Climbing near Medford, OR

I’m moving to Medford for 3 months for a medical school rotation and am curious about climbing in the area. Looks like there is a gym in Medford (closed due to COVID) and some great looking smaller crags nearby. Any way to get linked up with the community down there? Also wondering if there was any good bouldering spots as well to go to solo?

I’d suggest snagging the book, “Oregon Rock Climbing, Volume 3 The Rogue”. Bunch of quality climbing around Medford. 

The Honeycombs is a great sport area but was recently burned over so I am unsure of access atm; there are other hidden gems in the North Umpqua that the mentioned guide book will guide you towards. Best bet for up to date beta is probably to contact the southwest Oregon climbers coalition. 

There's a small but very dedicated climbing community here in Southern Oregon.  Arguably, the epicenter is the currently closed (due to statewide Covid restrictrictions) Rogue Rock Gym in Medford owned by Matt Lambert.  Their facebook page is gym-centric, but includes postings from the community about local beta, conditions, and access.  Another local facebook page is run by Jefferson State Climbers.  The local Access Fund-associated advocacy group is the Southwest Oregon Climbers Coalition.  In Ashland, there's also a dedicated community surrounding the Southern Oregon University Outdoor Leadership program.  We're all hoping that Covid flattens out and the RR gym can open up again for winter training.

There are widely scattered volcanic crags found in the mountains of Southern Oregon.  Some are pretty excellent, some not so much.  All are chossy and mossy, but get cleaned up each summer with traffic.  There are cliffs and pinnacles hidden in the local forests awaiting first ascents to those intrepid enough to search.  Some of the better-developed local crags are closed January 1st through July 31st for Peregrine Falcon nesting and the locals are diligent about adhering to these rules.  Generally all the developed climbing is protected by bolts as the rock is often too soft for confidence-inspiring trad placements.  The one local crag that remains open year round is "Rattlesnake," found in the Orton book, about a 50 minute drive from Medford. Winter snows can make road access challenging. There's a small crag near Ashland, "Greensprings," on columnar basalt.  It could use some retro-bolting love, but it's a great place to practice for your trip to Devils Tower.  Also near Ashland is a small crag on the waterline of Emigrant Lake.  (Side note:  If a wall is called the "Poison Oak Wall" - heed the warning.) Honeycombs, near Roseburg, has some well-bolted moderates but, as mentioned up-post, has been closed due to fire damage.  It's on a private timber reserve and has occasional access issues. The MP page for Honeycombs is very up to date.  Acker Rock, in Umpqua National Forest, has the amazing "Peregrine Traverse," one of the longest and most scenic routes in Oregon.  To avoid the heat and smoke of summer, the Redwood Coast south of Crescent City has some fun climbing overlooking the crashing waves on well-bolted iron-hard sandstone.  South, into California, there's Castle Crags, with its amazingly exposed multi-pitch granite "Cosmic Wall" perhaps one of the best climbs in the whole region, and steep limestone sharpness at "Lovers Leap" (not the more famous LL near Strawberry, CA.)  All in all, there's plenty to find around Southern Oregon and plenty more to be found.  Cheers mate!

LOCAL DEVELOPERS CHECK THIS OUT
I'm a local SOU ORE but have not climbed here till this year. I recently found a new potential crag near where I grew up near Butte Falls. 42°29'48.5"N 122°39'22.6"W BLM land
The routes are crimping and lots are overhung, quite a few cracks, on the shorter side, the rock might be sandstone, there's lots of moss but the S. Obenchain fire did some serious work to this area in September 2020. It burnt the moss which is still holding on but comes off easy. It also cleaned the belay area and approach trail. I'm pretty interested and would love to see this area developed. I took the first step and scouted the how area and took some photos. I also bolted top rope anchors on a tough over hung route near the water fall. My guess is 5.12a but I don't know. I'm out of shape but the moves were awesome.

This area is cool is the convergence of two creeks and one of them( Whiskey Creek) falls over the cliffs in a 30 ft falls. The approach is about 10 -15 minutes hike downhill from very end of N Obenchain Rd. It starts at the gate which blocks the road from continuing south. Check out the photos and go bolt this place people. With some cleaning this place has the potential to be a little smaller then Rattlesnake Crag but without the snakes and with lots of water from Whiskey Creek. Note the photos were taken in January 2021... a very wet time of year so you see that the crag is wet but during the summer nothing is wet around here so the rock will be dry and perfect. 

Here is the link to Google drive with MORE PHOTOS. Whiskey Creek Crag

Driving directions from Medford: https://goo.gl/maps/8GmeaqiFiAip77q9A

FYI Google will tell you to drive here from the south.... BUT its wrong.... drive from the north from Butte Falls hwy. its the only way to access this part of Obenchain Rd.

Contact me at willurd@gmail.com if you have questions or concerns or need help locating the area. 

Will Lawrence wrote:

LOCAL DEVELOPERS CHECK THIS OUT
I recently found a new potential crag near where I grew up near Butte Falls. 

Nice find!  Thanks for the approach beta.

Nice find, Will. My buddy and I have a few other spots we'll be developing this year, but that looks like a great one to check out. It looks like it's near the crags that you can see at about 2 o'clock out in the distance when driving from White City to Eagle Point, so at first I was worried it was part of the Round Top Butte Research Natural Area ( fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr8…) but looks like it's just outside that range. I'll shoot you a message about going out to check it out with you sometime.

Isaac, I live in Medford and Rattlesnake is my go-to local crag. 45-50 min from town and a good selection of climbs 5.10-5.12. The rock is bad in a lot of spots but I think the actual climbing is pretty fun. Lots of climbable days throughout the winter most years. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to check it out. 

I've also gone through phases of lots of quick trips to Smith Rock. It's about 3:15 drive time from Medford depending on the roads. And a much easier place to get random partners. 

I 2nd everything in Randy's first post above.

@ Will L. Thanks for sharing!

A correction to one of the previous posts.

Peregrine closes are only in place until 2-weeks after the young have fledged.

Fledging at Western Oregon crags typically occurs last half of June. Contrary to what's  been circulating, unless we've had a severe March-April, July 1 is a safe date to open. 

gso Orton wrote:

A correction to one of the previous posts.

Peregrine closes are only in place until 2-weeks after the young have fledged.

Fledging at SW Oregon crags typically occurs last half of June. Contrary to what's  been circulating, unless we've had a severe March-April, July 1 is a safe date to open. 

Greg, we would certainly like to see earlier openings to some of our crags!

I'm not one to dispute your considerable expertise in dealing with falcons or the various land managers in Oregon, but the closure for climbing in the Trail Creek region is listed here on the Umpqua National Forest website:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/umpqua/recreation/climbing/recarea/?recid=63866&actid=37

Specifically this:

"Climbing is prohibited from January 1 through July 31. 

Seasonal restrictions are applied to specific areas on the Umpqua National Forest for natural resource protection, including wildlife protection. These restrictions are utilized to protect certain wildlife species during their breeding cycle. Some species are very susceptible to human disturbance, and even minimal contact or entry into areas utilized for breeding can negatively impact their reproductive effort. For this reason, a seasonal restriction is applied and access into the area is prohibited. The seasonal restriction applied to an area may be lifted if the results of monitoring indicate that keeping the restriction in place is no longer necessary. Rock climbing is one of many activities with the potential to affect local natural resources. A seasonal restriction has been applied in this area to protect wildlife."

The actual mgt plans (residual from 1990s) call for closures to be lifted two weeks after the young fledge, or July 31. Additionally, the raptor mgt plan to the Menagerie calls for opening closure two weeks after fledging and "notify climbers", or July 31. The question one needs to ask is whether July 31 is statistically valid to be used as a default date to "two weeks after young fledge" in order to avoid the need for monitoring. 

 Looking at monitoring records for various climbing areas in W. OR we've found July 1 better represents a statistically legit default for two weeks after young fledge in cases were monitoring does not occur. In no way can July 31 be justified or defended as a default date. On the other hand, where monitoring is occurring closures can sometimes open even earlier than July 1.

To put this in perspective, Peregrines are currently listed as a species of "Least Concern" (IUCN) and they are no longer protected from "Incidental Take" (MBTA 1918, USDI Opinion M-37050 2017) as they were during 1970s-1990s (TSA). However, they are protected as a local "Climbing Ethic" to protect the climbing environment. With that in mind, any opening date-default applied when monitoring does not occur should necessarily be statistically supported and justified by area or nearest neighbor monitoring history. July 1, meets this requirement in your area. Therefore, extending closures beyond July 1, should necessarily be seasonally justified through monitoring.

Accepting less is to be enabling in perpetuating agency disfunction. Accepting less will mean accepting: 1) agencies both a) claiming they don't have the staff for monitoring, and b) are unwilling to work with climbing groups to obtain seasonal monitoring information; 2) agencies defaulting to a statistically arbitrary opening date when monitoring does not occur; 3) agencies mandating arbitrary closure distances without adequate verification;  4) agency overreliance on "professional opinion" without verification.

Anyone interested in SWOCC's monitoring report and Will Maness's Master's Thesis from last season at the Honeycombs where we assessed closure dates and territorial distances shoot me an email and I'll foreward it to you. Also note, the Access Fund has finalize its Raptor Management Guide to assist with managing Raptors at climbing areas.

Hi, I am moving to medford jan 10 for 3 months (travel rn) and looking for partners. Plan to do the drive to bend and rattlesnake sounds like an ok to place to climb if I have days off during the week.  I've been climbing 5.5 yrs, give a soft catch, use a gri gri.  Returning from a collateral ligament tear, climbed some 12s, backed off, climbed some 12s...I just have to gauge how much to push it.  You know how to give a soft catch use a gri gri!