Post fire closures near Tahoe/Lovers Leap?

Hey all-

I’m an arborist working in the aftermath of the Caldor fire and I’m going to be stationed in Placerville. Considering bringing out a rack/harness/shoes to climb on Sundays.

What is accessible right now? Is there sunny side climbing that’s good in winter and outside any closed areas? Anyone want to partner up?

A small area near Placerville called Bucks Bar is worth a check out. Its more of a top rope area up to 30 feet tall or so, but good sunny granite and an easy afternoon from Placerville. No fire impact there at all.

Sugarloaf is open (didn't burn) and faces south. People have been climbing there this past week or so, so it's presumably climbable with regards to snow. Follow loversleapguides on Instagram; his Stories are a good way to get conditions info since he's up there constantly. 

Stuff further up the hill on 50 will be under a lot of snow currently, and much of it is also closed due to fires.

Recommendation for Bucks Bar (Cosumnes Gorge) is good. No snow, no fire impacts, very close to Placerville.

Auburn Quarry is open and low elevation.

You can also drive down to Sonora (basalt sport) or Columbia (bouldering) for other winter options.

Mosquito coast is alright, right next to placerville as well as the river, more next to the river than cosumnes. Only climbed there once so I can't speak completely about it. 

Cosumnes river gorge is banger some really good routes there between 20-40ft along with with the 400ft wall across the river. Mostly top rope but can also be lead on a lot of the routes. Dinkum 5.9 is probably the best route in the whole gorge. 

Sugarloaf is a bit up the road from pville. Has some amazing routes in all ranges of difficulty. Currently has snow on the trail but obviously with the weather lately its decreasing day by day. Check loversleapguide Instagram for fairly current info. 

Cant really recommend auburn for the longer approach but then again I've never been there cause I'm a fiend for granite. 

All these are sunny side except for auburn and are all open

Anyone know if Mosquito Coast is climbable right now? From the USGS data I could find it looks like the South Fork in January is usually not too high. However there's the exception of January 2017, and with the December of snowfall Tahoe just had I could see conditions being similar to what they were then...

Wilder Boydenwrote:

Anyone know if Mosquito Coast is climbable right now? From the USGS data I could find it looks like the South Fork in January is usually not too high. However there's the exception of January 2017, and with the December of snowfall Tahoe just had I could see conditions being similar to what they were then...

I can't speak specifically for Mosquito Coast; I haven't been there and don't know if/what flows are an issue there. But in general, rivers aren't notably high right now. There was a rise in flows from the storms in late December, but that has largely receded back to seasonal baseflow. It's not super low anymore like it was in September, but it's nothing like the big flood conditions of 2017. Most of the water from the December storms is locked up in snow, and isn't in the river.

Second on Cosumnes River Gorge and Sugarloaf. This is what CRG looked like just last weekend:

The wall across the river (depicted) is still seeping, but plenty of dry options on this side of the river, where the majority of people climb. 

Tatiana APDwrote:

Second on Cosumnes River Gorge and Sugarloaf. This is what CRG looked like just last weekend:

The wall across the river (depicted) is still seeping, but plenty of dry options on this side of the river, where the majority of people climb. 

Gutenberger is dry, climbed lichen and direct a few days ago. The first pitch up to GCBS has some mossy spots that seep water in the early morning till about 10am. 

Jacob Gormanwrote:

Gutenberger is dry, climbed lichen and direct a few days ago. The first pitch up to GCBS has some mossy spots that seep water in the early morning till about 10am. 

Sweet, good to know!

I would love to go get on Gutenberger Direct (5.7, 4 pitches) in CRG.  LMK if anyone is down (have rope + double-rack, etc).  

Andy Forquerwrote:

I would love to go get on Gutenberger Direct (5.7, 4 pitches) in CRG.  LMK if anyone is down (have rope + double-rack, etc).  

DM sent. Looking for a partner for Sat or Sun.

We were hoping to head to lovers leap this summer to climb.  Will it be open by then or likely not?

Brett Millardwrote:

We were hoping to head to lovers leap this summer to climb.  Will it be open by then or likely not?

Opening date still unknown.  Latest news:  https://norcalcrags.org/2022/03/caldor-fire-update-lovers-leap/

Here's the new Eldorado closure: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1008718.pdf

It looks like the leap is open, but I'm not sure what the 42 milestone day use area means, and it's strange that pyramid creek trail is closed but leap would be open considering the burn area.

Edit: sounds like 42 milestone is a single picnic table. Maybe it burned...? 

https://norcalcrags.org/2022/03/caldor-fire-update-lovers-leap/

Tatiana APDwrote:

https://norcalcrags.org/2022/03/caldor-fire-update-lovers-leap/

It'd be helpful if the authors of this included a date of publication....

42 Milestone is closed but it looks like that is NOT part of Lover's Leap. Just a mile or two West. We are checking it out on Monday. The campground is closed until May. I called the Pacific Ranger and the El Do forest sup and they were pretty clueless about Lover's Leap - which seemed strange. 

If anyone has any intel, please advise!

Jacob Gormanwrote:

Gutenberger is dry, climbed lichen and direct a few days ago. The first pitch up to GCBS has some mossy spots that seep water in the early morning till about 10am. 

Be careful if you scramble the right side of GC. I got a WICKED case of poison oak last year from that spot!

Potentially very good news....just spoke to the operators of the General Store right across the street from Lover's Leap. Yes, it is open for climbing!!

We are going to hit it tomorrow morning and I will verify this in person. 

SEND IT!!!!

More conditions reports for the Leap:

https://www.instagram.com/norcalcrags/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb5OuMFLNkM/