Louisville Swamp Boulder (S/W Twin Cities Metro, near Shakopee)

Fellow Swampers; be advised that the Renaissance Festival begins this coming weekend. Traffic will be epic on Saturday and Sunday now through early October. Good Luck!

The Louisville Swamp contains the closest real rock to the Twin Cities. While the Big Boulder (granite) is the main attraction (I've done at least two dozen problems on it), there are two other bouldering areas to explore. One is located on the Mysterious Island in the middle of the swamp itself. It has problems on solid, nearly quartzite-like sandstone. It is only accessible in winter as you have to cross the ice to get there. The other is my personal favorite, The North Shore Overhangs. I am not going to tell you where it is, but if you find it you will be looking at some of the steepest moderate bouldering (V1-V4) in Minnesota. I have been working the lines there for years and some are really, really good. I'm talking sit starts on 8-10 foot sandstone roofs with funky topouts. There are more difficult lines to be done...

Sweet! Definitely going to try and scope out the North Overhangs when I'm in Minnesota this July.

Yeah give 'er a brush man, you'd be doing a service :D

Will do on the big rock cleanup. Thanks for posting the beta on this place. I've explored a lot of twin cities area parks and never expected a "swamp" (which as it turns out is only a small part of this park's landscape) to have any bouldering potential whatsoever. Cat out of the bag and all, I figured a little public service be in order as a gesture of goodwill to the swamp trekkers who have climbed this hunk of granite for 10+ years. Thing is, I'm only telling climbers about this rock if they seem like the types who will respect it and leave it in better condition than when they first found it. Hopefully newcomers will do the same.
Now I'm counting on someone who has climbed the asteroid for years already to respond to this question, so help me out: if I post route descriptions and pictures for this boulder that are climbed by myself and friends, (we generally climb up to V4) but these routes have already been established, will you let me know what the names/consensus ratings are so that the FAers get their preferred names and specs (ie what's on or off) used? We're not going to claim FAs unless there's strong reason to believe no one else has climbed a certain sequence before. That said, until problems other than Dank Nugs and Beehive are posted, my friends and I are more than happy to write route descriptions for problems that may or may not be preclimbed. Knowing we're not the first ones on this rock, showing some extra respect just seems right here. Finally, huge thanks again (Sean Wolf) for sharing this excellent find with the Twin Cities community. Hopefully distance keeps this place from getting too popular :).

I like your enthusiasm. I would say keep going for it on posting the problems. I'm sure most lines on the big boulder have been climbed but if you put up the descriptions then it gives others a better idea of what they can find on it. Then when I'm there again sometime I can try them out too.

Yeah, I guess the cat is out of the bag, but why not. I just hope, as do all real boulderers, that the areas will not be trashed by the unclean and uninformed...like the citizens who insist on building a campfire on the northeast side of the Big Boulder. The bottom of the boulder has delaminated as a result, and the small foothold that used to be there is not there anymore. I also found a large campfire had been built next to, but not under (thank God!) the North Shore Overhangs last fall. The party-goers also left two dumped cans of beans on the ground, lots of beer cans and some large sausages were scattered about. Lucky summer conditions are so harsh down there or it would be party central in no time. I cleaned it all up, and am happy to report most all signs of the fire are gone. Spring flooding usually refreshes the Overhangs area each season anyway.

Can it honestly be said that ANY route on this boulder is 3 stars? Don't get me wrong, I think its cool that this boulder is in the middle of a field right in Shakopee, but a 3 star route should be "great" and I have to say that anything on this rock does not fall into that category

I feel like Beehive is an aesthetic line up a pretty clean face and for the grade deserves three stars (bouldering isn't geared towards the easier grades). That being said, I was there last week with a better climber who was working on a cool ascending traverse problem that covered that whole face of the boulder and it definitely looked like it would warrant three stars. But then again I just gave a problem near the Flatirons three stars today that four others had given no more than two stars. Talking about this is just silly though, as its even more subjective than grades. I understand that it could be deceiving to call a climb awesome if it is a chosspile as then people will be dissapointed for making a trip out to the boulder - but I definitely don't think that is the case here. And yes, beings that it is in Minnesota affects it a bit, but not much as I live on the Front Range where there is endless bouldering and I was pleased to spend an afternoon tinkering around in the swamp.

I have had two very good summer sessions down in the Swamp the last couple of weekends. I am totally astounded at the lack of bugs, but the drought must have impacted the little blood suckers. I was curious about the new ss route that starts from the little round hueco/pocket on the east face of the boulder. From the looks of the chalk, the new line goes slightly right and straight up from the pocket and may be a first. The pocket is also the start for another sit start project I have been working on. It goes right for six feet and joins a standing start problem I did back in January of 2006. The standing start version, which begins with an orange sloper (six feet right and six feet up from the pocket) for the right hand and a black crimp for the left, seemed pretty hard. There are a few footholds, but the bottom of the problem is undercut pretty sharply. It took the ultra-dry conditions of January to send it. I called it Sports Medicine and figured it was at least V4. The sit start variation has to be a couple of grades harder than that. It may be one of the hardest problems on the boulder.

Anyone find a green (with some sort of pattern) chalk bag out there?

I'm not forgetful when it comes to trash, but when it comes to important things like my flashlight (long, skinny maglite), pocket knife (red swiss), and my chalk bag - I'm really spacey.

If anyone found it, please let me know. Thanks!

Hey guys!
Just went out and climbed it with some friends for the first time a few weeks ago, and it was pretty good time! Also we took care of the "pocket of pain" and had some intense bee extermination going on, check out the video here

Andrew - What bad ass videos! Laughed muh ass off through the extraction of the bees in the pocket of pain video (and got a kick out of the dino-ish start) ... and, I'm surprised how well the two videos did the place justice. NOICE.

Hope to run into you all out there sometime soon!

haha thanks tigerbeat!

it's always great to hear feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the vids!
we're planning on getting back out there again soon.
we for sure will have to run into eachother sometime, do you climb at midwest mountaineering much?

Approach Clarification:

My buddy and I went out here yesterday, and this boulder has some incredible features, and is worth the trek!

That aside, some clarification on the directions...

The road you want to turn off of (about 2 miles after 145th) is called Bluff Drive. You go west on Bluff Drive, then turn right at the T.

If you go all the way down and through the persons farm house road, you will have to cross some train tracks. Be very careful and inspect your car before crossing them! They have about a curb high bump you have to take, and it could severely damage your vehicle if it has a low ground clearance. (If you don't want to risk it, park about 300 yards up from the persons farm house on a pullout on the east side of the road.


We had a difficult time finding this place, and where we should turn off, that is why I am clarifying. I would love to know these other two places that you are talking about Paul, but it seems you are determined to keep them a bit of a secret (although some searching on the north side of the lake might yield results) ;)

Just to clarify, are they both in the park itself? Or are the North Shore Overhangs actually at the North Shore (aka Duluth and above)?

Next time we go out we are going to bring a brush and try and get the east/northeast side, it's really dirty. The Bees are docile as well now it appears.

Thanks for clarifying the approach. The only problem is that driving on middle road past the train tracks is a bad idea. Its a wildlife refuge.

Yeah I think that's what was confusing (for myself included), the only reason we drove past the train tracks was because it seems that their are about 2 parking spots before the gate (which is the entrance I believe), and we didn't want to park in the guys yard. I really didn't feel like we were parking on the wildlife refuge, but it's really hard to tell. Best thing to do (and what we will do in the future) is park up before the yard, and walk in (only adds a minute). Thanks for the clarification, it's a great area, and wouldn't want to get people upset at the climbers! :D

By all means, please do not park beyond the sign that says "no parking beyond this point" (or something like that). Always park BEFORE the farmers yard and walk in. Cory has contacted me and I have given him directions to the NSO along with some sketchy beta on some of the better routes. I would wait one more weekend so the Renaissance Festival is over. I will be going back in a couple of weekends and clear the trail, stamp down the tall grass and brush off the holds. The fall season is about to begin!!

Hey Paul congrats on making it into the best of Rock and Ice (September Issue) :D

I about fell off my chair when I saw it.