Best Rock Climbing
Mount Lemmon
READERS' PICK: A great place to climb, Mount Lemmon has lots to offer: an abundance of climbing sites, close to town, cooler days, hundreds of routes, all kinds of problems, some good views and plenty of doss for climbing junkies. This is a prime location to work on your technique while you're waiting for your next big wall or your South American expedition. Our own Lemmon has earned an international rep, so don't be surprised at who you meet. We even know a kid who did a couple of routes with Lynn Hill when she was in town. If you're just getting started, we think Agatha Christie is a gas. For those needing a more serious challenge, Mean Mistreater probably serves well. Four hours or so into the back country, we can still find plenty of rock that hasn't seen a bolt.READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Rocks 'n' Ropes, at 330 S. Toole Ave., is a great place to get pumped. The recent improvements in routes and the installation of the new wall have made this already respectable climbing gym even better. The nationally sanctioned climbing competition held here for the past two years has brought the best U. S. climbers to town. Rocks 'n' Ropes provides instruction for beginners and equipment can be rented. We like the challenging and well thought-out routes, particularly when they're kept up. Although we don't care for the music or the middle school kids swinging on the ropes, this is a great in-town place to get psyched for that next climb.
STAFF PICK: It may put us out on a ledge with the city fathers, but we like the challenge of the drainage tunnels at 15th Street west of Kino Boulevard. Finally, the mystery location revealed, these four cement tunnels under 15th Street contain more than 1,200 rocks and almost 500 feet of horizontal 90-degree climb, a dizzying three feet above the unforgiving sand on the tunnel floor. Will one of the rocks suddenly come unglued and send you plummeting to your embarrassment? Will torrential downpours send a flash flood careening down to wet your bottom? Will the police suddenly arrive and ask you to please move along? These are just a few of the many perils that await you at Un Arroyo con Miedo (A Wash with Fear). This man-made climbing playground just north of Murphy's Overpass is not easily accessible except for the descent from the middle of the bridge or the "secret" break in the chainlink. Remember, you didn't hear it from us.
CAT'S MEOW: If your kids dig rock climbing but you know better than to let them out on those narrow ledges hanging from ropes, take them to the city's biggest park. At Reid Park's waterfall, the kids can scamper like mountain goats up the rocks overlooking the duck pond. We've seen kids go up and down and over and across--a dozen times with nary a slip. It's mostly in the shade, which means they can frolic there longer than they can sit on a hot swing. And they can feel freedom most city kids don't get anymore as they run back and forth from the trees to the waterfall to the pond. Do remind them the water is effluent, so no drinking allowed.
