue.

In reply to Offwidth:

Thanks guys! I can't find mountainzone online though.

In reply to Giles Eperon:
For what you are looking for then Mountain Project is by far the best resource

In reply to Giles Eperon:

HeMa supplied a good list, missing thecrag.com. Different crags get better/worse descriptions on different sites, and often you have to visit several of them and try to piece together the information you want.

In reply to Giles Eperon:

I've used Mountain Project a bit to find partners in the Seattle area (family on Whidbey Island). Always managed to find someone to climb with and none of them have tried to kill me. Fantastic area to be a climber - not too hot through summer, Squamish only a stones throw away, amazing granite cragging and mountaineering. Quite a few Seattle climbers on Supertopo too, 'Big Mike' is someone who put me in the direction of a few locals to climb with.

In reply to Giles Eperon / anyone:

Sorry to jump in on your thread but what's the best guidebook for the Seattle area? There's a good chance I'll be over there for a while in the next year or so and I'd like to do some research ahead of time.

In reply to Giles Eperon:

An additional regionally-specific site is Cascadeclimbers.com which is geared more to mountain routes and winter climbing. No crag maps, but it has trip reports (which are mapped) and various forums similar to UKC, though less active.

Give me a shout if you feel like getting out - I'm based in Seattle.

Eddie

In reply to Offwidth:

Supertopo is best for Yosemite old timers but has a rather narrow perspective. There was a hilarious post by John Long once: people were talking about what made a well rounded, all round trad climber and he proceeded to list various benchmark routes, every single one of which was a granite crack. Of various different widths admittedly.

John Long is a funny guy and a good writer, but I suspect in this case the humour was unintentional.

In reply to AlanLittle:

For goodness sake Alan its perspective might not be as wide as some sites but its far from narrow. Plus its more climbing related: the majority of UKC posts have drifted away from climbing and there are more loud ignorant voices diluting those of the knowledgeble (on Supertopo, like say UKB, compulsive climbing bullshitters get a much harder time).

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In reply to Fraser:

For general orientation and ideas (and enough for the visiting all-rounder for a few years) I'd suggest:

'Selected climbs in the Cascades' (Vols 1 & 2)

http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/Category.aspx?s=OrderBy+ASC&CategoryId...

everything from glacier hikes to big wall aid routes, with some crag climbs (sport and trad).

You'll also find the definitive Fred Beckey Cascades guides there (three volumes) plus one to the Olympics. These focus on routes to summits though some of the main lines on significant crags are included.

For rock-climbing specifically, there is also a selective guide called ' Washington Weekend Rock' but it includes only lower grades (up to 5.10a)
http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/Weekend-Rock-Washington-P414.aspx

Most people seem to use a guidebooks to decide where to go and then web searches for recent trip reports and beta on supertopo and mountainproject for more up-to-date (but not necessarily accurate or consensus) information.

Eddie

In reply to Offwidth:

If you're looking for actual climbing discussions though, you have to admit the signal to noise ratio in that list isn't exactly impressive.

I agree the quality of some of the climbing discussions is pretty high, as is the impressiveness of the (bitd, mostly) climbing CVs of some of the participants.

In reply to Fraser:

A weekend+ destination from Seattle well worth checking out is Vancouver Island. There's a ferry direct from Seattle to Victoria or Port Angeles to Victoria then a 2 hour drive to the closest alpine and 3.5-4 hours up to the very best in Strathcona Park.

Guidebooks: http://wildisle.ca/islandalpine/guidebooks.html

Like it or loath it there's a very active FaceBook group, more debate & beta than at any of the forum oriented sites: https://www.facebook.com/groups/islandclimbing/

In reply to Wild Isle:
Thanks very much, I'll check out both those links.

In terms of Seattle day cragging information, the Washington Rock Climbs guidebook doesn't get very good reviews in many quarters. Do you know if there's something a bit better covering crags in more depth?

Edit: Sorry, EddieA, I hadn't scrolled back up this thread far enough to see your post too, many thanks.

In reply to Fraser:

Thanks everyone, great info! And thanks Fraser for asking my next question already

In reply to AlanLittle:
The OP said the US equivalent of UKC. I'd say signal to noise is worse here (and I turn the busiest least climbing related forum off) but there is always stuff to read and contribute to and every so often real gems like the current old farts thread.

In reply to Fraser:

The mountainproject database is usually all you need, once you know where you're going..
For day dragging, exit 32 and exit 38 are good sport crags about 40mins from downtown. Index (trad) isn't too far either but often wet. Gold bar is the closest good bouldering I think, also often wet!. A bit further away, Leavenworth has great bouldering and trad, and vantage has average sport/trad but both get drier weather than west cascades stuff .

In reply to Rharrison:

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out that site again. An earlier glance had suggested Exit 38 might be decent, but ideally I'd been hoping for a decent guidebook for a sort of 1 hour radius from d/town.