Truckee & Donner Boulders
Truckee / Donner Summit (North Tahoe) · near Truckee · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- all-levels
- Grade range
- V0 to V12 bouldering · 5.6 to 5.13 routes · Extensive granite
- Best season
- Summer and early fall · High elevation, snow-free June–October · A summer bouldering haven
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Mostly Tahoe National Forest — no climbing permit. Some areas near Donner have parking/access considerations; check locally. Summer-only (snow the rest of the year).
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Rock Climbing detail
- Nickname
- Tahoe's Granite Bouldering
- Climb types
- bouldering · sport · trad
- Rock type
- Granite
- Route count
- Hundreds of boulder problems and routes around Truckee, Donner, and the Tahoe basin
- Signature routes
- Donner Summit granite · Truckee-area boulders
- First timer note
- The Truckee and Donner area offers cool, high-elevation summer bouldering and climbing when lower areas are too hot — hundreds of granite problems and routes in gorgeous Tahoe settings. Beginner-friendly problems abound, and Truckee's downtown makes an ideal base (it's also the North Tahoe MTB hub).
- Intl tip
- Truckee pairs climbing with the region's mountain biking (MTB guide), the Flume Trail, Tahoe's swimming coves (swimming guide), and lake paddling (kayak guide). Donner Memorial State Park tells the pass's history. One of the best all-around summer basecamps in the Sierra.
The guide
The Truckee and Donner Summit area — high granite country at the north end of Lake Tahoe — is the Sierra's summer climbing and …
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Truckee & Donner Boulders — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.316, -120.323