if you could go anywhere in august...

[aukushner]

where would you go to climb mountains?

 

a friend and I are looking to travel in august 2010 -- we would like our travels to include some mountains to climb.

 

where would you go if you could go anywhere?

[Le Piston]

I would either pick the Alps (if money were not a limiting factor) or either the Banff/Jasper area or North Cascades for North American travel...no language barrier, great scenery, and most everything reachable by car.

[t_rutl]

i'll say the andes if you can work through the language barrier...peru, boliva, argentina, ecuador...stays would prob cheap...go travel...climb...surf (although aug may be a bit cold)...chase south american hotties...

 

you could also track down Blake and see what he thought of New Zealand that time of year

[EastCoastBastard]

DO NOT go to NZ. Go to Australia instead - amazing rock, surf etc... Remember that that's the heart of winter down here, but AU should still be warm enough to climb.

 

The following is a bit of an anti-NZ rant:

 

Going to NZ is a terrible idea. Forget it even exists. I've been living in NZ for 4 years now (grad school, now vet school)and I've completely given up on alpine climbing in NZ - there is the potential for excellent climbing - it's just almost never realized. The weather is so incredibly shitty. In 4 years here, the ONLY successful alpine trip I've been on here has been to Aspiring with Blake (which was within a month of first arriving here! I must have pissed off the mountain gods or something!). I've spent countless (probably in the 50-60 night range) sitting in various huts/tents/cars, waiting for weather to clear, or waiting for avy danger to drop, waiting for something to change so I can actually go climbing. And that's only when the weather looked good enough to try. This is mostly because I'm only able to get out on breaks from school, so I can't watch the weather and go only when it's good. Although, a "good ratio" of bad weather days to climbing days is about 3:1, even by people who can drop work/school at a moment's notice. Not good odds. I don't even bother with trying to climb in the mountains here anymore - it's such a waste of time and money. I leave whenever I get the chance, with much better results... Went to Peru in June/July - great climbing. Only got one route in, but it wasn't the weather's fault.

 

Rock Climbing- pretty good, but definitely not a "destination", unless you're into bouldering - Castle Hill is great.

 

Skiing - pretty lousy most of the time.

 

Synopsis: NZ sucks. Go somewhere (anywhere) else.

 

Edited October 2, 2009 by EastCoastBastard

[tvashtarkatena]

It kind of depends on you budget, whether or not you want to climb at high altitude (with the extra acclimation time budgeted in), and what kind of cultural experience you're looking for.

 

Bolivia's Cordillera Real (as well as Peru, but I haven't climbed there personally) is in good shape, route and weather wise, that time of year. Either the capital La Paz (Illimani, Hyana Potosi, Condoriri, Sorata, etc) or small hill town of Sorata (Illampu, Ancohoma, Pico Shutlz, etc) provide good bases of operations there.

 

Otherwise, you really can't go too far wrong anywhere in the lower 48 or lower Canada. Sawtooths (ID), Cascades, Sierras, Wind Rivers, Bugaboos, Tetons, Canadian Rockies, Coast Range...it's a long list.

Edited October 3, 2009 by tvashtarkatena