Arizona gets hot — we all know this. But you can actually climb in southern Arizona year round!
Mount Lemmon is a sport climbing mecca. There are crags from 2,000 feet to 9,000 feet elevation, up a beautiful winding road onto the mountain, and many of them have very short, accessible approaches. In the winter, you can start your day skiing at the top and end with a sweaty climbing session lower down!
We climbed in February. It was very wet for the Sonoran Desert, so our hikes into the routes involved wading through rivers and dodging a lot of lush vegetation. It had been so stormy that a lot of the routes on the actual mountain were inaccessible due to downed trees! But there was still tons to do.
Some of our winter-in-Tucson favorites:
Really low on the mountain with an extremely short approach and some very easy sport routes on the Short Stack, this is a great spot for the beginner. And there’s some longer/harder routes on the opposite cliff, too, so bring your friends! This crag’s 50 routes range from 5.3 to 5.12—truly something for everyone.
Slightly more involved drive and approach than Crags Against Humanity, but not by much, the Zoo features both sport and trad routes that are very accessible and fun, if a bit short.
And we have a friend who lives in the area and climbs year round. Here are some of her suggestions for the summer:
Basically anything in the Summit Crags or Upper Highway on Mountain Project!
This features some of the best rock on the mountain and wide variety of decent climbs, mostly slab routes. There’s a big mix of trad and sport routes that range in difficulty, and it’s great on hot days because it’s high up.
With a mix of sport and trad, single and multipitch, this crag has it all. But it’s high up, so only accessible in the summer!
If you’re new to outdoor climbing, there are tons of companies who can help you get out on the rock. We went with Granite Mountain Guides when we first learned to sport climb, and they were wonderful. Their Gym to Crag class taught us everything we needed to know to make the transition from plastic to rock.