Fort Collins Climbing - A list of some of the best places to rock-climb within an hour from your doorstep
One of the things I absolutely love about Fort Collins is the abundance of opportunities to experience, explore, and enjoy the vast outdoor playground surrounding Fort Collins. Whether it's hiking, biking, camping, fishing, boating, whitewater rafting and kayaking, or rock climbing. This town is an excellent place to live if you love the outdoors. It's one thing I hear over and over when I talk to people about Fort Collins. They love the amount of access we have to parks, national forest, RMNP, Horsetooth Reservoir, the Poudre canyon, etc. The list goes on.
I'm going to be highlighting a different aspect of the outdoor opportunities surrounding Fort Collins each week in this series. Today we start with Fort Collins Climbing.
Being an avid rock climber, one of the first concerns I had when I moved to Fort Collins, was to find out where some of the best places to climb were in and around Fort Collins. I had heard of the abundant bouldering on the edge of town at Horsetooh Reservoir and I knew that Rocky Mountain National Park and Eldorado Canyon were both about an hour from Fort Collins and contained world-class climbing opportunities. But beyond that I didn't know much. The following is a summary of some of these opportunities for Fort Collins Climbing.
Climbing Gyms
Miramont (north location)- 1800 Heath Pkwy. Fort Collins, CO 80524 970-221-5000
Miramont has a nice large wall, with a plenty of top rope and lead climbing opportunities. They also have a nice bouldering area. A plus of miramont, is that it's possible to enjoy all the other aspects of their gym if you're a member.
Inner Strength - 3713 South Mason, Fort Collins, CO 80525 970-282-8118
Inner Strength Rock Gym is another popular location for indoor climbing. They also have a very nice gym and bouldering opportunities. The nice thing about Inner Strength is that the facilities here are dedicated solely to climbing.
Free Downloadable Guidebook
The following is a summary of some of the popular locations for Fort Collins Climbing. The Northern Colorado Climbers Coalition has some awesome, and FREE downloadable guidebooks for many of the areas I mention in this post.
Bouldering
Horsetooth Reservoir - This is the closest outdoor location for Fort Collins Climbing. Just minutes from your doorstep in Fort Collins, Horsetooth Reservoir is surrounded by some great and classic bouldering, as well as top-rope and even trad climbing opportunities. Some of the more popular areas are Rotary Park and the Piano Boulders.
Poudre Canyon - 420 Boulders - This area has been developed recently and I've heard a lot about it. I have yet to visit, but I've heard of some great bouldering here. This area is located about 45 mi. outside Fort Collins up the Poudre Canyon off of Hwy 14.
Climbing
The Palace - This is more of a locally known crag with some awesome sport and trad climbing. NOCO has a great guidebook for this area that I mentioned above. Note: inaccesible in spring when the water is high.
Grey Rock - Grey Rock mountain which is a local landmark has a nice face with some good trad climbing. This is also a very popular hiking location that I'll cover in a later post on hiking opportunities.
Rocky Mountain National Park - I can't even begin to describe the climbing here. RMNP is an hour from Fort Collins and has world-class rock climbing of all varieties. Lumpy Ridge, the Petit Grepon, and the Diamond to name only a few.
Hope this post on Fort Collins Climbing was helpful, next week I'll be writing about opportunities for Mountain Biking in and around Fort Collins.
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