Minnesota Climbing

Great video from Prairie Walls climbing comp:

dpmclimbing.com/climbing-vi… Mar 5, 2011

I was waxing nostalgic and thought
I'd see what has been posted on Carlton Peak on The
North Shore, but was disappointed that nothing has been posted.
Edit: Thank you Chris for pointing me in the right direction. Oct 7, 2011

Look again Tom! (Look under Temperance River SP). Oct 7, 2011

Dear Administrators of this fine state. Both your links to the climbing guidebooks for MN are broken. In addition, there is a new 2nd edition of the Farris book. As you know. May 11, 2013

Chris -- updated the broken links. Thanks for pointing this out. May 13, 2013

There are several places where the Superior Hiking Trail and good crags intersect. Unfortunately, climbers have been leaving trash and human waste in those areas. As a result, people are pissed off and want to ban climbing. Haven't you heard this before? Please follow Leave No Trace principles or areas may become closed to climbers. Aug 2, 2013

The MN Bouldering book is now available at Escape Climbing for $25. Psyched to finally have this book in print. escapeclimbing.com/extra/mn…
Nov 5, 2013

I FINALLY got a copy of the new guidebook....outstanding job by all involved! If you boulder in Minnesota, and you should, you need to buy this book. Now if the next edition would also cover the Buyck/Crane Lake area, I'd be a very happy man. Thanks for all the work and looking forward to a great 2014 bouldering season here in Minnesota! Apr 14, 2014

Hello friends!

Question for those climbers coming from the Rochester / SE Minnesota area. I recently moved to Rochester and I went exploring in Quarry hill. Is there some reason that there isn't climbing here? I understand that it's quarried rock and likely bad for Trad, but I found some areas that seemed to have near bullet proof features that may be decent for bouldering. I tried stopping in the nature center to possible get some info, but they were closing up. Any ideas? Anyone tried to climb here before? Website attached for reference

qhnc.org/ Sep 23, 2014

@ John McB

I have asked around and found out people used to do some bouldering there. The best they found was up on top of the hill. Reportedly, there was a fairly long but low wall of not to awful quality to do some traverse work on. On the far left end there were a few top out problems that were fun. One continuing problem was that the place was also a partying destination for local kids and there have been issues with throwing glass bottles against the cliff face. So, if that still continues, you may have to brush off glass sometimes. The park director at Quarry Hill, Pam Mayer, is a climber and probably she doesn't care if you boulder there at all.

You can also stop by the local climbing gym in Rochester, Prairie Walls. Dave Brandt, the gym owner, used to boulder at Quarry Hills and he may be the source of more info.

Hope this helps. Oct 9, 2014

Minnesotans,

could we stop downgrading our routes? Everywhere else I go feels soft, as long as the routes were bolted after ~1990. So maybe we don't need to adjust to the one guy who thinks Cyclops is 11b. I know this one didn't ACTUALLY get downgraded, but I can think of a number of routes which were unnecessarily downgraded.

Jim Bridwell's essay (ukclimbing.com/articles/pag…) is a funny and relatable read into the psychology of it.

This is not going to be a popular post, but I post because I care. Minnesota climbing is rad in its own way. The OGs made the most of our choss piles and patches of granite. I say we keep the grades consistent with the rest of the modern climbing world. May 21, 2017

Leo -- thank you for your post. To address concerns similar to yours, definition of the consensus grade was changed from mean to median several years ago. This was to avoid the effect of outlier ratings. So, even though few people rated Cyclops 11b (including myself, as I still think it is easier than the neighboring Wasp Mentality) -- the consensus is still 12a, reflecting majority of the opinions. Same goes for all routes in Minnesota. Hope that helps. May 22, 2017

Gorny you sandbagger! Cyclops is at least 5.11b+ May 22, 2017

I know, dang it. This was years ago when I was less decrepit (slightly) and I couldn't help myself. I'll get on it again and see if I get spanked. Maybe you are correct, Chris, and this is indeed 5.11b+. May 24, 2017