Bone Mountain Rock Climbing

There are two distinct approaches. One takes a steeper, more direct route up past Satellite Wall, the other is a bit longer but much more mellow. Relatively easy to get lost either way so plan for that your first time. The Timberline approach has become the preferred and easier to follow choice.

• From the UVM Sugar Shack on Bolton Valley Access Road: The steeper, more direct approach. Better if Satellite Wall is your objective. Roughly 75 minutes to the main cliff if you don't get lost.

- Park at the Sugar Shack 2 miles up Bolton Valley Access road on the left.
- Hike across/up the road a hundred yards or so to the gated logging road on the right.
- Follow this main road crossing a large bridge a few minutes in, and a second smaller bridge about 10/15 minutes in.
- Turn left after the bridge and head up steeper terrain to another split.
- Turn right at this split and continue up increasingly steep terrain.
- After 15 minutes, look for a very steep path on your left and slog up.
- When the ground plateaus, head through an interesting slot canyon once referred to as Moose Bog.
- Continue along this contour line for 10 or so minutes passing under and around various large boulders and small chossy faces to a clearing.
- Head NNE, finding Satellite wall on your left and the Main Cliff straight ahead.

• Timberline Approach AKA "Bottle Cap Trail": Easier hiking which brings you to the back of the main wall. Roughly 90 minutes though less elevation than the Sugar Shack. I recommend this way, although more confusing, it is much less strenuous with a heavy pack.

Historically:
 "Alternatively, park at the Timberline parking lot for Bolton Valley Ski Resort, and follow the blazed (blazed with old bottle caps) "trail" all the way to the big gully/flush between the Satellite and Main Cliff."

Alas, the bottle caps of the '90s are all but forgotten. Only a handful remain and they are high up in the woods and useless for navigation. Nevertheless, this approach is gaining in popularity again and is the recommended route.

-Park at the south-most end of the large Timberline Ski Lift parking lot. Be friendly to the staff here, they seem totally amenable to climbers hiking from their lot which is awesome.

- Hike toward the logical direction of where Bone mountain would be (Southeast). There are 3 different initial paths but no matter which way you take you'll get to a downhill on your right with a bridge at the bottom.

- Cross the sketchy bridge (patched up in 2018) and continue up a hill until evens out and starts veering left toward new (2021) logging operations.

- When the uphill stops, continue until a very large and obvious sharp turn left. If after you make this turn you see ski trail signs for "C2-1 " as you are hiking up you're on the right trail although don't follow the arrows going to it. It's just noteworthy to confirm you picked the right logging road.

- Head uphill trending ENE for at least 30 minutes. Do not cut right early on the various trails that look like they head toward Bone. You will regret it. It feels weird to be hiking trending North but it's correct.

- Along this logging road there should be a number of rock cairns along the way and a very obvious large stream crossing about 20 minutes up. Keep going.

- When the trail really starts to trend North there will be a large boulder up ahead. Punch up into the woods on your right on a path that is now marked with orange flagging and a cairn. Head SSE while trending uphill. In about 1 minute you should run into another obvious logging road. At this point you are even with the cliff and your elevation gaining is more or less done.

- You simply have 40 more minutes of easy, relatively flat hiking straight south until the cliff. It's pretty obvious from here but I'll point our further landmarks. As a rule of thumb, simply stay about 250 feet below the ridge on your left as you hike south.

- Intermittent orange/yellow flagging and cairns will help you over the easiest stream crossings and avoid (most) deep muddy spots.

- You essentially wander along logging roads, clearings, and stream beds. When in doubt, stay left. On the way back, when in doubt, stay right through this section.

- After passing through a few narrows you are basically hiking along a stream for the last 10 minutes. If you hit this stream you're on the money and close to the cliff. You'll end up on the west ridge of the cliff nearest the historic routes of the '80s and '90s.

Updated Oct 2019