Lost Corner Mountain Climbing

This digital Lost Corner Mountain climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Lost Corner Mountain days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

The good news about The Lost Corner Mountain circuit is once you are done bouncing up the Mckinney Rubicon, the approach to the boulders is the shortest at Sugar Pine, about 15-20 minutes to the first/main boulders. I recommend coming to the Central Circuit for starters to get your bearings. From there you can get warmed up, then put some time into exploring the surrounding hillsides. There is an amazing amount of quality problems, you just have to pay some dues figuring out how to get to them. It can sometimes be hard to navigate on this complex, steep h... Show more

This digital Lost Corner Mountain climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Lost Corner Mountain days smoother, safer, and more dialed. The good news about The Lost Corner Mountain circuit is once you are done bouncing up the Mckinney Rubicon, the approach to the boulders is the shortest at Sugar Pine, about 15-20 minutes to the first/main boulders. I recommend coming to the Central Circuit for starters to get your bearings. From there you can get warmed up, then put some time into exploring the surrounding hillsides. There is an amazing amount of quality problems, you just have to pay some dues figuring out how to get to them. It can sometimes be hard to navigate on this complex, steep hillside. But once you do it’s all so very worth it. The rock is super clean white granite with great features. Cracks, slabs, edge lines, seams, arêtes, highballs and lowballs: it’s all here with beautiful lake views to boot. During mid summer this is a great place to escape the bugs and heat. You can find shade in the AM and the entire hillside goes into the shade around 2 PM, making for nice afternoon sessions. This area sat in limbo for several years after its initial development. When I went back in the summer of 2016 for a second look it was much better than I remembered it. If you have a truck and are not afraid to use it, Lost Corner Mountain, the nearby Premium Boulders and Sugar Pine 3 through 7 should be on the top of your list this season. That is, if you like the sound of perfect boulders in a secluded setting without a soul around. DRIVING: To access this approach you will be driving on the famous Mckinney Rubicon 4WD trail. Between Homewood and Tahoma on Hwy 89 look for Mckinney Rubicon Street, which is 1.3 miles south of Obexers General Store in Homewood. There is also a sign saying “Rubicon Mckinney OHV Access” visible on the highway. Follow the signs through the residential area that lead you to the trailhead. Continue up the road until it turns to dirt and reset you odometer here. Drive for 2.4 miles and turn left just past Miller Lake. Continue for 1.5 miles, passing the parking area for Sugar Pine 3-7 and then Richardson Lake until you see a very steep road jutting up left. Park near here in a few indistinct parking spots. Do not block the main road. APPROACH: Walk up the very steep road for 5 minutes until its turns impossibly steep and rocky. Walk up the impossibly steep section for 100 yds until the road basically ends. Cut left (NE, toward Lake Tahoe) for 2 minutes until you reach the ridgline. Walk up the fairly steep ridgeline for 5 minutes until you reach the Top Terrace Boulders sitting right on the ridgeline. These boulders face the lake and they are obvious, although they will be just below you as you approach. From here you can drop straight downhill to “Joel’s Boulder” and the North Circuit, or continue up the ridge for another 3 minutes to the 2nd and main drop in point. The 2nd drop in point will take you to the Central Circuit on a nice flat bench. It takes about 3 minutes to drop in from the ridgeline to the boulders. From the flat bench use the overviews and boulder descriptions to navigate around. The boulders are mostly close together and nearby, although it can be a little weird at first trying to figure out the best way to scramble around.