What's the Best American Climbing Area? Vote Now!

What's the best American climbing area? I posted a poll last week on the About.com Climbing Forum. Go there and cast your ballot for your favorite.

It's hard to decide which is the best climbing area in the United States. Lots of excellent climbing areas scatter around this vast country. Back in the 1970s it wasn't hard to decide the best arenas for rock climbing. The Big Three--Yosemite Valley, Eldorado Canyon, and the Shawangunks--were simply the best, the places where cutting edge routes were done by the world's elite climbers.

Now it's more difficult to decide. There are just so many places to climb. I winnowed them down to five areas--Yosemite, Shawangunks, New River Gorge, Smith Rock, and the Boulder area. The Big Three are still in there, for historic and aesthetic reasons and because their climbing is that good, but I chose the other two for the same reasons. Smith could rightly be called the place were American sport climbing took root, while the New offers a heck of a lot of great climbing.

There are the omissions, of course. Everyone has a favorite special area that isn't on my list, places like Red River Gorge, the Moab area, Joshua Tree, Cochise Stronghold, and Red Rocks.

All these areas are worthy. All are great climbing areas. But are they the best? Are my picks jingus? What do you think? Vote in the poll and post your comments here. Let's decide what's the best American climbing area in 2009!

Vote in my About.com Climbing Poll for the best American climbing area.

Photograph above: Keith McAllister cranks "Tongulation" at the New River Gorge, West Virginia. Photograph © Stewart M. Green.