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Classics Climbs
Don't cut your roadtrip short without baggin' these.
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 Living On The Edge (II 5.10c) Snow Canyon State Park, Utah
Just north of the Suburbs of Saint George, Utah, you’ll find Snow Canyon State Park. Named after the Mormon missionaries Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, this quiet zone has approximately 75 sport and trad climbs, from one to six pitches, on Navajo sandstone formations reminiscent of Zion.  Yellow Brick Road (5.9+) - Wizard Needle, California
Every story you've heard about the Needles (California) is true: the place does feel haunted, and the climbing is that good. Towering cones of granite claim the horizon of this wonderland, perched at 8,000 feet in the Sierras near the edge of the Kern River Wilderness.  Recom-Beast (III 5.9) - Cathedral Ledge, NH
North Conway, tucked beneath the Moat Mountains of northern New Hampshire, is a climbers’ utopia. It’s a small town (pop. 2,000) bustling with climbing life: everywhere, climbers bike to morning guiding gigs, and then take coffee fuel-ups at The Frontside Grind before reeling off a half-dozen afternoon pitches ...  Irene's Arete (III 5.8 or 5.9+) - Disappointment Peak, Wyoming
Walking the edge in Grand Teton National Park for climbers, Disappointment Peak holds anything but. The southern wall of this 11,618-foot mountain in the heart of the Tetons boasts clean lines, stellar views, and sunny exposure.  Mucho Pumpito (II 5.10b) Vinales Valley, Cuba
The best 5.10 in The world — it’s a big claim for a two-pitch sport route in western Cuba. Yet that’s the consensus among those who’ve climbed on the elbow-deep pockets of Mucho Pumpito, in the island’s Valle de Viñales. As the British climber and writer Mikey Robertson effervesced, “Mucho Pumpito is the best 5.10 I’ve ever done, and in the top five of all climbs.”  Razor's Edge - Superstition Mountains, AZ
A dacite-core formation, the Hand was first climbed by desert and wall master Bill Forrest circa 1965, with Gary Garbert and Ky Punches. The men raced up the tower 45 minutes, using only hexagonal machine nuts for pro, via what’s now known as the Razor’s Edge.  The Nose (5.8), Looking Glass, NC
No need for haulbags, speed records, or poop tubes on this Nose. Looking Glass Rock's beloved romp is a rousing moderate on granite every bit as good as the Valley's . . . if one succumbs to far-reaching comparisons.  Sea of Holes (II 5.10- R)
It’s a bit hard to call an R-rated route “classic” — you don’t want people whipping off and breaking their legs and whatnot. But then again, most R-rated routes aren’t the Sea of Holes, the two-pitch jug ladder up an eye-pleasing convex buttress on the Front Side, at Hueco Tanks.  Comic Relief (III 5.10b)
In 1983, Ed Webster and Chester Dreiman, two peerless Black pioneers, ducked into morning shade in the SOB gully. Their goal? A clean, grey thousand-foot buttress walking the thin line between spectacular multi-pitch trad and begging for a tasty epic.  Dark Shadows - Red Rocks, Nevada
Hiking into the shady north fork of Pine Creek Canyon, to climber's right of the 1,000-foot, pyramid-shaped Mescalito formation, you'll enter a pristine wilderness that becomes darker and cooler with each step. One of Red Rock’s best climbs, combining fun face and steep cracks, Dark Shadows is in deep shade all day ...  Vertigo, Cannon Cliff, New Hampshire
For as long as it’s sat high above Franconia Notch, in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Cannon Cliff has been slowly but surely losing its battle with gravity. If you have any doubts, just look at the giant talus slope running more than a half-mile along its base ...  Lotus Flower Tower (V 5.10)
Hardly anyone has actually freed the crux 16 th pitch (rated 5.10c, but more like stiff 5.11) of the LFT since Steve Levin, Mark Robinson, and Sandy Stewart made the FFA in 1977. It’s a dirty, wet roof. A perfect hand crack beckons to the left, however the topo calls this temptation A1 to 5.9 R. If your ethics allow it, just stay on route, pull on a piece and get it over with.  Zoo View - Moore's Wall, North Carolina
The 300-foot quartzite cliff band, situated within North Carolina's Hanging Rock State Park (a mere 30 miles from Winston-Salem), stands as one of the state's finest crags. The wall, first climbed in 1959, is known throughout the Southeast for its bold, traditional lines, put up in the old-school, ground-up style.  Yellow Spur, Eldorado Canyon
Either the Naked Edge is the 5.11 Yellow Spur, or the Yellow Spur is the 5.9 Naked Edge. Both are Layton Kor direttissimas — the Spur climbed in 1959, the Edge three years later — and both take Eldo’s most prominent arêtes, the Spur beelining up the vibrant-yellow pyramid of Redgarden Wall’s Tower One, the Edge towering 800 feet above the tumble of South Boulder Creek on Tower Two.  The Mace (III 5.9+), Cathedral Rock Group, Sedona, Arizona
Often called stout for the grade by desert neophytes, climbs cracks and chimneys on the flip side of the tower, before the infamous notch-spanning step-across directly above the rappelling climber. |
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