Wyoming
devils tower, 89,90
Some of the longest basalt routes on a cool 'peak'. Lots of cracks in the 9.-10a range, enough for a couple of weeks. This abundance warrants the long out of the way drive to get here. See this page

Idaho
city of rocks, 89,90
A couple of stellar crack lines and plenty of junk.

Colorado
eldorado canyon, 89
One of the three original american crags (the others being Yosemite Valley and the Gunks). Steeped in lore. If you're interested in climbing history this is a required stop. Kor, Erickson, Barber, the list goes on.

turkey rock, 89
Fine place with a handful of good routes.

pike's peak crags, 89
The route we did was awful but adventurous. In other words a great day out.

unaweep canyon, 96, 97
Not too sure about this place. I really want to like it because it's ultra trad and it's the only igneous rock anywhere near Moab where we lived back then. But counting the handful of routes I've done there`only one was of notable quality.

castle rock, boulder canyon, 89
Another old crag with trendsetting ascents, most of which were too hard for us. But we did find a day's worth of crack climbs.

California
lover's leap, 89, 99-01
Moderate granite multi pitch trad climbing at its very best. No more need to be said.

cardinal pinnacle, 98-01
Very good handful of routes on this roadside 'alpine' crag. Clean cut granite.

owens river gorge, 98-01
see here

benton crags, 98-01
Tiny area, but good moderates in between plenty of grainy wasteland.

bishop creek crags, 98-01
Have only included this limited area for nostalgic reasons, because it was five minutes from our home.

rock creek crags, 98-01
A day or two of so and so climbing to be found here. Mostly of interest to locals.

pine creek crags, 00
Did just one route in here, a brilliant and sustained corner crack with a girl's name, I seem to remember. It was right next to Pratt's crack, an old OW first climbed by, yes, the late Chuck Pratt, and made somewhat famous by a photograph by the also late Galen Rowell. It is included in his book Mountain Light, and reveals little of the true character of this gaping chasm. Which we did not climb.

wheeler ridge, 99-01
One of the most attractive areas in the Bishop region. Not many would agree with this, judging from the scant visitation this huge area get. Prepare for long days approaching and some rewarding multi pitch climbs on varying rock quality. An epic story, albeit in danish, is found here

fresno dome, 02
Uninspiring large dome hidden somewhere in the Sierra foothills. It is littered with moderates, although very few of them are of any importance to the well traveled climber.

the balls, 02
Same as Fresno Dome except the drive is longer and the rock worse.

needles of southern ca, 89
One of the most beautiful places with some really, really high quality multi pitch nines and tens. The Val di Mello of North America.

tahquitz, 91, 02-present
Like Lover's Leap, Tahquitz has many good, moderate trad routes. But the climbing is more serious on sometimes suspect rock. Also see here

joshua tree, 89-present
see here

big bear crags, 01
Waste of just about anybody's time. Would be included on the Worst Crag page if it wasn't so insignificant.

yosemite, 89-02
see here

tuolumne meadows, 89-02
Think the Meadows are all about scary knob pulling? Think again. The largest selection of moderate multi pitch crack climbs in Yosemite is here. Between the exciting, but moderate Hobbit Book to the sustained Lucky Streaks you'll find dozens of excellent crack climbs of the right grade. For a list with comments, go here.

Texas
hueco tanks, 02
Went here once. To read more of that experience see here.

Oregon
smith rocks, 89, 95
Smith is Smith. Love it or hate it. I leaned towards the latter before discovering the Lower Gorge basalt.

Nevada
red rocks, 01-present
see here

Washington
index, 94-95
Intimidating crag for fivenineclimber. There are just a few doable climbs here, but are they ever good!

icicle canyon, 95, 05
Many crags and small cliffs scattered about in 10 miles of scenic canyon. Very scenic canyon, actually. But where are the good routes? Save a few worthwhile outings, most of the climbing here is uninspiring, short and contrived.

snow creek wall, 04, 05
A very fine piece of rock, found in a side canyon to Icicle, guarded by an hour and a half of hiking. In stark contrast to the diminutive roadside crags along Icicle Creek, this is a 700' wall of solid granite, with an aweinspiring appearance and stacks of multi pitch routes. Two, maybe three of these are of particular interest to fivenineclimber, with one of them, Outer Space, close to being world class quality.
But read here why Orbit could be an even finer route.

tumwater canyon, 95, 05
Main crag in this spectacular highway corridor is Castle Rock, responsible for attracting 99% of the state's climbers on any given fair weather weekend. Crowds aside, it's a good, old school cliff with stiff ratings and enough Becky/Bjornstad lore to please most traditionalists. 600' tall with 50+ routes. An aggreable full height route is this link-up

tieton river, 95, 04
The best columnar andesite north of Smith. Beautiful setting and scores of nines and easy tens. Possible the best trad cragging in Washington state.

vantage/frenchman's coulee, 95-present
Overrated, over crowded desert solace for soggy West Side climbers. Loose basalt and an annoying proliferation of bolts close to trad routes. Basically the only reliable winter cragging in the state of Washington, and therefore barely accepted. That said, you will find a handful of quite fine crack routes.

mcloughlin canyon, 02
Adventure climbing, unknown to but a few. A Google search won't give you many hits.

silver star crag, 04
Another unknown destination. Acres of fine to not so fine granite waiting to be explored. The very toe of the buttress is exceptionally flawless, with a trio of stellar thin cracks, all over 120' long and in the .10 range.

okanogan, 03 to present
Many areas here, with a few ultra classics

Utah
indian creek, 90, 95-98
Well, there's no match to the steep splitters of Wingate sandstone. But finding much else than hand/fist cracks in the .9-.10 range is quite challenging. So one ends up doing only these, weekend after weekend and that can become almost trivial. On the good side the ratings are kinda soft and the routes certainly protect well.

arches national park, 95-98
Even softer than Wingate the Entrada sandstone of Arches and environs are not for everybody. Good adventure routes hiding in this park, and some decent cragging too.

castleton tower, 96
Climbed it once via the Kor-Ingalls. Probably the easiest desert tower in the region, and the only one I've ever done, unlike my wife Sonja, who, with a dozen towers under her belt, really should be writing the Desert South West chapter.

wall street aka potash road 95-98
see here

Arizona
oak creek canyon overlook, 92
Enough quality basalt for 2-3 days of crack climbing.

zonerland, superstition wilderness, 92
Not great. Volcanic tuff in the category of Smith, Happy Boulders, etc. Had overheard Skinner et al somewhere around a campfire talking it up, and decided to stop by. What was far more significant about this destination on the strange roadtrip of '92 was the woman I met at the trailhead...Wonder where you're at today, Laura

mt lemmon, 92
High altitude escape in southern Arizona. Coarse Quartz Monzonite. Did some memorable, sketchy leads up bottoming cracks.

New York
shawangunks, 90, 91
Premier crag. One of the best trad areas in America, that we have visited. New York climbers pining away for the West must have forgotten what quality routes lies here in the Hudson Valley. See here

North Carolina
looking glass rock, 92
Very fine chunk of rock. I got the one day blitz tour of three famous north face routes, thanks to Jimmy (stout local cragger). It was an incredibly hard day, way over my head, but it did include one of my rare .11 leads, the second crux pitch of Barber's Cornflake Crack.

rumbling bald, 92
More beautiful Carolina rock.

table rock, 92
Some less beautiful Carolina rock. Fine adventure, though. One of my biggest regrets is not climbing in nearby Linville Gorge.

British Columbia
squamish, 89, 95
Lifetime worth of stellar trad climbing in the middle grades. Yosemite rock curiously without the gnarly OW aspect. Squamish, together with Skaha, below, forms some of the most important cragging destinations north of Yosemite.

skaha, 04-present
This out of place location in the beautiful Canadian Okanogan (as opposed to the rough and poor US Okanogan) draw hordes of sportclimbers with its sharp, predictable incuts and huge steep faces. Like Owens River Gorge this tends to create bland climbs with monotonous moves. But unlike the ORG, Skaha also has quite a selection of very agreeable crack routes in the nine to easy ten range, easily worth several visits. So bring a rack and you'll never again stand in line for a route at this popular crag. See here

Sweden
kullaberg, 83-92
The place where I learned to climb. Loose gneiss seacliffs on a scenic peninsula jutting into the strait of Kattegat. Here's both a friendly south shore and a foreboding north shore. The quality adventures are on the north side while the quality rock is on the sunny south coast. Even though such diverse characters as Don Whillans and Kim Carrigan have climbed here, it can hardly be called a destination on any globetrotting cragrats itinerary. Read a full feature article, if you care to know more.

utby-fjallbo-lexby, 83-92
Fantastic rock here, unlike Kullaberg a few hours south. After spending two decades climbing around the world, I still regard this as one of the most rewarding cragging destinations anywhere.

bohuslan, 86-92
Sunny swedish vacation land on the coast. Many intimidating crags scattered around a huge area. Better to be in good shape before going here. That said the climbing is some of Scandinavia's best.

bispberg, 86-92
Another Scandinavian gem, offering 2-3 pitch routes of high quality in the middle grades. Unfortunately closed for climbing since the mid nineties.

tunaberg, 86-92
Short but sweet. Idyllic pastoral setting a few yards from the quiet east coast of Sweden. Great place to take that love interest.

stockholm area crags, 92
Tons of rock around the swedish capital of Stockholm, and of great diversity too. From the straight up junk of Haggsta to some flint hard and flawless granite, here's weeks worth of cragging.

Norway
kolsås, 85-89
Another big city crag, located pretty much in the middle of suburbia Oslo, on a little mountain. Long tradition of climbing here. Good rock and surprisingly pristine, mainly because the norwegians are good at taking care of the land.

andersnatten, 86
Wilderness wall. Came here one late winter after being snowed out of the high mountains. We attempted to do some aid route on the right side over a couple of days, but were hopelessly inexperienced and noncommittal.

stavanger domes, 85
Norway has amazing rock climbing, and lots of it. Most are minimally developed and quite adventurous. The southern oil town of Stavanger is surrounded by deep fjords with true bigwalls and all sorts of excellent multi pitch free climbing. The one time we were here, on the way to a wilderness training seminar in Jotunheimen, our experience didn't quite measure up to our ambitions, resulting in very little of interest. Swore to return, but alas, it still haven't happened 20 years later.

romsdalen, 90
This is the home of the most frightening of all big walls in Europe, the infamous Trollveggen. We were here fresh from El Cap thinking we could knock off the 3rd ascent of Arch Wall, Ed Drummond's 42 pitch horrorshow up the left side. Needless to say we didn't get far on this daunting project before a convenient rockfall injury took the steam out of an already demoralized team.

hauktjern, 90
Surprisingly good modern crag in mid Norway somewhere. Many fine crack climbs in the middle grades scattered in a scenic forest and lake area.

hornaksla, 90
Did one 8 pitch outing on this formidable cliff. The route, ShangRiLa, was rather tough with many challenging pitches and sparse pro. We had recently bailed from an attempt on the Troll Wall so this modern test piece seemed almost tame in comparison.

Italy
val di mello, 86-89
This must be one of the most beautiful mountain valleys in the Alps. Amazingly enough it is also home to a collection of super good multi pitch routes on Yosemite like granite. Some of the best memories I have cragging in Europe are from Val di Mello. See here

valle dell'orco, 89-91
There's only a handful of significant granite cragging areas in mainland Europe that I know off: Val di Mello, mentioned above, and here are among the best. These two are both in Italy in the foothills of the Alps and have not only good rock, but some of the best routes anywhere on the continent. Yosemite has the Captain all right, but Valle dell'Orco is home to the Corporal, an imposing near roadside bastion with numerous long free climbs alone worth a full vacation. Next time you head on a climbing outing to Central Europe bring a full rack of cams, double ropes and helmets. There is more than grey 'calcaire' to Euro cragging!

France
gorge du verdon, 87-91
For a sport crag this one is actually pretty good. There's exposure (most approaches are rapping in with tons of air), long routes and striking scenery.

buoux, 90-91
Very much the quintessential Mediterranean sport crag. There's no shortage of them, that's for sure, every little town has one. Buoux has some charisma, though.

chamonix valley crags, 85-91
Not bad when the high peaks are snowed out. Plenty of choices, all more or less bland and full of attitude. Maybe better to head thru the tunnel to Valle del'Orco.

ponts de caille, 87
No climbing here, sorry, but instead this

Switzerland
eldorado, grimsel pass, 87, 91
The Remy Bros., the modern Fred Beckys of Europe, single handedly developed this clean 500m (1800') granite cliff. The 16 pitch MotorHead is one of the best 5.9-10 routes in the Alps outside of the high mountains.

handegg platten, 87
Admittingly, above mentioned Eldorado is not one of the steepest walls around, but it has enough inclination to make it interesting. Down valley at Handegg on the other hand it is pure friction on low angle slabs forever. These 'walls' are big, sparsely protected and almost completely featureless. And not very easy.

nafels, 84-86
This multi pitch limestone crag is semi alpine and was the favored location for the Danish Mountain Clubs advanced rock climbing classes back in the 80's. The routes are traditional and of fine quality, but Switzerland definitely has better trad limestone than this. Most of it is unfortunately quite scary and hard.

Croatia
Paklenica, 91
A short distance inland from the Adriatic Sea sits this fine, north facing limestone cliff, home to several dozen classic multi pitch routes. The climbs are relatively long and very trad, but there's options at all levels of difficulty.
Was down there maybe a month or two before the outbreak of full civil war, and remember it to have been a somewhat tense experience.