Intro

Below: The two routes we climbed on this trip (pink and red). This overlay also shows the five routes I climbed on my 2016 trip to Deep Lake, shown in light yellow.

Ever since my 2016 trip to Deep Lake (where my partner and I climbed five routes in five days) I had made a note to return to Deep Lake. Five years later, when my partner Nate and I were looking for a break from the crowds and regulations of our backyard Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided to embark on a 10-day climbing road trip beginning in the Black Hills Needles of South Dakota and continuing through few climbing areas in Wyoming. Deep Lake was our last stop. Nate had never been there before.

We climbed two routes on Haystack on this trip. Neither route was what I would call an area classic, and the climbing was a bit too moderate to make the climbs too memorable. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these two climbs simply because it is enjoyable to climb on sunny Wind River granite. Any day out in the mountains is a good day!

We also enjoyed two evenings hanging out at camp in a pleasant grove of trees between Clear Lake and Deep Lake and exploring the surrounding area. It is a spectacular area to hang out for a couple of days. It was a rare summer where there were no bugs in the Winds (the bugs had apparently arrived in late May and never returned), and this fact combined with the warm summer temperatures made for a very comfortable trip.

The following page gives photos for the trip.

This climb follows a pair of cracks diagonalling right from the base of the Grassy Goat Trail. Although a bit vegetated and largely easy at the grade, the route it has its moments of good climbing and is a decent choice for those looking for a moderate day on the rock with straightforward route finding.

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

3rd

Hike up the grassy slopes to the base of the Grassy Goat Trail roughly in the center of the west face of Haystack. The route starts just off the trail.

(see photos from Grassy Crack climb below, which shares a similar approach)

Pitch 1

5.2, ~260'

Climb up a slabby crack to the parallel cracks, ending just above a small pine. This is a long pitch (some simulclimbing) if you belay at the base of the slab.

Pitch 2

5.8, ~150'

Climb up the crack system. Find a reasonable belay stance.

Pitch 3

5.6, ~120'

Continue up the crack system. There is a nice ledge below some blocks that makes a nice belay.

Pitch 4

5.8, ~150'

Climb up past a pair of blocks, taking the left-hand crack above. This pitch ends at a nice stance.

Pitch 5

5.8, ~120'

Continue up to a nice ledge. We may have set a low belay on Pitch 4, since our Pitch 5 had some 5.8-ish moves while the Pitch 5 in the guidebook is listed as 5.3.

Pitch 6

5.easy, ~300'

Climb up on increasingly low-angled ground. We did some simulclimbing on this pitch to get to where the 5th class was clearly over.

Descent

3rd/4th

Grassy Goat Trail.

(more photos from the Grassy Goat Trail descent can be found in the Grassy Crack trip report below)

This route climbs the obvious chimney system that extends up the entire wall just left of the Central Corner route. This route is pretty cool, as the chimney is about 4-feet wide throughout the route, and is actually created by a dike that cuts through the entire mountain. The edges of the chimney are quite featured and take good gear, so much of the climbing can be done by stemming the outer walls of the chimney. Nate and I agreed that the name "Grassy Crack" doesn't represent anything about the route (it's not grassy, and it's not a crack); in interest of keeping with the theme of naming after a feature, perhaps a better route name would have been "Black Dike". But whoever did the FA gets to name it I suppose, so Grassy Crack it is!

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

3rd or ~5.6

Hike up the grassy slopes under the center of the west face of Haystack. There are a couple of ways (3rd or ~5.6) to surmount the slabs below the start of the route (see overlay).

Pitch 1

5.6/5.7, ~300'

Climb a right-angling crack system leading to the base of the chimney. This is a long pitch that involves some simulclimbing or can be broken up into two pitches.

Pitch 2

5.6/5.7, ~150'

Climb up the chimney. The chimney is rather shallow here, so the climbing is a mix of stair-steppy dark dike rock at the back of the chimney and climbing the cracks on the edge of the chimney. There is a nice belay spot after about 150 feet.

Pitch 3

5.6/5.7, ~150'

Continue up the chimney and finish up a right-facing corner system which leads to a comfortable grassy ledge. Much of the chimney climbing can be done by stemming the features on the outside of the chimney.

Pitch 4

5.6/5.7, ~190'

Continue up the chimney. At one point the chimney gets quite deep with a roof overhead, and the exit from this part involves climbing cracks on the left wall of the chimney and doing a fun stem move out past the lip. This is probably the crux pitch but also the most fun. Set a belay on a nice ledge shortly after this section.

Pitch 5

5.easy, ~180'

Finish off the chimney and climb easy rock to where the 5th class ends.

Descent

3rd/4th

Grassy Goat Trail.

We arrived at Big Sandy Opening Trailhead in the evening, and were lucky enough to nab one of the three sites at the campground just beside the trailhead. The next morning we nabbed a parking spot in the ever-crowded parking lot (cars were parked far down the road as usual in the summer), packed up, hiked in, and set up camp in a pleasant flat spot in a grove between Clear Lake and Deep Lake (an efficient spot for climbing Haystack, since both the approach and the Grassy Goat Trail descent start and end in this area).

The following photos are random photos from the approach, hanging out around camp, and exploring around the area between climbs. It is a spectacular area to hang out for a couple of days.