Lost River Range Exploration

Parking area. Yes, those boulders are HUGE.

Warming up on something easy.

Yesterday I needed a solo day to get away from people and just be outside so I recruited Izzy to accompany me to scope out some boulders my friend Marc had told me about.

Located near Darlington, north of Arco, these boulders are somewhat visible from the road. However, it's not until you reach the parking area for them that the size of these blocs becomes apparent – some of them are HUGE.

The blocs range from 3 move problems to 35' sketch-fests. The landings on a lot of the boulders need to have some work done to them to make them safe.

Total poser shot.

Too chicken to commit after this move due to back breaking landing.
Great potential on this bloc though.

Stick clip is about 4' tall, fyi.

If this thing were at Red Rocks, it'd have bolts on it.
It's about 25'-35' tall with bad landings.

From what I can tell, not a lot of people have been out there yet but I did find chalk on a few problems. Pretty fun stuff. I also did a few fresh looking problems (no signs of being climbed before) and had fun trashing my tips. The stone is SHARP!

I tried an insane (for me anyway) line on this and didn't get very far.

Seeking shade and a sane landing zone on "3 the Hard Way".

This fun V0 had chalk on it, shade and a good landing.

Kick ass problem in the middle that kicked my ass.

I walked away from the bouldering thinking that it was pretty decent but it needs to have a lot of work done at the bases of many of the blocs and cleaning of holds, mainly to de-tune the sharp holds (is that legit in bouldering?) and break off loose holds that you don't want snapping off on you when you're cruxing 15' off the deck.

Next it was on to Little Burnettt Canyon to scope more stone…this time for sport climbing though. There's a cliff band in the canyon that is as long as the Main Wall at Sinks Canyon, about 80' tall and kick ass angles BUT...you guessed it, choss-a-rama.

Picture of said choss. Nice angles and length but…

Izzydog keeping an eye on things.

It's kind of a bummer that this area of Idaho has so much limestone but a lot of it is not worthy for climbing. My friends Marc and Dean can attest to the low percentage rate of success one achieves when out scouting for new stone to climb in south/east Idaho. But, that's not to say there isn't more good limestone out there – you just gotta keep an open mind go explore some more.

Edit: A couple of things for those about to rock:

1. to reach the parking area you need a high clearance vehicle, 4WD doesn't hurt either. without high clearance you'll have to walk the last 1/4 mi. uphill to reach parking area, then the boulders are only a few hudred yards uphill.

2. hot. when I was there yesterday, the temp in the valley was only 68˚ but in the sun up at the boulders, it was hot.

3. bad landings. really, the place needs some serious work to make safe landings.

4. the place is pretty cool, but it's no Joe's. still has the potential to be legit though.