Where to Climb Anything

One of the best pieces of advice ever offered to us came from the Sun Mountain Fiddler, a classicly trained musician who could play any fiddle tune in any key, with a few licks from Beethoven and a verse or two sung in Mandarin. “Sometimes,” Fiddler said, “the best thing you can do is just play the note.”  That wisdom comes to mind when we see fine and simple websites like The Online Climbing Guide, a gem of  a resource where climbers of just about anything– mountains, boulders, canyons, social strata–OK, not social strata–type in descriptions of and directions to their favorite climbing spots.  So far, climbers have volunteered 1140 climbing routes at 234 sites in most of the 50 States and 20 countries. Many entries include maps and photos. And for those days when the weather is just too much, there’s a list of climbing gyms. The Online Climbing guide is a wonderfully clean and useful site, with links to guidebooks, gear, and of course, dozens of other helpful climbing sites. No, it ain’t fancy. Just fine.