Distance to Nearest Climbing
Inspired by the "distance to nearest road" project of the USGS, I wanted a map that would show the distance to nearest climbing in the conterminus US. First I needed the geographic coordinates of all climbing locations in the US. For this, I went to mountainproject.com which maintains a relatively complete list of climbing locations, from world class (Yosemite) to the barely known (I-70 East Bound Rest Area, Kansas?). After harvesting the geographic coordinates for each area and learning how to handle geographic data in python (Basemap), I came up with verion 1, shown above.
What can we learn from a map of the distance to nearest climbing?
- You're never very far from climbing in the US, but if you are a climber, you might want to avoid Louisiana.
- Theres's climbing in Florida!
- There are weaknesses in any type of data analysis. Here it's that all climbing areas are considered equal, so that being one mile from a mecca like Yosemite is the same as being a mile from a graffitied lump of rock under a highway. A better map would show a metric that includes both proximity and quantity/quality of climbing, but that will have to wait until version 2 (which is now here).