I didn't know where else to post this...

I'm venturing into rock climbing and want to find a site as good as this - with reviews about gear, forums to ask questions, etc. Does anyone know of any good sites?

I use the following. They are not precisely what you're looking for but should make good jumping-off points to find other resources.


http://mountainproject.com
http://www.summitpost.org/
http://cascadeclimbers.com/

Tradgirl.com has a great FAQ, and good advice for training can be found at www.onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com. The forums on www.canyoneering.net have good info, as do cavers forums www.forums.caves.org. They sometimes have good but different perspectives on rope work than what you'll get on climbing forums. Finally, there is www.mountainproject.com which is a good place to go for route descriptions.

Try some of these:
rockclimbing.com (forums, reviews, etc.)
supertopo.com (same as above)
drtopo.com (mainly bouldering videos and topos)
freesoloist.com (to get inspired...RIP Michael....)


Here are some to start...

The best training for climbing is climbing so get out there!!!

So I went and checked out rockclimbing.com's forums expecting to find some good information. After spending about 10 minutes on there, I found more crap than information. People were crass, vulgar, very sarcastic and rude to noobies, etc. I'm not opposed to sarcasm or some locker-room innuendos every once in a while, but when a new person gets on and asks a question about ropes and all they get are comments like "I can tell from your name that you like to 69", or people making fun of them for not knowing about ropes... well you get the idea.

It just makes me glad I'm a part of a community that provides intelligent information. When I'm in the mood for the other stuff, I'll go to a bar and make fun of people.

Yeah, I'm almost sorry I mentioned it now. RC.com gets pretty pathetic- I haven't visited it in years for that reason (it just came off the top of my head when you asked about sites).
While I have received some decent info on the site, it's pretty rare that a thread doesn't get hijacked by some idiot.
What do you want to know??
This should probably be taken to another forum here...Start a thread in the Mountaineering/Alpinism category and I'll help with what I can- I know there are a bunch of climbers here as well.

Hey Ryan

RC is not too bad...crass, crude, flaming, but within it's groveling pit of dismay is some really useful info...

Gear reviews on the site is actually quite decent, check with j_ung and Vegastradguy editorial reviews on gear

Plus training regimes is very good (look for Rockclimbgabor's or Fluxus's posts)

Check out Supertopo, sometimes folks might be helpful there, another site which is alot friendlier is Summitpost.

Some books to check out

Freedom to the Hills (covers gear techniques)
Self-Coached Climber (excellent coverage on climbing movement)
Check out Rockclimbgabor's posts on RC on getting stronger

peace

There is far too much "spray" on most rick climbing sites. There is a great ice climbing site, and I wish someone would make a similar one for rock.

www.neice.com is pretty sweet. There is certainly some obnoxiousness on there, but when I was starting out as a new climber it helped me a lot. There is some rock climbing stuff on there, but not much, however if you spend some time on the site many of the members are experienced rock climbers who are very willing to offer advice.