Conway, New Hampshire

Five spots in the Whites — three swimming holes under climbing walls, one overlook the guidebook crops out, and one gorge where the granite runs nearly blue.

North Conway is the overlap town. Climbers know the swimming holes because they wash off in them after pitches on Cathedral and Whitehorse. Weekenders know the overlooks because they're on the auto-road. Pull those two circles of knowledge together and you get a White Mountains that isn't in either guidebook — granite rivers below the slabs, gorges that hold meltwater into July, a quarry pool that locals still call by its 1970s nickname.

This guide is what the climbing community passes to its non-climber friends. The Saturdays when Diana's Baths is shoulder-to-shoulder and the better pool is a half-mile upstream.