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Monster NW Face

S Dakota > Needles Of Rush… > Mt Rushmore Nat… > Magna Carta > Monster North
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Description

This is the large NW face/prow of the Monster. 

Getting There

Left from Sign-in Kiosk head N. After a hundred feet or so look up and you'll see the 200+ foot face of the Monster. 

Routes from Left to Right

5.12+ 7c 28 IX 27 E6 6b
 3
● The Nightman Cometh
Sport
5.13- 7c+ 29 IX+ 29 E7 6c
 2
● Troll Toll
Trad, Sport
Route Name Location Star Rating Difficulty Date
● The Nightman Cometh
 3
5.12+ 7c 28 IX 27 E6 6b Sport
● Troll Toll
 2
5.13- 7c+ 29 IX+ 29 E7 6c Trad, Sport

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

The approach to "Pointy Little Devil", "Going Down to Harlem" and "Little Gremlins" is not obvious from the main path. The most direct way is to scramble up this little gully across a few boulders. There is a faint climbers trail, but it's hard to see up against the left hand rock. In the background you can see the top of the climbs.
[Hide Photo] The approach to "Pointy Little Devil", "Going Down to Harlem" and "Little Gremlins" is not obvious from the main path. The most direct way is to scramble up this little gully across a few boulders…

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

MELINDA
[Hide Comment] For first time climbers in the area, figuring out which pulloff to park at/finding the trailhead with the sign-in khiosk, and finding the routes in the Monster, Marker, Shaker area MIGHT be challenging. There are some contradicting information in the descriptions and comments. I really love MP but sometimes it's best to buy the book. My boyfriend and I used MP to find the area and routes and both struggled. He has a great amount of expirence and the directions still stumped him. Once we actually figured out where to park and sign-in we made our way to the base of the correct area. Then the biggest challenge was finding where the routes were... We didn't want to be overly confident and jump on routes we thought were the correct ones. The confusing directions for all of the routes led us to frustration and disappointment. My boyfriend has decades of expirence and skill and he wasn't just going to jump on a route he wasn't sure was correct. I followed his lead and failed to figure out what routes we were looking at. From leaving the campground to finally giving up and driving to Hills City to buy the book was about a three hour adventure. BtW, nowhere in the town of Keystone has any guide books! You must go to Hill City which is about 20-30 min away from Keystone. Go to Granite Sports. They had a great selection of books and were very nice and helpful! We bought "The Needles of Mount Rushmore" by Andrew Nurse and Andrew Burr. It was recommended to us and we heard from others this was the book to get. If the weather turns and starts hailing and storming for food stop in Desparados for some food! Great prices for the area and very friendly staff. When we finally got back to climbing using the book got us quickly to where we wanted to climb and with their helpful descriptions we found the routes immediately and we got to climb! I recommend to routes in Magna Carta, Picture Window routes.. cool, unique routes. Getting to the arête can be spooky of you don't like a lot of exposure. Layback moves are key to make it more fun and less challenging. Placing fear towards to the of any of the routes on this wall can be tricky and spooky with the exposure I mentioned before.

Note: the pictures did not download before I lost service so that would have probably helped us find the routes easily. Jun 9, 2017