South Dakota may not be the first place that comes to mind for world class climbing, but few places are blessed with the amount of varied and classic climbing present in the Black Hills. The Needles in the southern hills is host to runout face climbing on impressively skinny spires, the largest of which can be 3-4 pitches long. Mt Rushmore is home to hundreds of well protected sport routes, and perhaps has the best concentration of memorable, high quality 5.6-5.9 sport routes on earth. Old Baldy near Mt Rushmore is the premier bouldering area in the hills - spectacular enough to inspire a climbing movie.
Moving north, the granite fades away to limestone canyons and the odd chunks of sandstone. Falling Rock near Rapid City provides a nice pump on vertical edgy limestone. The Rock Maze along Nemo Road has juggy steep sandstone bouldering, and few crowds. Rapid City sports good bouldering and toproping on sandstone outcrops in the center of town. The crown jewel of the northern hills is Spearfish Canyon, which has a huge concentration of high quality sport routes in the 5.10 - 5.13 range in a lovely canyon. In the winter, Spearfish Canyon has a number of good ice climbing routes as well.
Ernie, I've got a mint copy of that book. I'll take a look tonight, and see what is up with those routes. I've heard there are some good lines back there.
Cool place, but I never got to do any real climbing, because by the time we would be ready to go thunder showers would start. I hope to go back some day.
I'm a "newbie" climber (5.10a/V2-3) from Wisconsin and am tenatively planning a springbreak trip to SD for some TR or Sport climbing. We are thinking the blackhills area.
Does anyone have any recommendations on areas with high concentrations of 5.8 to 5.11 bolted routes? Maybe even some good places to practice multi-pitch? I plan on doing some in-depth research on the area as well, but this site has been really good to me in the past. Also some Mountain biking in the area would be awesome.
The Rushmore area along Hwy 244 has the highest concentration of moderate bolted climbs. The South Seas, Marker, and Chopping Block areas all have high quality routes under 5.9. Not sure if Devil's Lake is your home crag, but the ratings will be a bit weird at first. Waves,(5.8, many variations) in South Seas, is a classic 2 pitch route with a sweet summit. Most of the routes tend to be 1 pitch, but can pack a punch in 30+ feet!
If you head out there, find a copy of the Vernon Phinney guide book. It's a bit old, but will get you to the routes.
Horribly, another Black Hills legend has fallen. Loretta Muehl was REAL. She was one of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I knew her as an incredible artist,teacher and sailor. I only new Loretta for thirteen years but her generosity and kindness were unequaled and her views on life constantly entertained me. If you are a frequent visitor to the hills you have undoubtedly heard "Renn Fenton" stories. I would like to quickly share a "Loretta" story. As I said earlier Loretta was real and my favorite example of this was the plaque that she kept on her desk at school that read "what you think of me is none of my business". My only solace in this tragedy is knowing that she is with her beloved Paul now. Loretta, thanks for all of the good times, you will be missed more than you will ever know. Love,
Yo Fellas, Just got back from El Salto! As always a good time, with friends and tufas. Graig I hear ya, I just thought you could cut the guy some slack. As for the Blake Comparison, your right. Its different, after all the back of your hand touches the rock and we all know thats not real climbing, yeah right. Anyway, all yall keep safe and keep crankin. PS Miah if you need any beta or help with El Gigante, just let me know and I will see what I can do for ya. I hear this is a proud adventerous route. Nos Vemos
I'd be psyched on anything you have to offer on El Gigante. It's only about 12 hours from here. With everything going on I'd like to head down in early May. It sounds like an amazing place have you been?
In 1967 Peter Cleveland led Superpin (5.10d or 5.11 X) which at the time was arguably one of the boldest climbs in the country. The story of how Cleveland send belayer Ron Cox out to the road so he could view the success and not the failure (death fall) is a classic in the history of North American rock climbing. It is well documented in Pat Ament's book "Wizards of Rock".
I do not know the exact date in 1967 so perhaps the 40 year mark has come and gone.
Cleveland went on to put up very hard climbs at Devils Lake (Wisconsin). According to Ament in 1967 or 1968 Peter did a top rope ascent of "Death Lead 2000" (unrated) but possibly America's first 5.13. In 1968 Cleveland put up "Bagatelle" 5.12, a true Devils Lake testpiece.
Cleveland still lives here in Baraboo and can be seen cragging at the lake and still "pullin down hard".
Congratulations and Happy Anniversary to Peter. (Perhaps this could be mentioned at the upcoming Pumpfest 2007 in the Hills)
Sorry, off topic...Does anybody know how to get ahold of Pete Delannoy? I went to grad school with him in the 1980's in Boulder and haven't seen him for years. I saw him mentioned in an article in Climbing and it inspired me to look him up. chris dunn, bigsky@commspeed.net
Check out the profile of the Herb and Jan at the end of the new Climbing. They've been getting lots of exposure in Climbing, Alpinist, and NPR. It's nice to see some Black Hills explorers/icons getting recognition. Pretty soon they'll be wearing shades and signing autographs!
The BHCC is sponsoring a FUN EVENT (as opposed to serious) Bouldering Competition and climbers gathering and pot luck at the Athletic Club on Sheridan Lake Drive on Saturday, January 19th. Bring your own pads if you have them. We will have door prizes and other swag. Free for BHCC members, $5 everyone else. Starts at 4 pm with the competition ending at 6:30. Pot luck begins at 7:00 pm, We will also have a very short coalition meeting to vote on next years Board of Directors. Everyone out by 8 pm. In addition to the Chili provided by the Athletic Club, the BHCC will be providing BEER! Remember that this is a POT LUCK, so bring your favorite side dish.
Hello all. I have a bunch of old climbing footage from the Canyon and Baldy that I've been converting to digital. I thought I would throw some of the more interesting stuff onto YouTube. The digital conversion kind of sucks, but I figured there might be a few of you out there that would be psyched to see it. So far, I only have a couple of vids up; one of me on Gale Force (13a) and one of Jeremiah on F5 (12d/13a) at the Thunderhead. I'll continue to post more videos as I get the time. The link for Gale Force is as follows, and I think you can then find the other videos through my username, Sidekickstinky. Hope you enjoy!
The Dahl Mountain Culture Festival 2008 kicks off on Friday 4/18/08 with a reception for the photo exhibit at the Journey Museum. The annual showing of the Banff Film Festival World Tour will be in Rapid City on 4/20 and 4/21. For a full list of events going on the rest of the month check out: http://www.thedahl.org/dahlmountain/index.htm
Just got back to Spokane last night and wanted to say what a great time I had back home in South Dakota. Way too much rain but I know that you guys needed it, so it is all good.
Thanks to everyone for coming out and showing us around. Mike, the new area is incredible. Can't wait to get back there. Hopefully, will be a little stronger and actually be able to get on a few more climbs. Maybe the river will be gone also. Luke, good seeing you again. Shannon and Eric, it was nice meeting you. Hope to see all of you again. Gonna try to get back in September and at least get out a day or two while I am there.
Brent, sorry I did not get out more with you. Between the rain and the projects at home, time kind of slipped away. Planned on getting out on Saturday, but family things came first. I will get ahold of you before I get back there.
Kind of a bummer ending to the trip, but my window is getting fixed as I am writing this and look forward to getting back there. If any of you ever get out this way, get ahold of me or Dave and we will show you around out here.
Yo Todd, I'm glad to hear you made it home without incident. How many miles to the gallon does your Subaru get on grampa's fire water? That stuff will put hair on your finger nails. Cheerio, Brent
i'm a uk climber on a road trip thru the states, should be arriving in the black hills tomorrow. hope this is the best place to ask to hook up with someone to climb with - couldn't see s dakota in the forums.....
if anyone is keen please text on 734-476-0909 and i'll ring back.
cheers
rich
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Jun 13, 2008
Another climbing legend passed on today. Paul Duval died of injuries sustained when he rappeled off the end of an unequalized rope at Moonlight Ridge in the Needles of SD today. He had set up a rappel using someone elses rope that had multiple markings and it appears that he short roped one side due the selection of the wrong rope marking which he assumed was the middle mark. It sounds like he died very quick. Our prayers go out to his family, Karen and all of us who loved him. Paul was a very humble and gentle man. His contributions to rock climbing were numerous. We will miss him.
Well said Brent. I only met Paul a couple of times. Once was with you at the Gash and the other was at the needles on Father's Day this year. He seemed very motivated and sincere. We were doing Pratt's Crack on Photographer's and we chatted for about a half hour. He told me about all the development in Mexico and even though I hardly knew him he invited me to stay with him if I was ever down in Mexico. I took some pictures of Kieth and Rich while on Pratt's from across the the valley and he ended up being on it at the bottom chatting with friends. I will try to post it latter. I am glad I got to spend some time with him. Mike
Just met Paul 2 weeks ago in the Needles Eye parking lot. In the short time we spoke, it was clear to me that his reputation of being a GOOD MAN was accurate. His soft spoken nature and eagerness to share his passion for climbing was welcomed and appreciated. Wish I'd have met him years ago...
My wife and I will climb all this weekend in the Needles and do as many of Paul's routes as possible...
Looking for some Beta on "Free Camping" in the Hills. I have camped at Wrinkled Rock adjacent to Rushmore and it was fine. However I did hear something about another area (closer to Sylvan Lake?) that road tripping climbers camp at.
Can any Black Hills climbers hook me up? Would be much appreciated by this touring Devils Lake climber.
Post here or fire me off an e-mail through Mountain Project.
I wish to extend my condolences to Paul Duval's love Karen and his family. There was a fella from Montana who showed up within seconds, minutes, i don't know, who gave mouth to mouth to Paul until search and rescue showed up. I didn't get to thank him properly or find out who he was. Hopefully someone knows him and could let us know. Thanks too to Dustin from California for his assistance with the cpr. Bill Ruggieri
Brent, thank you for the information of Paul Duval. I had hoped to join up with him and climb again in the Needles; but guess it will have to be in spirit now. Enjoyed many outings with Paul and will miss him. Paul was indeed a very giving and sociable climber (from the old school!). He enjoyed and respected the climbing in the Hills along with many of the original climbers from the 60's/70's/80's.
I tried to call you, Brent, but could not access a telephone number - email me at dakota_griz@yahoo.com when you get the time. Cheers! Vernon Phinney
Anybody know who stripped out the bolts at the Ice Box area in Spearfish Canyon? I went up there last Friday and found that several if not all of the routes were chopped. Anybody have any idea on who or why this is?
I was bouldering at Vegan boulder on Saturday and it seems that someone has left a couple of mattresses their. When the City worker came around to collect the garbage he was not happy. He said that he had to clean up mattresses their before. Since the area is now a park owned by the city leaving mattresses is not a good idea. I am planning on loading them in my trunk and taking them to the dump when I have time. Additionally, I have seen homeless people sleeping on or under the mattresses left their so rolling around on them is probably the most sanitary thing to do.
For those of you interested Peter Lev will be giving a presentation to a tourism class at 8am Monday Nov. 3rd in room 305 of Meier Hall at BHSU and the public is invited. Peter has long been associated with Exum guiding in the Tetons and has done many historical first ascents in the Tetons and other ranges. Mike
South Dakota
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