Old County Climbing

This digital Old County 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 Old County days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Old County is one of the few bouldering areas in Tahoe with volcanic rock. The stone is very textured and about as sharp as it gets. It’s so featured that you can grab just about anywhere and get some purchase. Be careful when throwing for holds here, it’s really easy to slice your finger tips and put a damper on your climbing plans. Also use caution with the small pebble like footholds. They break frequently and are not to be trusted. Despite the choss factor the textured rock does create a lot of unique holds and you will find yourself using lots of unique grip styles. The... Show more

This digital Old County 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 Old County days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Old County is one of the few bouldering areas in Tahoe with volcanic rock. The stone is very textured and about as sharp as it gets. It’s so featured that you can grab just about anywhere and get some purchase. Be careful when throwing for holds here, it’s really easy to slice your finger tips and put a damper on your climbing plans. Also use caution with the small pebble like footholds. They break frequently and are not to be trusted. Despite the choss factor the textured rock does create a lot of unique holds and you will find yourself using lots of unique grip styles. The whole area sits pretty low in elevation and it bakes in the sun, so in midsummer it’s quite hot. Because of its short approach and long list of moderates, Old County is popular with the North Shore crowd for a quick afternoon workout. It’s also a pretty good place for beginners as long as they pay attention to the loose rock and have a good coach. This section has a lot of climbs not listed in the old Super Topo book, so if you think you’ve done them all at the OC, look again. DRIVING: From downtown Truckee take Brockway Drive towards Northstar and North Lake Tahoe. At the 7-11 right across the street from the skatepark turn right onto Palisades Drive. Continue for 0.4 miles and veer left onto Ponderosa. Continue for another 0.4 miles and turn right onto Silver Fir. Again, go for 0.4 miles and turn left on Thelin. Go for 0.1 miles and turn right onto Forest Road #06, aka the Fiberboard Highway. Reset your odometer when the road turns to dirt and go straight for 4.7 miles, not taking any of the turns. At 4.7 miles turn right onto a small dirt road and park after 50 yds in the obvious parking area. This is the main parking lot for the Big Chief sport climbing area, which can get crowded, so please be considerate when parking and leave room for other cars. APPROACH: From the parking lot walk on the decommissioned dirt road for 15 minutes to the back of Big Chief. The road ends here, turns into a climbers trail and small boulders start to appear. Just as the trail starts to go uphill cut left into a boulder strewn gully. Walk up the gully with scattered boulders and much deadfall staying right of a big rock formation for 3-5 minutes until you arrive at the circuit. There is a lot more bouldering to do around the backside of Big Chief that is not in this guide or has not been climbed yet.