The city, generally considered an oasis of man-made fun, world-class culinary and entertainment experiences, has become a paradise for nature explorers.
Known for its many vices, the unassuming desert town has become a place where many are rediscovering their proximity to the beauty of the outdoors.
In recent years, Las Vegas, Nevada, has become home to an elite class of climbers who find the city more affordable, enjoyable, and generally compatible with their specific lifestyles than other “tourist-oriented” cities. nature”.
‘People go to Denver because they say they want to be close to the outdoors. But it’s at least an hour’s drive from the real mountains,” Alex Honnold told the Los Angeles Times.
Honnold, 38, the world’s best-known mountain climber, largely due to the success of the award-winning documentary ‘Free Solo,’ said he believes Las Vegas is “better than any of the other cities in the country that have a reputation for outdoor”. .’
The desert city, generally considered an oasis of man-made fun, has become a paradise for nature explorers who have discovered its proximity to the outdoors.
“In Las Vegas, you can live in the middle of the suburbs and be 15 minutes from the trails where you can be completely alone and feel like you’re going to die,” he said.
Other avid climbers agree with Honnold and have gravitated toward Las Vegas because of its under-the-radar geographic diversity, as well as its affordability and the solid infrastructure it provides for settling down and raising a family.
Just past the suburbs outside of the famous and infamous Las Vegas strip lies an incredible amount of hiking and climbing trails through Red Rock Canyon, which begins at about 3,000 feet in elevation.
Even Yosemite in Northern California can no longer compete with what Las Vegas has to offer in the minds of this world-class climbing community.
‘Yosemite is a global destination in spring and fall. But in the summer it’s too hot and there are too many people,” Honnold said, adding that in the colder months it becomes “too wintry.”
Others in the Honnold community, like five-time U.S. national sport climbing champion Emily Harrington, 37, agree that Las Vegas offers something other climbing destinations across the country can’t.
“Yosemite is just a difficult place to exist in,” he said, noting that pushing yourself mentally and physically all day just to get back to a van can be exhausting and hardly conducive to the moment in life you’ve entered.
Harrington and her husband, climber Adrian Ballinger, recently welcomed a son, putting some urgency in their desire to live somewhere decidedly livable.
They recently bought a house not far from where Honnold, his wife and two young children live.
El Dorado Canyon near Las Vegas is another place that nature and history enthusiasts can bookmark as a place to visit.
Climbers take in the incredible view from a Las Vegas mountaintop
Climber Alex Honnold looks over his shoulder on the approach to the Rainbow Wall in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on Monday, May 13, 2024 in Las Vegas.
Nevada has long been a little-known place for nature lovers.
Red Rock Canyon offers climbers nearly endless hiking and climbing routes to choose from, many of which are less traveled than those in California, Colorado, and more popular mountain towns.
‘I can go out, drive five minutes to the trailhead, hike big routes all day and then come home to my house and my son and put him to bed, and I don’t have to live in a van!’ Harrington told the Times.
“It’s so nice,” he added, mentioning several of his favorite nearby restaurants.
Jonathan Siegrist, another millennial climber, is also a big proponent of the Las Vegas lifestyle, but he says it’s been an uphill battle, so to speak, to convince his peers of the area’s attractions.
“This city still has a very bad reputation in the outdoor community,” he said, unlike, for example, his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, where cost-of-living prices have skyrocketed in recent years. .
“A lot of outdoor people would never stoop so low as to go into a casino and have fun, or shop at a mall. That’s a huge contributing factor to why Las Vegas has remained under the radar.”
For now, that’s something Siegrist enjoys about Vegas.
More traditional mountain towns, he says, are full of people who conform to a single aesthetic and ideological way of life.
But in Las Vegas, on non-climbing days, he has the opportunity to be “a totally different version of myself.”
