Excellent granite climbing in the alpine zone.
From slabs to steep cracks and faces the cliffs here are varied and delightful. 100 foot walls that climb like cathedral ledge but with zero crowd and no traffic noise. Superb.
Well worth a day trip if you don't mind a little over an hour hike in. It is a perfect place to do a weekend with some back country climbing.
This area is accessed from the Mt Osceola trail off of Tripoli Rd. Hike the standard trail for roughly 2 miles. Around that spot there is a hard left hand turn where you step up onto a granite ledge. At this turn you will want to turn right into the woods on a faint path. maybe 50 feet off trhe trail you will find a back country camp site with a short (3 feet) rock wall. Scamper over the short wall and off into the woods. The trail starts faint but becomes well worn as you go. This winds through the forest for 5-10 minutes until you find yourself looking at the main wall.
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Lebanon, NH
Hooksett, New Hampshire
A couple of notes on directions:
-We found it just fine, but if you aren't paying attention you could definitely miss it. The key is to keep your eyes out for both the hard left turn and the step up on the piece of granite slab. There were a couple of other hard left turns on the way up that might confuse someone, but neither had the step up onto a granite slab after the corner as described. At this point there is a downed tree across the side trail which is easy to step over. It was at about 2.25 miles. As long as you don't miss the turnoff, you'll find the crag using the directions in the description without much trouble. If you get to the point of the trail where youre hiking across long solid granite slabs that are sloping downwards at a pretty steep uncomfortable angle to hiker's right, you've gone a bit too far.
-Once you're on the bushwhack trail, you will follow it for 5+ minutes before you come to a trail split. Continuing straight brings you to the main area within a minute. Taking the left trail brings you to the base of a cliff, which you can follow left for a minute or two to the solid granite of the Left End Slabs. That left trail along the cliff base has been overtaken by ferns and is not obvious at all anymore. Jul 24, 2022
Plymouth, NH; Lander, WY
-With climbing packs, plan on an hour +/- 15 minutes from the parking lot.
-There's a stream that runs between the big slab on the left and the main cliff on the right, so you can get water up there. I filter the water due to the fact that there's hiker traffic above. Even after filtering, the water is a brown color, kind of like apple juice. It must be the iron content. I've been drinking it for years and I'm fine(ish).
-10 draws, some nuts, and a single set of cams and a 60m rope should suffice for all routes. Most routes have modern bolted ring lower offs. Bring a #5 and maybe a #6 Camalot if you're going for Bovine Song.
-You can count on the cliff to be ~10 degrees cooler than the parking lot because of the elevation. Sep 23, 2023