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Raspberry Rocks Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Areas in Raspberry Rocks

Old Wall 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2

Ramp, The 5 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 6

Raspberry Boulders 0 / 0 / 0 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 8

Weather Watchers Wall 22 / 11 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 26

West Face 2 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 4

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Elevation:	4,505 ft	1,373 m
GPS:	43.83992, -103.4085 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	40,885 total · 150/month
Shared By:	Peter Gram on Jul 18, 2002 · Updates
Admins:	Peter Gram, Greg Parker, Mikel Madsen, Mark Rafferty Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

Raspberry Rocks is a highly secluded ridge of high quality rock. Most routes are around two pitches long. This is a great place to go for a high concentration of cracks. A lot of crack climbing in the Needles is little more than crack protected face climbing. But here, many true jam cracks are available for fingers to offwidths, chimneys and even vertical caving on Carl's Bad Caverns. Another plus for this area is the lack of crowds. There is little to no bolted routes here, so bring a standard rack.

Getting There

From Keystone, head out of town towards Mt. Rushmore. At the highway 244 and 16a junction, take a left on 16a and measure the distance from this point. The road is hard to find, so make sure to keep an accurate odometer reading. After 4.5 miles, you will pass the high point of Iron Mountain highway. Continue an additional 4.1 miles to the Raspberry Rocks road. To find it, watch out for a overgrown dirt road heading right as the highway veers left. If you see a small paved parking area on the left side of the road, then you just missed the turn. The turn is a very hard right from the highway.

From here, either park or drive (probably need at least a Subaru Outback or something similar) for 1 mile to the end of the road. This is at the top of the hill, and Raspberry Rocks is to the right. Find a faint trail, and then traverse around the rocks on talus, losing 100 or more feet of elevation. The main area is several minutes of hiking away. Keep walking around the base until the rock gets steeper and less fractured.

46 Total Climbs

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Classic Climbing Routes at Raspberry Rocks

Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.

5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c 23 ● Carl's Bad Caverns Trad 2 pitches Weather Watchers Wall
5.8+ 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c 25 ● Middle of the Road Trad Weather Watchers Wall
5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a 20 ● Weather or Not Trad 2 pitches Weather Watchers Wall
5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a 11 ● Rocking Raspberries Trad, Sport Weather Watchers Wall
5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a 6 ● Paradise Lost Trad Weather Watchers Wall
5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a 9 ● Uff-Da-Hedral Trad 2 pitches Weather Watchers Wall
5.10a 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a 12 ● Dog Days of Summer Trad, Sport Weather Watchers Wall
5.10b 6a+ 19 VII- 19 E2 5b 7 ● Fascination Street Trad Ramp
5.10c 6b 20 VII 20 E2 5b 24 ● Somewhere East of Fresno Trad, Sport Weather Watchers Wall
5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b 6 ● The Chameleons Trad Weather Watchers Wall
5.10d 6b+ 21 VII+ 21 E3 5b 9 ● Frosted Red Raspberry Pop Tarts Trad, Sport 2 pitches Weather Watchers Wall
5.11a 6c 22 VII+ 22 E3 5c 8 ● Lizard King Arete Trad, Sport Weather Watchers Wall
5.11 6c+ 23 VIII- 23 E4 5c 10 ● Left Face of Eve Trad Weather Watchers Wall
5.11c/d 7a 24 VIII 25 E4 6a 7 ● R.I.P. Diagonal Trad 2 pitches Weather Watchers Wall
5.12a 7a+ 25 VIII+ 25 E5 6a R 5 ● Cheap Seeking Missle Sport Weather Watchers Wall