The Pass – Independence Pass – offers the finest high-country cragging in the Colorado Rockies. Even though climbing has been documented here since the 1950s, this is the area’s first full-color guidebook. The highly featured granitic rock of the Pass offers almost 1000 routes, from bolted 5.4 slabs, to 5.14 roof cracks, to hundreds of fun-in-the-sun mid-grade climbs. Technical and vertical, overhanging and pumpy, sport, splitter cracks, multi-pitch — all styles are there for you, set in a beautiful subalpine forest below snow-covered peaks.

The main concentration of climbing is near the popular Grottos area 10 miles east of Aspen, but all the nearby climbing is documented, too. The newly opened Gold Butte area just outside of town offers a fun cold-weather option on unique sandstone. On the other side of the Pass, Monitor Rock and the Twin Lakes crags get the full treatment, with lots of never-before-published climbs, including the new long, bolted, multi-pitch journeys that are getting rave reviews. When you’re not climbing there’s great camping and swimming, and mountains to climb. For a more urban experience, you can hit the glitzy bars or tour the art galleries of the legendary town of Aspen right down the road.