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Hello everyone!

This is my first post on the forum, I have spent a long time looking around and reading stuff on this website and it is awesome! My girlfriend and I have recently gotten into doing mountaineering, and we did the Mountaineer's route of Mt. Whitney this summer which was an amazing experience! I wanted to know if anybody knows good places to go in the U.S. in early May where we can improve our skills and challenge ourselves, we have some rock climbing experience so we might be interested in trying places that involve some technical rock climbing too

Mount Shasta would be a good one. Nice big 14k peak with a wonderful 'energy' and a variety of routes suitable for newer climbers. Castle Crags is also close by for rock climbing. You could make a nice mountaineering/rock climbing vacation out of the trip.

Mount Hood and Smith Rock in Oregon would be another great trip.

If you want to avoid snow, your options are somewhat limited. Desert peaks in southern Utah, Nevada, and California should be fine, but most feature less rock climbing and more hiking, driving, and cactus than you might like. Southern NM (Organs) and AZ (Cochise, Baboquivari) could be a bit warm, but not unbearably so.

If you want to get on some awesome multi-pitch rock, Red Rocks near Las Vegas should be nice that time of year, and you could combine climbing there with hiking/scrambling some nearby peaks (e.g. Moapa, Eagle, Bridge).

I climbed Guadalupe Peak in West Texas in late May, the weather was warm at midday but otherwise excellent. If the forecast indicates too much heat for ya, you can always visit nearby Carlsbad Caverns and chill out. I did both on consecutive days over Memorial Day Weekend back in 1999, and wound up the short OTR vacation with a day and night spent at Hueco Tanks, which was much hotter, being at a lower elevation and all. Mount Livermore is also radical, and you may luck out on weather there, but you hafta pull a stealth mission unless you want a babysitter, in the form of a ranger. Awesome climbing at Mt. Livermore, the rock is good as gold, and the crags are out of this world. Lemme show ya what I mean, gotta find the link:

http://forums.oausa.net/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3072

Scroll through both pages of that thread to see killer shots of Mt. Livermore and environs, as well as shots of Guadalupe Peak, which boasts the most famous limestone fossil reef in the world. Heller good hiking there too, if you don't feel like climbing on any given day. Hey, if you visit San Diego and pay the overnight rental fee for a 27' sloop, I'll take ya to the islands (Los Coronados, also seen in that thread), where one can find PRIMO crags on certain headlands, though there's also plenty of choss. Same deal as Livermore, gotta pull stealth missions or wind up in some Mexican jail, the kind of adventure you're probably not seeking, aye??? LOL. Unreal venue, Mt. Livermore, that place should be accessible to climbers 24/7/365.

P.S. If all the photos don't come through at that site the first time around, just keep hitting or refreshing the thread title until the shots appear.

Thanks for all the input! I enjoyed those pictures, and I especially dig the big rig truck. I may look more into mount hood, simply because I've ever been to Oregon before...

I'd head to the desert. J- tree, Phoenix, Sothern Cal, Vegas all offer multiple options of hiking combined with technical rock and you'll be able to find great weather to boot.

Tonka wrote:I'd head to the desert. J- tree, Phoenix, Sothern Cal, Vegas all offer multiple options of hiking combined with technical rock and you'll be able to find great weather to boot.

I starts to get quite hot (at least in Phoenix) in May, with average daily highs of 95 though the humidity will be in the single digits. I am not saying "don't come to Phoenix or AZ" just be aware that it starts to heat up. Something people sometimes underestimate is that the rocks radiate the heat of the sun so that it's hotter than the actual "official" air temperature. Having said that, AZ is beautiful that time of the year, just stick to higher elevations or start early in the morning.

I've seen snow in Red Rock Canyon (NV) in May; I've also seen 90F teps at that time. If you start early and pick N-facing routes, you can stay cool even in hot weather. Look for windows of opportunity. Zion Utah (just 165 miles from Vegas) has a lot of class 4-5 peaks... Guardian Angels are awesome to start. Awesome AZ is usually too hot in May.

Colton wrote:Thanks for all the input! I enjoyed those pictures, and I especially dig the big rig truck. I may look more into mount hood, simply because I've ever been to Oregon before...

Why, thank you, Mr. Colton, it's nice to see that somebody else appreciates those truck camping photos, LOL. Down here in Dago during my time off, I used to take the nieces & nephews camping in the rig, along with their friends: picture half a dozen rug rats laughing their fool heads off while bouncing up and down in the sleeper. I always let the kids sleep in the dual-bunk trucks too, no big deal for me to pitch a tent and kick it by the campfire with an ice-cold alcoholic beverage, and the kids always loved sleeping in the big truck, it was quite the adventure, 10-4??? Anyway, you wanna see some rad photos of wilderness expeditions via big truck, check out TRUCKFORUM.ORG and visit the General Truck Forum... look for a thread titled "Got Chrome??? How about Armor???" You'll find killer shots of Mt. Livermore, the Mohawk Mountains, the crag above Steins, NM, etc., around Page 6 or 7, and equally radical shots of the Alabama Hills, Horseshoe Meadow, White Sands, etc., up around Page 10 or 11... hell, maybe I should check that thread again, I can't remember which pages have what on 'em, LOL. Early-onset Alzheimer's, don'tcha know??? Go through the thread page by page, stopping wherever there are photos related to climbing or mountaineering, you may find some primo location to visit on your upcoming vacation by simply cruising through those pages. I know one thing: you'll see some badass crags in that thread, LOL. Alright, I'm off to refresh that thread and put it where it can be easily found... my offer to sail to the islands still stands, but I neglected to mention earlier that you'll also hafta spring for food and beer. No big deal, it would still be totally worth it, and there are primo crags on certain headlands out there... I put up a 5.7 face climb called "Those Pesky Swiss Yodelers" while soloing out on Isla Norte, don't let the lower rating fool ya because the climbing is INSANE, with perfect holds, ocean views on three sides, heller wildlife, surf thundering on the rocks hundreds of feet below, the whole nine yards, AYE??? Awesome venue, Los Coronados, and the Mexican gubmint was actually on the cutting edge when they designated the islands as wildlife sanctuaries back in 1924, after too many pinche gringos shot up everything in sight, those idiots. Meh, those days are done, thank goodness... you can find shots of the islands at that site I mentioned, I think there are a few in that same thread, 10??? Alright, NOW I'm done, lemme go put that thread up front where it belongs at the other site.

Boy, that was one heckuva run-on paragraph in my last post... I often can't be bothered going back and breaking these Interwebs posts into paragraphs, you understand. Anyway, I refreshed that thread at the other site and got the page info:

http://www.truckforum.org/forums/genera ... armor.html

Go through the pages, Colton, I reckon you'll find some cool place to visit in the Merry Month of May, AYE??? I'm outta here, "ROAD HOUSE" just came on and that flick has some scorching hot women in it, so I gotta watch it for the hundredth time, LOL. Heller racks in that flick, and I ain't talking climbing hardware either, yeah??? LOL. Damn, I'm just a chauvinist pig, but at least I'm not sportin' a BADGE like some kooks, 10???

Vedauwoo in Wyoming, that's where you should go if it's a warm month... unreal place, and a sacred site to Native Americans. If weather forecasts indicate that May will be cooler, head farther south and lose a little elevation. My final $.02 on this topic, wherever you wind up, be safe and have a good time, LOL. ADIOS!!!

If the drought continues and we only get minimal rainfall here out west, the Sierra Nevada might be a good choice in May. Lots of stuff on the East side (same side as Mt. Whitney) will have minimal snow and should make for fun scrambling. Try the Meysan Lakes basin just south of Whitney, Onion Valley area, the area up around Mammoth Lakes, and even off of Hwy 120 leading up to Tioga PAss (east entrnace to Yosemite). IF you're really adventurous, you could explore the Inyo Mtns (that range across the Owens Valley from Mt. Whitney) and do Inyo and Keynot Peaks. Since your avatar shows you are in Maryland, why not go north to the White Mtns in New Hampshire and other such East Coast hiking/climbing areas? Though the mountains aren't as high as out west, its still a good training ground with some interesting routes up the peaks in springtime.