Just as the summer months here in California (July-September) are a great time for alpine climbing and hiking in the Sierra Nevada, the winter months (November-February) are great for some desert rock climbing! It almost feels like my training for climbing cycle around these different seasons as well. When March starts rolling around I tend to be going on longer runs and hikes, getting ready for longer alpine days. Then in August, we all start training hard for bouldering, because the winter time is when the bouldering gets good!

Also, I lied, just a little. Not all 5 of these places are in California. 4 of them are, but the last one is in Nevada (eh hem) Red Rock Canyon. I couldn't in good conscience leave this area out because we travel to it almost just as frequently as some of the other climbing areas in the winter.

There is a mix of all kinds of climbing in the different areas below. There are some places that are primarily bouldering and some are primarily sport. Then some areas, like Joshua Tree, have sport climbing, trad climbing and bouldering. So there's something for everyone. Michael and I like them all, though, in the winter we tend to focus on bouldering. We do try to get a bit of sport climbing in as well.

This list isn't at all comprehensive, and I tend to be a bit biased toward southern and central California, because that's where I am located. So if you have another local climbing area you love to go to in the winter, hit me up in the comments!