NOTE: the 2021 Caldor Fire created major changes to various areas along Highway 50, and there are areas of complete devastation. Sugarloaf did not get burned (again!); fire jumped to the north side of Hwy 50 in the Kyburz area, so devastation reigned on both sides of 50, east of there. Phantom Spires area had significant burning, but editor had not been in there since the road opened up in mid-2022. There was significant burning around Echo Lake - the Chalet is fine and in operation by June (deli and ice cream pending as of mid-June). Major burning occurred at the base of Lovers Leap; the campground is open in June. Fire did not burn the Hogsback area north side. Silver Fork Rd. out of Kyburz saw major burning all up and down it. Wrights Rd has some burned areas but editor has not driven up it as far as Wrights Lake. In June, there is still a lot of repair work going on, and most of the forest roads have work crews working. All of the Pyramid Creek canyon burned (Horsetail Falls) so the territory there is vastly changed. Camp Sacramento is intact and apparently open. Sierra At Tahoe never opened in 2021 - 2022 winter and work is ongoing there
This site provides climbing updates along the Highway 50 corridor between Riverton and Strawberry. The information is about climbs and conditions that are new or changed since the last area guides were published. The editor would be glad to incorporate other developed sites within the corridor described, should the developers wish to have their areas shown online. These could include areas up Ice House Road or Wrights Road, among others. Editor would like to see the Caples Creek cliff fully developed and published, as in 2020 after the fire there, the cliffs are accessible. There are a lot of climbs there, already, and there could be many more established. Top anchors are rare and for the most part, in late 2020, ridiculous. To see the cliffs, drive up or down Silver Fork Rd. and pull into the dispersed-camping campground just north of the Fitch-Rantz Bridge, the only road crossing of the Silver Fork American River between Silver Lake and Hwy 50. Up at the end of the road, walk on the Caples trail for about 20 min until you see Caple Creek coming in from the SE. At that point, look left and up as you walk below the series of cliffs. In late 2020, brush growth was rapidly starting and it might only be a year or two before it is a significant bushwhack to get to the base and/or the top anchor area.
Editor had heard of some work being done at Milestone Tract 31 (aka Forest Road 11N38, and Weber Mill Rd.), just west of Kyburz, about ten yeas ago. Partners decided to take a gander at the place, in early 2022, and the place is quite astounding. Up and down on the mountainside, there are at least six small-hotel sized boulders, running up to about 25 meters tall. Early developers stuck to creating seriously hard routes, and the quintessential face on Boulder #3 (counting big rocks starting from the parking area) has mostly 12+/- bolgered routes. That rock also has the flagship climb of the area, a grand dihedral which goes 11 if straight up, or 10b if one traverses out left on the crack near the top. Of note, this editor disagrees with the way that some of the top anchors were placed, as one must set a higher anchor to get down to the pre-existing anchors. We'll get to fixing that situation at some point. It is worth taking a hike up there (can see all of the developed routes in 1+ hr), as there is good trail to Rocks 1, 2, & 3. When completed there will probably be around 30 routes on Rock #2 itself, ranging from 5 to 12, but mostly in the tens. Rock #2 has a very fine face, running east-west on its south side, for 40 meters, routes 20m to 30m in length. Mountain bikers did a huge amount of trail work there, so keep an ear out, as there are a couple of steep trail sections where you could get plastered if a biker flew down. Editor plans on posting some maps and photos by end of June, but/and, except for mornings and evenings, it will be too hot here to climb if it's over 90 deg. in Sacramento.
It is sincerely hoped that climbers take as little as five minutes to do a little bit of trail or road work, on their way in. A pair of lightweight loppers can do 90% of the needed trimming. In 2018, treefall remains a major problem at Sugarloaf; for instance, the fine starts to the routes on the SW face of Midway Rock are ruined by a large (30" dia.) tree that fell against the base. Treefall at the West Butt has made the base approach somewhat problematic. Brush is also overgrowing some of the other approach areas. Around the Phantom Spires, whitethorn has grown rapidly and thickly, in some cases completely overgrowing some of the trails between formations. The road into the Spires slowly worsens over time; at least get out of the car to throw off some of the larger loose rocks.
The retrieval of emails at this site is problematic and overly complicated, so a Yahoo account was established, which is shown on the "Contact Us" page.