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Hey Everyone,

I just signed up to this site today. Nice place you have here. I have been looking through the site a bit and figured it was best to ask here.

My buddy and I from Kitchener Ontario are planning on coming down to the Red River for a climbing weekend. We are hoping for some direction if you don't mind. Is there any newbie information for us to read up on?

Where would be a good place(climbing zone) to start as a first time Red River climber? We climb in a gym right now. Ranging from 5-9's to 5-12's. My buddy is an experienced sport lead climber (there are some nice climbing spots on the niagra escartment). I haven't done any outdoor climbing yet. But I am excited to start. I am getting better each time I go to the gym, so we are hoping for a nice variety of difficulty, as my buddy is a strong climber.

So we are hoping to camp somewhere and get in a couple days of climbing. Hopefully we can meet some local climbers and learn a few things as well. I have looked around and there seems to be a heck of a lot of routes down there. This is very exciting!

I hope this was the right spot to post.

Thanks so very much, and maybe we will meet some of you.

Steve

Miguels for camping and Muir Valley for variety of climbs (sorry I'm being partial here - good area to start your Red tour though, although beware of the virgin rock). Oh and check out Red River Outdoors as well. The Lodge has pretty good breakfast if you don't want to cook and the Shell Station is super if you want to load up on supplies.

Have fun!

p.s. btw, someone here is also named Canuck (although she goes by just Canuck, not Canuck Climber, so you're safe)

I think there will still be a few Canadian climbers staying at Miguel's when you get here.

Oh, and the Red will be awesome for your first outdoor climbing experience. Have fun!

There seem to be a fair number of Quebecois around. (quack!) Plus it seems like we run into a lot of folks from the TO area, so if you go to Joe's or other gyms there you might recognize people.

squeezeindlemmon's comments are right on. Also, check out the 'online guidebook' (link at the top of the page). With the search function you can generate some searches for the types of climbs you're looking for and see which crags they're at. Also, if you just spend a bit of time poking around the crags in the guide, you'll probably find a bunch that have what you're looking for.

The Red is famous for overhanging endurance routes, so it's a great place to get on higher-grade routes. Plus, it's a great place to learn to lead becuase so many of the routes have totally clean, overhanging falls. Also, don't let rain sacre you off. Search the guidebook for routes that stay dry in the rain - there are tons! (Actually, you won't stay totally dry, but you can still climb even in a downpour!)

Thank you very much for your responses! I found the Online Guide and some other great info at: http://www.muirvalley.com

Does it sound reasonable to do The Great Wall & Lower Tantroft Branch Hollow on two separate days of climbing? They seem like good starting points with large varieties of difficulty. Lots of routes!

The Great Wall and Lower Tantroft are really close to each other (actually the hollows are attached), so you can easily explore both in one day and check out which ones you want to climb. So yeah, I guess it sounds reasonable to do GW and LT on two separate days of climbing, since you might be able to do it in one.....

You should also check out Rebel Branch. There's a handful of easy routes that are great for first time leads!

Do you know exactly when you're coming down? If we're down in MV, we can give you the "inside" tour .

Rebel Branch looks really good! Some good newbie routes for someone like me who hasn't done any lead. Thanks for the tip. I would love to take you up on that offer of the "inside" tour. We aren't sure when we going down yet... we are still in the planning stage. Up until today I didn't even know where the place was, aside from it being somewhere in Kentucky! I will let you know though!

Hey Folks,

I'm the other lost Canadian lookin to come down to the Red River soon...pretty excited, there's soo many areas with soo many routes, wow!

It sounds like we'll have to check out Miguel's for some Pizza, and camping...just a couple questions

Does anyone know where I can buy a guide book for the area?? I know there out of print, but does any online store stock them at all....or does anyone want to sell me a used copy??

Also, will a 60m rope be long enough for most of the sport climbs in the area?

Can't wait to get down there!!

Cheers!

Colin

well in August a friggin' awesome new guidebook should be out but until then the best i know of you can get for free.
down load the pdfs from this site to your computer and print them out. i guess that isn't exactly free but there you have it.
once RRO is officially open (should be in the next few weeks) they'll have internet access and pay for print so you could probably print out what you need there as well.
i'd pm'em first though just to double check prices and such. they are down the street from miguel's.

and a 60m should be good enough for most climbs at the red.

Oh no! The North Americans are coming!