Twin Crags
Tahoe City (~1 mi N on Hwy 89) · near Tahoe City · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Grade range
- 5.7–5.11b
- Best season
- Spring, fall & winter · S/SW-facing, often climbable between winter storms when granite crags are snowed in
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No fee. The approach is via the residential Twin Crags Summer Home Tract off Hwy 89 — park only where you're not blocking driveways and keep a low profile; the access sensitivity is neighborhood relations, not a formal closure.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- trad · sport · top-rope
- Rock type
- Columnar basalt — hexagonal columns
- Route count
- ~18 routes
- Signature routes
- Made of Silk (5.9) · The Ghost (5.9) · Nipples That Cut Glass (5.10b)
- Intl tip
- Unusual columnar basalt with lake views that climbs in winter between storms. It's a mixed crag — bring a light rack plus draws — and the approach is through a quiet summer-home neighborhood, so keep it respectful.
The guide
A quiet, scenic columnar-basalt cliff with big Lake Tahoe views, Twin Crags is an unusual rock type for the region and a genuin…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Twin Crags — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.16649, -120.16138