I’m a bit late to this but I’ve lived all over the West Coast from Seattle, Portland, San Fran, and Los Angeles. I’d like to represent LA.
I got my most climbing in when I lived in Los Angeles and did my best training. Nothing matches the LA basin for training opportunities, size of the community, and access to some big peaks and routes, and then the good weather to take advantage of it,
In LA you have access to two of the best training hikes in the world – Bear Flats on Baldy and Cactus to Clouds on San Jacinto, 5700 vertical feet and 9000 vertical feet respectively. Both offer easy downs via the lifts and trams and can be knocked off before lunch once you have a base. They periodically get snow in the winter and can be quite challenging then. Not to mention all the smaller foothills with access roads and paved roads for running or biking and interval training.
On the South side of San Jacinto is Taqhitz. The best granite climbing outside of the Valley in North America. Again, you can pick your difficulty and run laps and be home in time for dinner. Or test some prospective partners and sort things out for something bigger.
There are numerous bouldering and rope climbing areas in the basin. You can get in 2000-3000 vertical feet in three hours of bouldering or work on technical routes on a rope at many sites like Stoney Point.
The weather is nearly always perfect. And the proximity of everything means you can stack workouts, ie Bear Flats and then Stoney Point. And there is a huge climbing community where partners and good friendships will be made. Someone will always know someone who wants to do something OR has some good advice. The community in LA is ten times that of any other city.
Further away are the Sierras. You can be on a grade IV or V or a very long route inside of four hours. With proper preparation on Bear FLats or Cactus, you can easily do a lot of routes in the Sierras in one push in a weekend and be home Sunday to relax. There are a lot of routes that are awesome winter alpine routes that are fairly easy with patience. Skiing at Mammoth is a plus. And J-Tree or the Valley/Toulomne will be accessible and hugely enjoyable during the slower periods. Doing a 18 hour push on a Sierra peak, skiing mammoth, then knocking out a few routes in Owen’s River gorge then home is a typical three day weekend for a fit and prepared climber.
A three or four day weekend can put you on Shasta or Hood. With a flight you can then make it to the Northern Cascades or Colorado.
LA does not offer vertical ice climbing. Taqhitz ices up once every three years and the Valley coughs up some awesome stuff every 5 years and that is about it. You will want to plan some winters in Ouray and Telluride.
I’d have to say Seattle is second. Lots of 2000-4000 foot hikes within 90 minutes, lots of rock climbing, and the cascades have the same driving as the Sierras. Seattle offers lots of Ice and glaciers, more mixed, and more snow. Seattle is a smaller LA with less vertical, less reliable weather, and a smaller community. But that community looks more hard core.
LA offers high desert and open pine forests for the scenery while Seattle is all about dense forests and lots of snow. If you like sunny, the LA, if you like clouds and snow then, Seattle.
I’d say if you were purely into mountaineering and liked snow, the Seattle might be the slightly better. If you wanted to be a well rounded Alpine climber or liked rock climbing, or wanted to develop a base over 5 years before moving further, then LA would be your best bet.
San Fran has a lot of bouldering and some vertical for hiking, but you really have to head out to the Valley to get in some real climbing, and you have to drive a lot further than LA to get to most of the Sierra climbs. It’s #3 on the list.
I grew up in Portland. It has the least amount of rock and the least amount of vertical. And the weather is less reliable than the other four. Hood, Helens, and the smaller cascades are all you have. And its not much. It’s #4.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d live in LA and build a base and tick off everything I could while developing partners. Then move to Seattle or Colorado for further development. Why not plan five years in LA and then five in Seattle, or vice-versa?
