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Wind Rivers, WY. Cirque of Towers is one popular destination (high concentration of good lines incl. two [easy] North American Classic lines). Devils Tower, WY. So much of it & so close together. Sawtooths, ID. Elephants Perch formation has many good lines and is easy to access. Much backcountry rock too.

I think Lopez book mentions that one of the Rakers (north? south??) requires aid to top out but (of course) no addnl. info. is given.

This one? http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/153359/harrison-peak.html SW Ridge looks like 5.0

John, you probably saw this before but this page's got some good shots of opening crux (sorry - I have no first hand beta): http://www.mountainproject.com/v/idaho/city_of_rocks/morning_glory_spire/105741584

Also, having a lameass job like mine don't hurt either.

Surf climbing websites for inspiration.

Got some long range photos of your party if you want them.

Personal Websites: http://www.gdargaud.net/ http://www.piquaclimber.com/ http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/ http://www.ericandlucie.com/

All the routes mentioned above are great. Also, take a look at these Red Wall Stuff: Peking (1st pitch splitter, 5.8), Super Slab (5.6), Moscow (5.7). Main Area Stuff: New Testament (5.10a crack), Toys in the Attic (5.9 - I think it's a FUN route). Monkey - do the Pioneer Route (best via West Face Variation - nice multipitch). Mesa Verde (west side - coooooold): Trezlar (10a; do Cosmos for P1).

Koala Rock --> Thin Air but you can replace the first trad (5.8) pitch with a bolted 5.9 to the right (Suck My Kiss??). Upper 2 pitches are all well bolted. Red book says 10a but they felt easier.

Not sure how much free time you'll actually have, but if you got a full day Moab is only 4 hrs away. Better chance of dry weather and a lot warmer than SLC. Might find a partner at www.climbingmoab.com on short notice.

Great area with great climbing. Some misc. websites with bits and pieces on the Stronghold climbing: http://homepage.mac.com/forest/PhotoAlbum75.html http://www.eskimo.com/~marklan/stories/Cochise.html http://www.summsoft.com/people/jim/Thumbs%20Area%20-%20Dragoon%20Mountains.htm http://www.tucsonclimbers.org/ http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/4153 Guidebook: Backcountry Rockclimbing in Southern Arizona by Bob Kerry I might be wrong, but I think some crags might be seasonally closed for nesting (Jan-spring)????

Glanced thru. Vol 1 & 3 last night at rei. Books look awsome! Will send you a pm when I mail out the check Jim. Thanks!

Lost Arrow Tip (5.7 C1+ or something like that).

Climb: Smith-Trezlar & Tale of Two Shitties Date of Climb: 9/10/2005 Trip Report: With the crappy weather forecast for the Cascades for last weekend (and Sawtooths and Nor. Cal. and pretty much all directions we could think of), my wife and I headed to Smith for a day cragging. Wanted to try two lines on Mesa Verde Wall: Trezlar (a 4-star dihedral) and Tale Of Two Shitties (a 3-star 3-pitch route just next door). The weather was a bit shakey with drizzle dropping clouds rolling thru. Started off with Trezlar. The original 1st pitch is not great - it's 5.7 but the rock is a little bit chossy (not that bad) and the pro is not inspiring. Cosmos (a 10a sport climb just right of the original start provides a better option IMHO). Pitch 2 however was stellar! 80+ feet of clean and beautiful dihedral climbing! 2/3rds of the way up there is a hollow-sounding block on the right that could make for a very bad day should it ever come loose. Dihedral starts with a great hand crack and when the crack narrows down to fingers, plenty of nubbins appear for the feet (quite reasonable at 10a). We rapped off the bolted anchor on top with two 60 meter ropes (probably a 160+ foot rappel). Decided to try Tale of Two Shitties next door as the sky showed some blue for a moment. The first pitch (5.7) crosses some shakey (nothing bad though) rock just before you reach the base of the dihedral of pitch 2. An uncomfortable gear belay follows. Pitch two is great! It starts with a 5.8-ish dihedral (nice hands) which gets progressively thinner/harder higher up. The crux is a short, right trending crack through a bulge (10a) near top of pitch. Bolt belay on a good ledge follows. The last pitch starts with a balancy .9 face in a small dihedral and climbs past two bolts. There's some terrain above the 2nd bolt but the going gets progressively easier. Bolt bleay atop a huge ledge follows. As my wife was topping out on the pitch, full-on rain started. One single rope (back to top of P2) and one double rope raps brought us down. On Sunday, we wanted to squeeze in one more route before heading home. Wanted to try Paper Tiger (10a) on the Red Wall. Got kind of spooked when I pulled off a chunk of rock low on pitch one and backed off. In retrospect, the rock thru. the difficult sections looks OK from below. Will try it again next time. Gear Notes: Cams up to #3 Camalot (optional #3.5 for a pocket on pitch 1) + nuts (small to med.) for Trezlar. More of the same for Tale. Approach Notes:

Jim, we did not get hit with anything directly but systems were moving thru. the area few miles away all afternoon/evening.

thanks. corrected it.

Climb: Pingora-Northeast Face (IV 5.8) Date of Climb: 9/7/2005 Trip Report: With the PNW weather looking iffy for Labor Day weekend, my wife and I decided to make a drive out to the Wind Rivers. Spend 4 days there last summer but did not get a chance to do this NA classic route then (did E. Ridge on Wolfs Head and NE Face on Warbonnet). Got out of Portland 4pm Friday after work. Got to trailhead Saturday at noon. Got to Cirque of Towers at 4pm. Got up at 8am Sunday and climbed NE Face on Pingora. Got up 7am Monday. Got to trailhead at noon. Got to Portland 13 hrs later ~2am. Got to work 9am Tuesday. Nice climb. Busy (2 other parties). E. Ridge on Wolfs Head (other NA classic in the Cirque) was easier but more fun IMHO. Someone posted a very good topo on summitpost (what we used); Kelsey's topo (Wind Rivers guidebook) is off as it'll send you on a rightward off route traverse midway up the face. Couple of shots: Gear Notes: Set of nuts. Double set cams from green Alien to #2 Camalot. Single #3 and #3.5 Camalot. Optional one larger cam (#4 C4 or #5 Friend). Be ready for pm thunderstorms. Approach Notes: Approach is from Big Sandy TH (closest town is Pinedale, WY about 45 minutes of bone rattling driving away). It's about 8 miles each way into the Cirque and takes 4 hours at decent (but not terribly fast) pace. First 6 miles are flat (and boring).

Migth try posting this on summitpost's CA board. Probably heavier Cali traffic there?

retired - I'm sorry to hear that you lost your camera. Unfortunately we did not see it. Hopefully you did not lose ALL the good climbing shots?

Thanks Ireneo. It's a beautiful area - hard to take a bad shot out there retired - we were sorry that we did not get a chance to talk to you directly (it would've been a priviledge for us!). We got a chance to chat with the guys that were with you. Helluva nice crowd!! Greatly appreciate the Astro beta they gave us (hoping to work up the nerve for it by next summer). mvs, yahoo puts it a 15 min shy of 10 hrs. I90 to I82 to I84 to ID 21 just east of Boise. The town you're aiming for is Stanley, ID. The time it quotes from PDX is pretty accurate.

Climb: Elephants Perch-Sunrise Book (III 5.10 C1 or 5.12-) Date of Climb: 8/27/2005 Trip Report: Long time fan, first time TR poster... Climbed Sunrise Book (aiding the 12- crux) with my wife. Thanks to NOLSe for emailing me the topo. Had the pleasure of running into retired and co. at Saddleback Lakes (much thanks for Astro beta which we did not get a chance to use on this trip ) Found the route quite hard and sustained. We were slow on it! The rock is amazingly clean and solid all the way up! Took a 15 foot fall on pitch 1 when I went too high on the face traverse. Was happy to have the green Alien not pull out despite bad placement. Amazing place and an awsome formation! Couple of shots: Gear Notes: Hard route for us so take this with a grain of salt: doubles from green to red Alien. triples from #.75 to #2 Camalot double #3 Camalots single #3.5 Camalot Approach Notes: Shuttle boat across Redfish Lake is too good to pass up (saves ~4 miles I think). From the marina at the far end of the lake, the hike up is on good trail and took us 2 hrs. at leisurely pace. We belayed the short mid-5th chimney in the approach gully.

PM Jim T. Think he did it a few days ago if you want more specifics.

We were a party of 2 behind Kyle and the others. The way we got down was as follows (all raps were double rope): 1. rap off "far" end of catwalk into a loose class 3 gully (that's to the right as you're facing the formation from base). Lotta crap fell on us while pulling ropes here. 2. scramble down about 100 feet (loose and a bit exposed class 3) to a good tree on a large ledge (this is right and level with start of the .10 crack pitch). 3. 3 (maybe 2??) double rope raps off of good fixed rap stations to the base. We were roughly following the right side of buttress (near gully separating MM from LB).

Tried that too - it's OK. Favorite thin rope belay device is HB's Airmarshall (???) - simple and functional.