Pine Creek Canyon
West of Bishop (Pine Creek drainage) · near Bishop · Eastern Sierra
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Grade range
- 5.9 to 5.13+ · Trad classics plus a booming sport scene
- Best season
- Late spring, summer, early fall · High elevation and narrow canyon keep it cooler than the valley — a summer refuge
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit — Forest Service land west of Bishop. Free dispersed camping in the drainage. A quieter, less-developed feel than the Gorge or Buttermilks.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Nickname
- The Eastside's Rising Granite Star
- Climb types
- sport · trad · multi-pitch
- Rock type
- High-quality granite
- Route count
- Hundreds of routes, growing fast · Pratt's Crack area is the trad heart
- Signature routes
- Pratt's Crack area · The new sport lines
- First timer note
- Pine Creek is advanced terrain, but its summer-friendly temperatures make it the Eastside's warm-season climbing home when Bishop's lower crags are too hot. Trad competence recommended for the classic Pratt's Crack area.
- Intl tip
- Pine Creek is the summer complement to Bishop's cooler-season areas — combine across seasons for year-round Eastside climbing. Rock Creek, Clark Canyon, and the Mammoth-area crags (Dike Wall) extend the summer granite options up the 395 corridor.
The guide
Pine Creek Canyon, in the granite drainage west of Bishop, has undergone a climbing renaissance — long known for the Gunks-qual…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Pine Creek Canyon — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.372, -118.69