The VC climbing guidebook

Hello,

I willplan on climbing in the VC the last week of July. Are there any guidebooks preferred? I saw one on Amazon by Mike C and wanted know if that was the best available.

As of now that is the only guidebook available. mp.com is also a great source. the canyon is very easy to navigate and once you get down into it, it's basically left side and right side. nevertheless the SD limestone guidebook is great to have if you plan on checking out the other great limestone offerings of SD. check it out, youtube.com/watch?v=SC0Rjzs… .

Thanks guys I appreciate the feedback. I will probably get the book because I also want to ck out spearfish. I heard the VC requires 4x4 high clearance. I that true??

Nah. You can't park that close anymore. Used to be you could drive right to the saddle where you hike down and definitely wanted a high clearance vehicle for that but now you can't get that close - they closed that part of the road. Maybe a low rider isn't a good idea but a car would be fine unless it's super muddy or something.

nice! we are flying and leaving the lolo's at home. Cant wait to get out there, it looks like our local crag kind of.

Watch out for the poison ivy. I don't know if I came in contact with it at the VC or Spearfish. I tried to be hyper vigilant. My body reacted with such a strong inflammatory response that after a week of suffering and without improvement I went to the dermatologist. Shot in the ass and a weeks worth of meds.

Thanks Jen, I hope we don't run into that!! It would still suck ass to wrestle with the ivy but at least I am in the right line of work for treatment.

I think the mountain project pinned location for the VC is wrong. The pin is on private property.

Currently (May 11, 2015), its pinned at 44.03983, -103.33312

I'm not positive on this. I might try to get in there this weekend to find out for sure if it isnt too muddy. I think it should be more like:

44° 2.401'N, 103° 20.883'W

Which is about a mile to the west.

One other note, I havent been in there for 10 years even tho I live real close. Too much poison ivy for me. However I used to go mountain biking back there quite often and unless the road has been greatly improved, I couldnt get back there without a 4x4. And even with a 4x4, I recall some mud holes got kinda deep.

I was trying to get back there today and the gate off norsemen says no motorized vehicles.
I was wondering if this is a fluke or if it really is closed.
I would rather not walk the 3.7 miles to get back there lol
and if it is closed are there any other trails that would get you back there?

The forest service keeps the gate closed in the spring until the weather dries out. I'm guessing the gate wont open until mid June.

However, the road is probably so damned muddy, that it would be a total slop fest getting in. Plus you might need waders or a boat to get to the bottom of the routes. With all this rain, Victoria creek can change from a trickle to a raging torrent in no time.

Also you might notice the atv folks have added their own little gate off to the side. Really the forest service's attempt to lock the gate is a joke, because there are several other roads to get in "if" you have an atv.