Summer is drawing to a close, the quiet nights lengthening and the evenings cooling. However, the season still far from over in my opinion–and there’s plenty of time left to drop by Lander, Wyoming for some of the most iconic summer climbing in the country. During one of the warmest seasons on record, though, how is anybody supposed to get all this climbing in without sweating right off the slick, pocketed limestone?

Here are all of the tips and tricks I’ve gathered from a whole season of living and working like a Lander local.

In general

Proper sun protection

As somebody who doesn’t particularly like the feel of sunscreen, having sun-protective clothing has proven to be an absolute must in the Mountain West. The sun is way stronger at elevation, and you’ll get utterly fried before you even have time to say “I don’t ever burn, don’t worry y’all!”

These are some of my most favorite SPF items:

• Sun hoodie. These are super in-style in the mountains, as well as crucial for protecting your shoulders and the back of your neck from the sun. Picking a unique color or pattern makes a sun hoodie a fun avenue for self-expression as well.

• Wide-brimmed and breathable hat. This will help you protect your beautiful face from the sun without slathering on oily sunscreen. I find a good hat especially crucial for belaying, when my face is upturned for many minutes at a time.
• Sunglasses. Not critical in my opinion, but certainly helpful. Tension headaches and visual exhaustion can certainly put a damper on your day. Sunglasses can help you avoid these ailments when strong high-altitude sunlight is bouncing off of the pale desert.

Sufficient hydration & electrolytes

Stronger sun, dryer air, and higher temps are all a recipe for dehydration. Carry extra water, store your water somewhere easy to access while you’re hiking, and pack salty snacks.

Ensure that water is easy to grab while you’re at home, too. One of my favorite hacks is always keeping my Brita filter full in my trailer and popping it in the fridge as an extra treat.

Cold meals (or cook late in the evening)

Especially if you live in a van, trailer, or a small apartment, cooking a hot meal can really toast up your space. A hot meal (and toasty home) is ideal in the fall, winter, and early spring…but obviously far less ideal when it’s still ninety-five degrees at seven pm. When my partner and I are looking for a lunch or early dinner at home, we often craft something that doesn’t require turning the stove on inside.

This can mean a charcuterie-style spread, avocado toast, or even plugging our rice cooker into one of our outdoor outlets. Whatever you’re cheffing up, I recommend snagging a loaf of fresh bread from one of the bakeries in town to accompany it. The Lander Bread Share has my favorite loaves–it pairs exceptionally with Tofurkey’s vegan deli slices and Chao’s creamery cheese.

On climbing days

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of where and when you should climb during hot Lander summers. These are just the schedules that we or our dear friends have tested and adored. I’ve also heard wonderful things about Fossil, but having not been there personally, I’ve don’t know the exact timing of the shade. Here’s what I can recommend to you with confidence.

The OK Corral Siesta Schedule

OK Corral is one of the many beautiful limestone crags up at Wild Iris and is 30-40 minutes from the Lander downtown. Although any crag at Wild Iris will generally be cooler than town due to its elevation, the sun is still strong, and even 80 degrees can feel unclimbable. Chasing the shade becomes a central part of any climbing day.

OK Corral is ideal for shade-chasing because most of the crag is less than a fifteen minute walk from the cozy Wild Iris campsites. This makes it fairly easy to conform to the shade’s schedule and to get out multiple times a day.

This is what our average day climbing at OK Corral looks like.

7am-8am: Wake up, make breakfast, and pack up for a short climbing session. Maybe take a stroll to the pit toilet. Some folks awaken even earlier to maximize the morning shade.

8am-12pm: Hike in and commence the first climb session of the day. OK Corral gets full shade until 10am, and some routes remain at least partially shaded until noon.

12pm-4pm: These are the siesta hours. The sun is at its strongest, and most of OK Corral is receiving the full blast. Hike back down to camp, have lunch, and take a phat nap. If your tent platform is in the sun, consider hammocking it up or taking your sleeping pad out of your tent and dragging it under a tree. This is also a great time to utilize the tree shade at your campsite for a little yoga sesh, some reading, making music, or any of your other joyful hobbies.

4pm-7pm: Set back out for another session. A decent amount of OK Corral will still be in the sun at this point, but you’ll notice that the rays are significantly less strong than they were at noon. In some spots, the sun might have even dipped behind the trees.

7pm-sleep: Now that it’s not too hot to stand next to your stove, you can cook dinner! Relax, stretch, recover, and hydrate. Be sure to get to sleep nice and early if you’re repeating this schedule the next day.

The Remuda/Erratic Sleep-in Schedule

8am-9:30am: Wake up slowly, make breakfast, hang out. Pack up for the day. Enjoy the early morning temps–you’re in no rush. The Remuda and its neighboring crags don’t even get shade until after 10am, anyway.

9:30am-10am: Start making your way to the crag. It’s a longer walk than to OK Corral, so give yourself some extra time. The goal is to set up and start climbing around 10am, as the crag dips into the shade. Bring some hearty snack foods or a lunch.

10am-8pm: Climb to your heart’s content! A lot of the folks who climb in these areas like to squeeze every ounce of light out of the session, making the most of those long summer days.

8:30pm-sleep: Return to camp and cook a late dinner as the sun dips behind the foothills. If you’re having another Remuda day tomorrow, stay up as late as you want chatting, hanging, hackeysacking, and more.

Specific shaded climbs

As you spend more time at these crags and get the lay of the land, you can devise hyper-specific schedules based on when individual climbs get shade. In North Country, for example, the shade scurries across the crag throughout the day, climb by climb. You can start on one side of the crag and follow the shade as it moves.

At OK Corral, you’ll find that the climbs nestled in corners or tucked behind big trees might get shade at unexpected times. Ride Me Cowgirl and its neighboring climbs, for example, stay shaded much longer than other climbs at OK Corral because they’re protected by a jutting corner.

You’ll also discover that even if you get to Doob Loob before 11am…it’ll be frying in the sun at unimaginable temps. Ugh.

Check out Elemental

Elemental, a little gym on Lincoln Street, is a sweet spot to spend evenings after work or days that are just too hot for outdoor sport. Elemental has a small bouldering gym that is regularly re-set, a campus board, a tension board, a fully-equipped training gym with tons of fitness equipment, a cardio loft, and open floor space for yoga or ab workouts. It’s also one of the best cheap shower spots in town.

I love this place a lot, and it’s a great hang for making friends with locals and getting to know the community.

On Rest Days

Popo Agie Falls

I’ve had this beautiful destination recommended to me by many a friend and outdoorsy blog, and it sure did not disappoint. We visited this spot on a day that was set to break triple-digit temperatures in town and the 90’s up at Wild Iris.

There’s a bit of a hike in, so make sure you start early if you’re saving this adventure for a hot day. Doing so will ensure that you can hike before any dangerous temps arrive and swim in the snowmelt pools at the peak heat of the day.

Once you hike all the way up, you’ll find several crystal-clear pools to swim in, countless shapely boulders to scramble on, and even a natural waterslide that jets you out into one of the deepest pools. Be sure to bring snacks, extra water, sun protection, and a mid-weight layer for the first few shivery minutes after crawling out of the frigid water!

City Park shade and streams

City Park is blooming with huge, old-growth shade trees and criss-crossed by countless chilly rivulets. Tomo and I have spent hours here playing guitar, doing yoga, greeting friends, journaling, and more, even during the hottest hours of the day. The shade is generally quite cool, even when the sun is high in the sky. If you manage to get too warm, splashing around in one of the many tiny rivers will surely cool you off.

Enjoying the evenings

Especially at summer’s beginning and end, the evening offers a welcome respite from the heat of the day. There’s tons to do in Lander as the sun nears the horizon, from jogging around in local parks to enjoying a rich brew at Pushroot or The Lander Bar.

Scouting out live music is one of my favorite evening activities in Lander. The town often runs free concerts in City Park, at which you can find Pushroot Brewery pouring beer and Little Green Truck scooping delicious ice cream (vegan options usually available!). Pushroot itself also has a robust live music schedule, and the performers are often super local. Grabbing a brew in Pushroot’s cozy backyard and nodding along to a band is the perfect finale to any beautiful summer day.

An evening in City Park. Pizza is from the Wind River Pizza Co.!

Conclusions

It’s hard to talk about summer without acknowledging how alarmingly hot this one has been–one of the hottest ever recorded in countless places around the world. Even though we were still able to enjoy Lander this summer, it’s undeniable that wildfires raged just miles away from town, the high temps shattered local records, and every creature and plant wilted in the relentless heat.

What I’ve offered in this article are short-term solutions to thriving in a warming world. The long-term solutions are of course more difficult to achieve, but every small step makes a difference. Eat kindly. Bike when you can. Reuse and recycle. Buy less clothes. If you must shop at all, shop local. And please, for the love of art, don’t use AI (real humans need much less water, even at elevation).

Alright, lecture over. But keep it in mind. We want Lander to remain the epic destination it is for many years to come.