Fav. Mtn. Range

[joekania]

I've done more backpacking than climbing, but my favorite is the San Juans in southern Colorado. 80 miles of continental divide thru wilderness. Get on top of something big and out pop a handful of 14ers, couple dozen 13ers. I don't know specifics, but there are technical climbs (at high altitude) on the Needles.

[To_The_Top]

Stuart Range, good rock, nice walkups, and better mixed alpine, oh also slightly better weather then other parts of the cascades.

[Bug]

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam....shit, whatever. Wind River range is where all the smart bugs go. Endless clean granite, skiing year round, booty, coeds, or solitude if you want. Everyone knows about the highly concentrated areas but the range is 70 miles long and granite from stem to stern. The Sierras would be great if you didn't have to sleep with the Rainbow family every night. Maybe I've just had bad luck but those assholes think that everything is communal property. Hey Trask, why don't you take a vacation down there. I'll buy you a few rounds.

[faust]

Kenai Mountains, in south-central AK, mainly because I miss being home, but they are also often overlooked. Peaks and glaciers are everywhere, dramatic half-a-day walkups are plentiful, challenging longer expeditions are easy to plan, unclimbed technical snow and ice routes, year round tele skiing, etc.

Plus the Harding Icefield. Plus the wildlife. Plus the fjords.

Not to mention in a decade of climbing there I never ran into another climbing party in the backcountry.

[klenke]

Fishstick,

You'd be a dipstick if you tried to climb Ben Nevis on a weekend day or probably any summer day. A winter ascent would be best. Why? Because it's probably worse than Mt. Baker in terms of the shear number of people you'll see at the summit plateau. 100's of people every direction you look. No solitude on that peak in the spring/summer/early fall. If you do go and do Ben Nevis, I absolutely recommend going up via Carn Mor Dearg and doing a loop around the east side of the Coire na Ciste (Coire of the coffin) and up the back side of Ben Nevis. A lot less crowds on that route. A lot less!

Here's a link with pics:http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/Scotland/Ben_Nevis.html

[Stefan]

#1 Italian Dolomites (greenery,easy access,great cheese, beautiful women)

#2 Karakorum (fricken intimidating peaks and routes everywhere, but a pain in the ass to get to)

[glen]

Yeah, the 'Rainbow Family' can be a bit troublesome if you hang out in the well beaten paths too much. if you get out a bit, you quickly learn that there are a ton of places in the sierras that are easily accessible by dayhike that aren't overrun. I've done many, many dayhikes that I havn't run into a soul on. Check out Tenaya Canyon some time. Even on Labor Day weekend you'll not see a soul on it. Of course, that may have something to do with the big red lettering on the Park Map that basically says, "Don't go there unless you plan on dying."

As to clean granite, all I've got to say is:

Of course, I spend a lot of time with granite...

[slothrop]

Yeah, what's up with that warning about Tenaya Canyon? Why do the rangers want you to stay out?

[glen]

Rescure from TC would be pretty difficult. I know I wouldn't want to do a litter carry out, and there are not many places to land a helicopter near there. The terrain is quite conducive to either big falls (big slab descents) or snapped ankles (miles of boulder hopping). If you aren't good at friction and blasting through 5.2 and lower, there is a really high probability of injury. There used to be a solid steel sign at the top of the canyon, just above Pywiack Cascade, that told people that it wasn't a trail, and that they should "go back to Tioga Road." I tried to find the sign again last season, but couldn't.

On the other hand, the inner gorge section is mind blowing. I put a few pictures for my buddy at:http://students.washington.edu/gsw/Tenaya.html

It is a nice way to get from Tenaya lake to the Ahwahnee in about 6.5 hours, but make sure you bring sticky shoes.