Lumpy Ridge CLIMBING
Dates: 2018(x4 days), 2019(x3 days), 2020(x9 days), 2021(x19 days), 2022(x14 days), 2023(x15 days), 2024(x3 days)Partners: George Foster, Dow Williams, Brad Mering, Nate Arganbright, Michael Cantrell, Jon Oulton, Will Starks, Cassie Vendegna, Shawn May, Scott Kimball, Erika Bannon
My Lumpy Ridge Mini Online Guidebook
Lumpy Ridge is a long spine of 500-foot tall lumps of granite, situated in a sublime setting in the northeastern sector of Rocky Mountain National Park on the outskirts of Estes Park. Hundreds of routes ascend the lumps, on excellent rock composed of incut edges, knobs, crystals, and cracks. The faces are about 70°, so climbing often involves trusting the feet just as much as the arms. The gear can be a bit thoughtful at times, so it is a good place to test your trad game. Lumpy Ridge is south-facing, making it a hot summer crag but perfect place to spend a sunny spring, fall, or even winter day. It is also a good option when the weather is a bit iffy for a committing climb in the central region of RMNP.
I first climbed at Lumpy Ridge in the summer of 2018, on a climbing road trip to Colorado. At the time I lived in Washington and expected the few climbs I did at Lumpy during this trip would be the extent of my climbing there. But in 2019 I moved to Boulder, Colorado, and in 2023, I moved to Estes Park. The Lumpy Ridge trailhead is a mere 5 minutes from my doorstep and I can see Twin Owls from my driveway. Lumpy Ridge has become one of my favorite and closest places to climb. As a result, this page exploded into containing nearly 100 trip reports and overlays for all of the major formations. So I reorganized this page into subpages for each formation. The result is a mini online guidebook of sorts.
(Even with all of the beta and overlays online—my website as well as even more extensive route list on mountainproject—I would still advise getting a guidebook. I personally prefer Bernard Gilette's Rocky Mountain National Park: Estes Park Valley: The Climber's Guide and Richard Rossiter's Rock Climbing Rocky Mountain National Park: The Crag Areas.)
SEASONAL RAPTOR CLOSURES:
Seasonal raptor closures are in effect at Lumpy Ridge, usually March 1 to July 31, although sometimes the closure is lifted early if no raptors are detected nesting on the walls. Not all of the formations are closed for bird nesting. An updated list is on the NPS website.
Table of Contents for this page
Trip Reports by Formation / Route Overlays
Below are links to the pages which contain all of my trip reports for the respective formation(s), as well as overlays I've made for each formation. The formations and routes are organized west to east, i.e. left to right, i.e. furthest from the trailhead to closest to the trailhead.
Thunder Buttress
Sunshine Buttress
Observatory Dome
The Pear
The Citadel
Lightning Rock
Checkerboard Rock
Batman Pinnacle
Batman Rock
Christmas Crag
Little Twin Owls
Panoramas
(Click images to open larger image files.)
(Click image to open larger image file.)
Complete List of Climbs I've Done at Lumpy Ridge
Here is a complete list of climbs I've done at Lumpy Ridge. There are trip reports/photos for almost all of these.
Days I've Climbed at Lumpy RIdge
Although mid summer can be hot in the sun and winter can be cold, snowy, and windy, it is possible to have stellar days of climbing at Lumpy at all times of the year. The following table lists all of the days I've climbed at Lumpy.
Lumpy Ridge - spectacular in every season
