Elevation: 6,894 ft
GPS: 44.95, -115.949 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views: 23,469 total · 170/month
Shared By: Jacob Dolence on Aug 21, 2007
Admins: Mike Engle

Description

Slick Rock, located ~10 miles northeast of McCall, Idaho in the Lick Creek subrange of the Salmon River mountain range, offers one of the longest continuous technical rock routes in the state. Slick Rock is a huge face of quality granite. With the most central part up to the top being about 1200 feet.

Getting There

From McCall, ID, follow the road east to Ponderosa State Park (big green sign). Skirt around Payette Lake and the golf course. Follow Lake Drive until finding a gravel road that turns off to the right. The road runs past Little Payette Lake (Road #48 - Lick Creek Road).

Travel ~8 miles on Yellow Pine Road to a creek crossing. Camp there at primitive Lick Creek Campground (free). A beautiful stream running through the campground is a great water source, although purification is advised. Slick Rock is only 1-2 miles further, and is very obvious from the road. Park in the pull-out at the Slick Rock signpost. Cross the North Fork creek on the log jam and meander up the hillside to the base of Slick Rock (~15 minutes). The Regular Route starts almost directly beneath the summit.

4 Total Climbs

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Classic Climbing Routes at Slick Rock

Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.
5.6 4c 14 V 12 S 4b
 40
● Regular Route
Trad 8 pitches
5.8+ 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c
 32
● Memorial Route (aka Caudill Quee…
Sport 9 pitches
5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a R
 8
● Scenic Traction
Trad 7 pitches
5.10a 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a
 9
● Slippery Slope
Trad, Sport 9 pitches
Route Name Location Star Rating Difficulty Date
● Regular Route
 40
5.6 4c 14 V 12 S 4b Trad 8 pitches
● Memorial Route (aka Caudill…
 32
5.8+ 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c Sport 9 pitches
● Scenic Traction
 8
5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a R Trad 7 pitches
● Slippery Slope
 9
5.10a 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a Trad, Sport 9 pitches
More Classic Climbs in Slick Rock »

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3 climbers on the regular route, 2 on the memorial route. Both parties are at the first belays.
3 climbers on the regular route, 2 on the memor…
 1
Slickrock - Regular and Memorial routes
Slickrock - Regular and Memorial routes
 0
A sea of granite!
A sea of granite!
 0
The crux of the downclimb, a loose but easy chimney. If this sketches you out, you can rap down it from a nearby tree.
The crux of the downclimb, a loose but easy chi…
 0

14 Comments

Sort by: Oldest
Newest Oldest Best Beta
jhump
jhump  
Does anyone know of any history of climbing on the large granite walls to the right of the main Slickrock formation?

Thanks. Sep 10, 2008
Shapp
Shapp  
About 7 or 8 years ago, on the far right side of slick rock proper one can see 2 prominant huge cracks at the top 1/3 of the crag. We climbed a route more or less staight up from the bottom to these double cracks then up to the top via the left crack, leaving no fixed gear but passing some slings and couple fixed stoppers. It was in the 5.7 range or so, full standard rack to 5" and double ropes were handy. I know we were not the first on this line. May 31, 2012
Duane z
Cascade, ID
Duane z   Cascade, ID
Does anyone know where I can get a topo of slick rock routes? Jul 4, 2012
Jacob Dolence
Morgantown, WV
Jacob Dolence   Morgantown, WV
Visitors center at Ponderosa State Park has topos in a folder at the visitors center. I know because I put them there, and I bet they are still there! Jul 25, 2012
Brad Winters
Brad Winters  
how about uploading a scan of that slick rock topo ! Aug 3, 2012
Patrick Betts
Patrick Betts  
No topo at the Ponderosa State Park VC, The National Forest office in town or Gravity Sports as of 10/22/13. An upload would be great. Oct 22, 2013
K Baumgartner
K Baumgartner  
As of 25 Oct 13, the Ponderosa State Park was closed. Gravity Sports provided us a topo for the Regular Route after asking nicely.

Key piece of beta for the regular route is to find the short left facing corner. Send it, work your way up and right, look for a pod and the shuts or bypass them and move back left (extremely run out), and the up to build a belay near the small pine tree. Oct 30, 2013
Neil Crowson
Salt Lake City, Utah
Neil Crowson   Salt Lake City, Utah
I think the term run out or R is used way to loosely in this area. I thought the memorial route was extremely overbolted. And very soft for 5.8. (Not that the grade matters) if you are looking to move over a lot of rock in McCall don't be intimitaded by the slick rock. PS IMO, 90 % of these bolts are redundant as the face could protect naturally with healthy run outs over easy (5.5) terrain. Not to mention that these bolts could be used in more development further up the road! Aug 3, 2014
Idaho Bob
McCall, ID
Idaho Bob   McCall, ID
No need to downclimb the steep part of the walkoff gully (see picture). From tree with rap slings follow faint trail left (west). A short bit of 4th class downclimbing leads to the base of gully below rap tree. Jun 4, 2015
Jess VanderBoon
Park City, UT
Jess VanderBoon   Park City, UT
Just up there this morning. River washed out the log jam, it was unsafe to cross at normal spot. You could drive another mile up road and bushwhack after bridge I think. There seemed to be too much snow for walk off, but can't say for sure.. Jun 8, 2017
Trevor.
Boise, ID
Trevor.   Boise, ID
The log jam at the creek crossing changed this winter with the high runoff flows, and is now a bit sketchier than in the past. While walking across the single log bridges to the main log jam is tempting, one of them cracked loudly under my weight, and seemed ready to break. I'd recommend just wading the creek below the log jam instead.

Also the descent gully loosened up quite a bit since last season, be extra careful in there, especially if anyone is below you. Jul 2, 2017
Idaho Bob
McCall, ID
Idaho Bob   McCall, ID
Today Jim Pace and I completed brushing and wind fall clearing on the Slickrock walkoff. Also trimmed the pungies on the log jam bridge over Lick Creek. All now in as good a condition as it ever gets. Go for it climbers! Sep 2, 2017
Jeff Botimer
Jeff Botimer  
Thanks Bob! Really appreciate your work on the Slick Rock trail. May 2, 2018
Tanner Bond
Lakewood, CO
Tanner Bond   Lakewood, CO
The log jam is in good shape (as of July 2018) Nov 19, 2018