Sandstone Climbing

This digital Sandstone 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 Sandstone days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Both Banning State Park and Robinson Park allow leashed pets. Please clean up after your dog and pack it out. History of Sandstone
—Nic Oklobzija

A Curse
The history of Sandstone is similar to the story of Sleeping Beauty; the land lay in slumber waiting for a long-haired Prince to wake it from its sleep. The story begins with two young men: Mike Helke, a now famous artist, and his older brother Josh, who owns Organic Climbing, looking for a boulder problem put up by legend Chris Eklund around the quarry at Robinson Park. Local climbers, such as Doug Dokken and Jeff Engel, me... Show more

This digital Sandstone 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 Sandstone days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Both Banning State Park and Robinson Park allow leashed pets. Please clean up after your dog and pack it out. History of Sandstone —Nic Oklobzija A Curse The history of Sandstone is similar to the story of Sleeping Beauty; the land lay in slumber waiting for a long-haired Prince to wake it from its sleep. The story begins with two young men: Mike Helke, a now famous artist, and his older brother Josh, who owns Organic Climbing, looking for a boulder problem put up by legend Chris Eklund around the quarry at Robinson Park. Local climbers, such as Doug Dokken and Jeff Engel, mentioned the possibility of some boulders across the river, so the Helkes decided to venture into the woods. In the summer of 1999 the Helkes headed north into the woods from Hwy 123, and rumor has it a “Blair Witch” style movie exists of the two of them running around the woods in amazement of the boulders they found. Until this time—1999 to 2000—the major climbing areas were Taylors Falls and a few small areas around the St. Croix River Valley, so the large, featured, freestanding sandstone boulders were a gift to the local climbing community. Josh, Mike, and Liz Hajek began the initial development from 1999 to 2002. During this time they accessed the area from the bridge and put up problems like Oscar the Grouch V4, That Girl’s a Bitch V5, Bitch Slap V3, and by the following fall they made it to the Beach Boulder and established problems like Panic Arête V5 and All For V4 V4. News of the area slowly got out and other locals like Andy Raether, Keith Anderson, Pi, Matt Tschohl, and Jim Merli joined in the development. That 2nd blast of expansion added gems like Pocket Hercules V8, put up by the Andy Raether, a Cold Day In Hell V10, and Invisible Touch V7, both established by Jeremy Mariette. During the majority of development, everyone assumed the land was part of Banning State Park, but in late 2002, local climbers learned that the land was privately held and climbing would not be allowed. The newly formed Minnesota Climbers Association helped spread the word that Sandstone, the land known as Eldon in this guide, was closed. And Sleeping Beauty slept. A Prince In 2008 Jeff Engel and I met up to talk about the bouldering at Sandstone. Jeff had already known of the boulders, and with his local connections from his work at the ice park across the river, he decided to look into the ownership of the property. A week later, he sent a letter to the owner, Eldon Johnson. Shortly after Eldon received the letter, he and Jeff agreed to meet to walk the land. Within weeks of the initial contact Prince Charming (Jeff) and Eldon agreed to open bouldering on his property! Climbing and re-development began in November of 2008. A new renaissance began, and the climbing area exploded. Climbers from all over the state flocked to the newly opened area and began brushing off the dust from the boulders. Traffic increased on the 3- and 4-star problems. With each passing week, new problems were added and old problems were uncovered. The Raven V11, and Tengo de la Muerte V9, two of the area’s more notable problems, were established in 2010. The Raven V11 drew attention after the former website Climbing Narc featured it in an article, and later, it appeared on Urban Climbers Top 100 Boulder Problems in the US list (#100). Just months after the first ascent, both Paul Robinson and Daniel Woods arrived to make ascents of this 5 star bloc. Unfortunately, the tale doesn’t end here… In October of 2012, a few local climbers had a run in with a hunter near the gate. The hunter declared that he didn’t want climbers on the property, and that he was going to buy it and close it to climbing. The Minnesota Climbers Association sprung into action and began the “Save Sandstone” program. By 2013, The Minnesota Climbers Association, with help from the Minnesota Parks and Trail Commission and the Minnesota DNR, purchased the land known as Eldon and made it a part of Banning State Park! The MCA continued work in this area and eventually secured access to Teachers Overlook. To this very day, Jeff and the MCA continue their partnership with the DNR to further our access to climbing in Banning State Park. From Twin Cities: Take Interstate 35 north towards Duluth and Sandstone. From Duluth: Take Interstate 35 south towards the Twin Cities and Sandstone.