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Tres Piedras Route Guide

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Tres Piedras (Rock Climbing) Route Guide
T.P. Weather Forecast

Tres Piedras, Spanish for "Three Rocks", offers a very fine selection of trad and bolted friction routes on quality granite cracks, faces, and slabs.  No route requires more than 2 pitches to attain the top. The clustered formations at Tres Piedras have created nine separate areas that provide for a variety of climbing styles and difficulties (see the topo below for the area layout).

Getting There: From the junction of US 285 and US 64, go west on US 64 for 0.7 miles (past the ranger station) to an unmarked dirt road on the right.  Follow this dirt road for 0.5 miles to the parking area (left at the "T", left at the "Y").  Click here for a map and satellite view.

Slideshow:  The 2007 LAM Climbing School closed with the graduation climb being held on the fabulous granite of Tres Piedras.  Great weather, excited climbers and lots of fun!  Visit Jason Halladay's excellent slideshow of this event by clicking here.

Alan Stagg and Rick Light after summiting the "Serpentine Crack" (5.8).
Thanks go to Jason Halladay for the great photo.

Guidebooks: Jackson's Rock Climbing New Mexico and Jay Foley's Taos Rock are both excellent.  The 'Taos Rock' guide also shows some of the bouldering, and can be purchased through Sangre de Cristo Mountain Works.  The original route guide (from the 70s) by Bill Johnson, John Joline, Cayce Weber and Lee Sheftel may be downloaded here.

Bolts, Ethics, and Access Discussion: MoutainProject has an ongoing discussion of these important and controversial subjects as they relate to Tres Piedras.  It makes for a good read, and all are encouraged to respectively add to the discourse.

Access Notes: Tres Piedras climbers should sign this waiver because many excellent routes on South Rock and Mosaic Rock are on private land, as is primary access to the area.  The landowner requests a waiver(As of 2019, no waiver is required), NO fires, no chalk, and "please close any gates".

In order to nurture greater landowner acceptance of climbers, participants of group climbs are requested to organize quick clean up activities before leaving the area; this should include the climbing area as well as the access roads (trip leaders could supply plastic grocery bags).  Small parties should practice "leave no trace" principles.

On August 19, 2009 the landowner stated to me: "Jan: Yes I still own the property, and yes I'd still like to have waivers on hand - even or perhaps especially from your organization.  Only once in awhile do I have problems with climbers, mostly not picking up after themselves.  My biggest gripe is that despite repeated requests, the climbers don't remove protection from the climbing routes, which is both lazy and unattractive.  Your organization could do me a big favor by doing a group climb and removing the crap that others have left on the various routes so that it is both a pristine part of the landscape, and so that each climber must figure out his own route without relying on the handiwork of others.  Gus Foster"

Printable Tres Piedras Route Guides by Location
Thanks to MountainProject and local climbers!

South Rock

 

Mosaic Rock

 

Middle Rock

 

West Rock

 

Lookout Shelf

 

Independence
Gulley

 

Far Rock

 

Beastie Alley

 

Aspen Alley

Overview of Tres Piedras, showing major features.
 

Classics Include:

Thank You: Our heart felt thanks go out to the local climbers who have written the web based route guides referenced on this page.  A very special thank you goes to MountainProject for collecting this information and making it available for all climbers.  LAM supports MP's efforts by requesting that local climbers contribute directly to MP's site when new information becomes available on area climbs.


Send your trip reports, comments, updates, and suggestions about this site to
Jan Studebaker

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