Newhalem remains a little known gem within the abundance of Washington crags. Still in it's infancy, the surrounding area holds huge potential for further development. The rock is a gneiss (metamorphosed granitic rock) that is both solid and beautiful, offering quality aesthetic lines of 5.9 through 5.13 in difficulty.
Getting There
The town of Newhalem is located on Highway 20, just west of the Diablo dam. Crags are distributed through the surrounding area of the town proper.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Newhalem:
Park on the South side of Hwy20, at the East end of "town". Walk along hwy 20 for ~150yrds to a trail on the left, which leads to the wall in about 30 seconds.
Thanks to the years of effort of the Access Fund, the Washington Climbers Coalition and the great National Park Service staff, Newhalem is once again open for new routes!! The above parties in conjunction with the Vertical World climbing team, the Wilderness Society and the Washington Trails Association just built a new trail to a new mega cliff just down the road. Walk down and check it out and bring your new-routing mojo! There is a decade's worth of potential in this gorge and years of new routes on the new cliff alone!
Also, the late, great badass and all-around great friend Ryan Triplett put up a bunch of new-school hard classics at the main Newhalem cliff ("Newhalem West"). Check 'em out! I'll try to post route info...
Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!
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