Climbing in Devil's Postpile National Monument?

I don't see a crag on mountain project, it would be near (north of, I believe) bear crag in the Mammoth Lakes area.

It looks like it might have some sweet single pitch splitter cracks a la Trout Creek in Oregon.

Has it been neglected because of the swaths of climbable rock near Mammoth? Something else? Maybe legality? Not sure if anybody knows or has a good guess why.

Illegal/prohibited

That's a bummer. Is it just illegal to place anchors? Or to climb on in general? Is it because it's a "national monument"?

It's a bummer because most hikers talk about how cool the "climb to the top" is. Seems bizarre to allow scrambling but not placing cams.

Imagine how shitty it would look with chalk all over it.

Before it became a national park, the Pinnacles in California was a national monument (as was Joshua Tree). It is a popular climbing area with plenty of fixed anchors.

So I don't think the national monument status, alone, would affect climbability.

Edit: I don't see anything on the Devil's Postpile website about climbing, including whether it's legal or prohibited. Looking at the photos of all the rubble at the base, it may not be as solid as it appears (or doesn't appear!)

powderfinger wrote:

Imagine how shitty it would look with chalk all over it.

I'm definitely a believer that chalk has a greater impact than bolts. Which is severely unfortunate.

Illegal or not, it's not very accessible right now unless you have a snow mobile or X country skis and are up for a 7-8 mile (one way) approach. 

Michael Fairhurst wrote:

That's a bummer. Is it just illegal to place anchors? Or to climb on in general? Is it because it's a "national monument"?

It's a bummer because most hikers talk about how cool the "climb to the top" is. Seems bizarre to allow scrambling but not placing cams.

None of your 11 pages of ticks seem to be anywhere in Mammoth Lakes or the greater Mammoth area, so unless you have a secret Mammoth tick list or climbed there extensively before you joined MP, I'm unsure what experience leads you to think the lack of ability to climb on Devil's Postpile is a bummer.  I've been climbing in that area for 40 years and I still do wonderful routes, new to me every time I go there. I enjoy basalt cracks myself, but I can assure you I feel no desire of any kind to climb on Devil's Postpile. There is a ton of climbing of every imaginable grade on multiple kinds of rock within a 25 mile radius of Mammoth.  Devil's Postpile is visually quite wonderful and it's a delight to see the visitors enjoying it.  I would really hate to see climbers on it.  Thank God it's protected and that's never gonna happen.

Phylp #1!!!!^

Thanks everyone.

I was able to get an answer from the NPS on this in spite of the Devil's Postpile office being closed. It's listed on their website under "superintendent's compendium."

Devils Postpile formation:

• The fallen columns, the cliff face, and the tops of the columns along the cliff face are closed to all entry and recreational use including walking, hiking, scrambling and climbing on rocks.3

3 The columnar basalt formation known as the Devils Postpile is geologically significant. Every effort is made to protect the formation from potential damage and to allow park visitors to view the formation undisturbed by other humans and to increase the probability of a safe experience. The formation is subject to dramatic seismic and cumulative erosion events when columns may topple posing a significant risk to the visiting public climbing on or near the formation.

In terms of the National Monument status, the parks service person I talked to said that that is merely a designation of what the resource is; legally all of them are treated the same. However, each park has its own set of rules based on geology and usage etc (designation does not affect this ruleset).

At least the scramblers aren't receiving special treatment -- it seems, they're merely breaking the rules.

None of your 11 pages of ticks seem to be anywhere in Mammoth Lakes or the greater Mammoth area, so unless you have a secret Mammoth tick list or climbed there extensively before you joined MP, I'm unsure what experience leads you to think the lack of ability to climb on Devil's Postpile is a bummer.  I've been climbing in that area for 40 years and I still do wonderful routes, new to me every time I go there. I enjoy basalt cracks myself, but I can assure you I feel no desire of any kind to climb on Devil's Postpile. There is a ton of climbing of every imaginable grade on multiple kinds of rock within a 25 mile radius of Mammoth.  Devil's Postpile is visually quite wonderful and it's a delight to see the visitors enjoying it.  I would really hate to see climbers on it.  Thank God it's protected and that's never gonna happen.

I take your point and I'm glad you said this. I am going purely off of the _idea_ that it _might_ have a Supercrack of its own, and how sad it would be if Supercrack was illegal to climb. But supercrack buttress is a very very different natural resource than Devil's Postpile and I know nothing of the other basalt crack climbing in the Mammoth Lakes area.

Cheers!