29ers are great
I was a massive sceptic (even more so given I'm "only" 5ft 11) before I tried one. The I tried one, and realised that they're nowhere near as unwieldy as people make out. Sure they require a little bit more effort to get round the tighter twistier stuff than a smaller wheeled bike, but it's marginal.
So I bought a 2nd hand GF Rig… Which I love! But now I've bought an Inbred 29er frame, which I've just built up. Would love a Niner SIR 9 or similar, but my god the price!!! OUCH! To be fair the Inbred isn't light (my 18" version is 5lb 14oz for the frame only, my Maverick Durance 5" travel full sus frame is a few ounces lighter!), but the geometry looks spot on. I'd have gone for a Scandal probably, but for the fact that On One mistakenly (in mine, and many other people's, opinions) decided to go back to conventional dropouts on the Scandal 29er.
How tall are you incidentally, not that I suppose it matters that much…