For the Canadians skipping their American road trips in spring, fret not, as there are dozens of quality Canadian crags to visit this year. Below are some of the best spots from coast to coast to coast – the links take you to guidebooks where you can find more information.

Let’s say you start your trip on Canada’s east coast, then you’ll want to visit Flatrock in Newfoundland as it’s home to several classic one-pitch routes, such as Yellow Fever 5.9 and Maggie 5.11a. From there, you can head to Nova Scotia to check out the boulders on Dover Island and multi-pitch routes at Cape Clear. And in New Brunswick, you’ll find some classic granite routes at Cochrane Lane, such as About a Rope 5.8 and Bone Machine 5.11a. Also in New Brunswick is the crack-riddled McQuirks Mountain with trad routes like Magic X 5.8 and 50 Mission Cap 5.10.

Heading west into Quebec, you’ll find thousands of must-climb routes spread around the province in areas like the Laurentides, Val-David, Weir, Côte Sud, Gros Bonnet, Montagne d’Argent, and many more. There are world-class cracks, boulders and tall sport routes, such as Vérités dérangeantes 5.10a 2p at Montagne du Tranchant, and Moby Dick 5.11b at Kamouraska. Quebec is also home to some long adventure routes, like the nine-pitch 5.10 L’Odyssée (Mountain Project beta here), and the fully-bolted five-pitch 5.10b De toute beauté (Mountain Project beta here).

From east to west in Ontario, you’ll find the Canadian Shield routes and boulders at Calabogie and Bancroft before continuing southwest to the Niagara Escarpment with iconic Canadian limestone crags, such as Mount Nemo, Rattlesnake, Devils Glen, Old Baldy, The Swamp and Lion’s Head. Farther south are the popular boulders at Niagara Glen.

Moving northward you’ll find short crags and boulders in Muskoka before arriving to Sudbury and the multi-pitch bolted routes of Algoma. Farther west along the north shore of Lake Superior are Orient Bay, Outbreak Wall, Silver Harbour and Pass Lake. Another five hours of driving west will bring you to the crags around Kenora, such as Jones Road, before entering Manitoba where you’ll find several crags – check out the guidebook here.

While Saskatchewan has some exposed Canadian Shield in the north, few climbs have been established. You’ll soon arrive at the Canadian Rockies, with one of the first walls being Yamnuska, where you’ll find historic multi-pitch trad routes, such as Kahl Wall 5.10 8p and Forbidden Corner 5.9 8p. You can then head south into Kananaskis Country with crags like Barrier and Baldy, or continue west into the Bow Valley, where you’ll find Acephale, Grassi Lakes, Tunnel Mountain and Back of the Lake. Also in the Rockies, you’ll find world-class alpine routes, check out a few guidebooks here. From the Bow Valley, you can head into B.C. or north into Jasper – find the guidebook for crags and multi-pitch here.

Once you enter B.C., you can visit the south-facing Columbia Valley crag Spillimacheen for some pumpy climbs – a guidebook by David Jones here. Not far from here are the granite spires of the Bugaboos – guidebook here. If you go southwest then you’ll end up at Castlegar and Nelson and if you go west from the Columbia Valley you’ll get to Revelstoke, where there are great single-pitch crags like Begbie Bluffs and Echo Bay, and nice multi-pitch climbs at Waterworld.

Continue west and you’ll reach the Okanagan Valley with the Kelowna Boulderfields, Skaha and the crags near Vernon. Drive west and you’ll soon reach Kamloops, where you can head south or north. South will take you to the Coquihalla Highway and eventually to Hope, where you can find some great granite climbs. North from Kamloops will take you to Marble Canyon, where you’ll find the 19-pitch The Goat and the 30-pitch Guaranteed Rugged 5.10.

South of Marble Canyon and north of Hope is the Fraser Canyon, where you can find crags and boulders. Continue west and you’ll get to Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler. Squamish is one of the world’s most famous rock climbing areas, with thousands of pitches, dozens of must-climb boulders and classics like the Grand Wall, Angel’s Crest and Diedre. Find guidebooks to Squamish routes here and here, and boulders here. And if you’re looking for alpine climbs, check out Alpine Select West Coast here.

From Squamish, you can continue west by heading to Horseshoe Bay and taking a ferry to Vancouver Island, where you can find crags, boulders and alpine routes. Check out some guidebooks here and here. Also from Squamish, you can drive north to Yukon, where you’ll find several crags and multi-pitch areas, check out an online guide here and bouldering guidebook here.

And for a guidebook to 50 of the best rock climbs in Canada, check out Northern Stone here.

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