All Locations > Wyoming > Wind River Range

Scab Creek Buttress Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map This is our best guess at this area's location.
Fix Location

Routes in Scab Creek Buttress

L › R R › L A › Z

	Dry Fly T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Photo Finish T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b

Order Wrong? Sort Routes

Explore this area in 3D

Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Elevation:	8,000 ft
GPS:	42.7551, -109.204 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	3,709 total · 32/month
Shared By:	Andrew Carson on Nov 27, 2014
Admins:	Mike Snyder, Taylor Spiegelberg, Jake Dickerson Page Updates (admin only)

See Weather Forecast

Description

This appealing formation offers a good variety of route difficulty on excellent rock. Oriented mostly to the west and north, the amount of sun will largely depend on that fact and the time of year of your visit. Routes up to three pitches are available, and though it's a quality destination you're unlikely to see others. This may change. An extremely useful tool for full appreciation of the crag is Wesley Gooch's guide, Rock Climbing Jackson Hole and Pinedale, Wyoming. Along with whatever may be added to this entry, Wesley's book should be in every climber's pack for a great visit.

Getting There

SCB is located low in the hills of the west side of the range, south of Pinedale. Get yourself to Boulder, WY and take State Rt.353, the same road you'd use to get to Big Sandy. After roughly 6 miles you'll find the left turn onto the Scab Creek Trailhead road. Follow this good dirt road to its end, where you'll find corrals and parking for a variety of users, and also two campgrounds. The first, newer one, has pleasant camping and see little use. For approaching the buttress, continue to the end of the road and the second, older campground. Just before reaching this c.g., you'll see an old two-track heading into the woods on the left. There is an informational sign a short distance off the road, and this two-track quickly deteriorates into a decent trail.
Park and take this two-track. Follow it a short distance to an unappealing pond, or small lake, and continue along the west shore. From the end of the lake, the trail starts downhill and becomes rockier. In a few hundred yards look for another climber's trail taking off downhill to the left.
Take this trail, which quickly becomes faint and indistinct, but continues through the woods. Again, in a short while, perhaps a few hundred yards, another, even fainter trail splits left. It's marked with and ungulate femur and tibia, since the right track is definitely more visible.
Take the femur cut-off and do your best to follow this trail. Sometimes obvious and unmistakeable, sometimes almost invisible, this path will lead across the drainage towards a small 'pass' in the ragged broken cliffs bounding the drainage on the south. From the end of the aforementioned lake, one can scan that far cliffband and identify this little low spot, or pass. Once in the woods, it's not so easy. A topo map or the map in Wesley's book would be helpful.
Continue along this ever-changing trail, go up and through the pass and persist up and left and soon enough the buttress will come into view. Another ten minutes will bring you to the base of the rock.
Even with unfortunate route choices on the way in, or loss of the trail, it won't take more than an hour and half to reach the buttress. If all goes well, it will be half that time. Coming out it's easier to follow. The approach is not a big deal, but it wouldn't be hard to end up wandering on your first visit. We did....