Indian Creek Boulders Climbing

Indian Canyon is the major drainage which separates the Arrowhead Arete and Castle Cliffs (to the west) from the Rhombus Wall and Lehamite Buttress (to the east). In a wet Spring, the creek runs in force and adds to the ambiance, but can also flood the starts to a few of the boulders. Most of the year the creek bed is dry. The boulders are located just a short ways above the Valley Loop Trail on either side of the creek. The area attracts few climbers and even fewer tourists so it's a great place to find some solitude. This is also a great spot during the dead of winter. Due to being slightly elevated off the valley floor, on a south facing slope, it receives more direct sunlight and is probably the first bouldering spot in the Valley proper to dry out after a January snow storm. I've seen the area completely snow-free and climbable while Camp 4 and the Ahwahnee boulders were still buried under a foot of powder.

The boulders here aren't very concentrated like they are in Camp 4, but there's a handful of classic problems lying around and enough one and two star problems to fill out a full day of bouldering. Due to the lack of traffic there's some moss and lichen in places, but the texture of the rock also hasn't been worn off so you can actually stick to the footholds. The vast majority of the problems lie at the low end of the difficulty scale but there are also a few V-hard testpieces and projects.

The best concentration of problems is in the vicinity of the Medicine Man. The Medicine Man itself offers several heart-pounding highballs on nicely featured vertical rock. Just 100 ft to the east of that is the Matterhorn, which has a handful of excellent steep 'V0' jug hauls. And just a few paces further east and facing the Matterhorn is a cave formed by a couple boulders which has a few more easy and moderate classics.

It's also worth stopping at the Free Clinic for The Cool Long Warm-Up (VB) and a great V6 up the mossy face on the backside.