Area Classic Climbs

Climbing is about fun and adventure, and no place tops our backyard for its incredible variety of world-class climbing. Boulder Canyon, Eldorado Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park; these are places where the outdoors is still king, the sky is open and blue, and classic climbs abound. The corridor between Boulder and Estes Park, Colorado, offers some of the most accessible climbing anywhere. You can start your day in Boulder (5,280), climb Longs Peak (14,259) by one of its 120-plus routes, and be back in time for dinner.

The Yellow Spur, Petit Grepon, Longs and Hallett Peak are just a few of the scores of routes, spires and peaks famous for reasons that are obvious once you climb them. These are places where climbers have long sought something beyond the ordinary, something deeper. You’ve got to dig a little, go around the next bend, to find our greatest gems. They don’t jump out at you, but they’re there for you to discover, to climb and enjoy.

Rocky Mountain National Park offers a lifetime’s worth of spires, snow couloirs, ice smears and ski descents. In Eldorado Canyon, over 800 routes lace the angular sandstone walls. These climbing experiences range from super easy to ultra desperate and are adventures that have helped write the history of American climbing. They continue to inspire today’s climbers from beginner to expert.

And then there are the spectacular Flatirons in Boulder, rising like thousand-foot spikes out of the base of the Rockies, with climbing at grades accessible to almost everyone. Yvon Chouinard called the East Face of the Third Flatiron, 1,300 feet long and rated 5.4, “The finest beginner’s climb in the country.” As a bonus, these amazing formations are within walking distance to the downtown pubs.

All this, with 300 days of sunshine a year. There’s so much so close that on any given day you’ve got a bunch of options. Cold out? Go ice climbing. Snow conditions stable? Ski mountaineering. Sunny? Rock climbing. Feeling ambitious? Alpine climbing. Into suffering? Try Longs Peak in winter. Still have energy after a day on Lumpy Ridge’s impeccable granite? Hike to Chasm Lake for an intimate view of the Diamond. No matter what the weather or your mood, you always have something great to do.

But there’s more to it: a spirit of the West, a culture that values recreation, takes its time and considers what you have to say. As one of our Swiss clients, Douwe van den Oever, said: “Climbing here is fun. In Europe it’s over-organized; everything is bolted; guiding has become routine. Here things are fresh. Guides are professional yet passionate, and natural climbing lines remain free.”

This climber’s mecca offers the conveniences as well. It’s an hour’s drive from Denver International Airport, it has great gear shops (Reinhold Messner once said that Boulder’s Neptune Mountaineering was the best mountaineering shop he’d ever seen) and accommodations ranging from our simple hostel to luxury hotels. You can start your climbing day with a fine espresso and finish with a fantastic dinner and a cozy bed.

Climbers have always felt at home here. Yosemite pioneer Tom Frost wrote back in 1977: “Colorado’s cliffs, located on the spine of the continent, have become the crossroads of American climbing. It is felt by many that Colorado is the subculture center of the climbing community; where climbing is a more serious way of life, and lived more fully by sizeable numbers of participants, than at any other place in the nation.” You’ll feel welcome too.

On any given day, at local crags or our rock gym, you could find yourself alongside climbing legends Lynn Hill, Robyn Erbesfield, Tommy Caldwell, Roger Briggs or other inspiring climbers. All are here for the same reason: world-class climbing, world-class fun. It’s like Jeff Achey wrote in the book Climb!: “Writers go to New York. Actors go to Hollywood. Climbers go to Colorado.” Come join us.

References: Alex Lowe quote: Alison Osius, “The Mutant,” Climbing Magazine, Feb/Mar 1997, 72. Chouinard quote: Stewart M. Green, Rock Climbing Colorado, Helena: Falcon Publishing, 1995. Messner statement: originally stated to Neptune’s staff. Tom Frost quote: Dudley Chelton and Bob Godfrey, Foreward to Climb!, Boulder: Alpine House Publishing, 1977. Jeff Achey quote: Jeff Achey, Dudley Chelton and Bob Godfrey, Introduction to Climb!, 2nd ed., Seattle: The Mountaineers Books, 2002.