North Idaho Climbing Guides

Planning a move to Coeur d'Alene. Which guides do i need?

Marty Bland's Inland Northwest Rock Climbs is the only guidebook you really need for local crags. There is also a guide book for just Post Falls (Q'Emiln Park) put out by the Kootenai Klimbers called
"Northwest Passage". It has a few newer climbs not included in Marty's guide, but in my opinion the egregious grade inflation makes it not worth purchasing. Avoid buying "Spokane Rock Climbs". It is totally outdated and gives some false and misleading info. Some of the newer crags like McLellan are covered in pretty decent detail on MP. When are you moving to Cd'A?

Thanks Scott. My girlfriend is will be finishing nursing school in a year and Coeur d'Alene is at the top of her list. Just looking into how much developed climbing and climbable rock is in the area, it could only be better than where I live now on the plains.

There are a dozen climbing areas close enough for an easy day trip from Couer d'Alene. You'll probably want to start out at Q'emiln Park (Post Falls) because it's close by (10 min.) and has lots of climbing, however only a couple are harder than 11c. For 12+ you'll want to hit Deep Creek and Dishman- look these up in the Spokane Area section. You'll also be within easy road trip distance of Cascades (3+ hrs), Bugaboos (6 hrs), and the Tetons (8 hrs.)
Oh yeah, Squamish, Skaha, and City of Rocks are also reasonably close. I'd be happy to show you around when you get here- just email me at coldiron12@yahoo.com

Agreed. Q'emiln Park and Deep Creek are nice crags, and close. There is a new guidebook out with better topo than Marty Bland's book(which is out of print). I think it is called A Climber's Guide to North Idaho. They cover slightly different areas so I have both of them. Vantage (Frenchman's Coulee) and Leavenworth are only 3 hours away and awesome crags. Check out "Frenchman Coulee" and "Leavenworth Rock". Vantage is great winter climbing.

We serendipitously found a few sport routes and neighboring top ropes with bolt anchors, along the road to the Grove of the Ancients. No 5.12d, more likely 5.10s. A little too close to the road. We didn't get roped up because the August dust from passing cars was awful. From the west side of Priest Lake, the Sullivan Lake Road crosses a pass on the way to Metaline Falls, Washington.

Q'emiln Park Guidebook -- climbing grades.
Did you read the lengthy explanation in the local guidebook about how the ratings work? The graded lists usually take care of individual differences. The general idea is to provide safe, ego-free, info to visitors.
You can always make constructive suggestions to the new editors. Or you can simply minus a grade for your personal use........

You'll want Tieton River Rocks. Rocks of Sharon is close and MP does a good enough job with the parts of that not well covered by Bland's book. Spring Mountain in E. Oregon is worth the treck as are Stone Hill Montana, Index, Hell's Canyon, Riggins, and Mt. Gimli. I think that there is a PDF guide to Mcllelan floating around somewhere. It is a nice change from Deep Creek and Post Falls.

I took my 10 year old son to Post Falls a few summers back while heading to ride the coasters at Silverwood. Nice area, corridors of rock, like the access, will go back for sure next time there. Minnehaha......all i can say is haha.

To piggyback off this thread, I will be looking for partners in the area for about the next month. How easy is it to find partners in northern Idaho? Also if anyone wants to climb when I'm in the area, let me know.

My original post about the new Post Falls (sorry!) online guide may have vanished.

Heres the link again: postfallsidaho.org/prparks.…

Theres phone coverage in most areas of the park so you can browse as you go.........

My original post about the new Post Falls (sorry!) online guide seems to have vanished???

Heres the link: postfallsidaho.org/prparks.…

You can get phone coverage in most areas of Q'emiln Park so you can browse as you go.........