West Bluff - Anchorpoint

Here's one of my favorite areas at the lake. Everything has fairly good landings and is somewhat atypical for the Lake. The approach is pretty easy and there are overhung moderates!! Such a rarity at the lake.

So, starting at Ski Hi. Go right and stop at the "T" intersection. Turn right and follow the windy South Bluff road down into the valley. At the bottom you can either go left onto the dirt road where there is limited parking or you can go a little further down the road and park on the right at the boat launch lot. Either one is fine.

Walk down the dirt road, past the cottages and get onto the Tumbled Rocks trail that looks a lot like this:


From here, walk about 5-10 minutes on the asphalt trail. You'll pass the talus field for Alpine Club but just wait until the first huge talus field appears. It'll be pretty obvious. It looks a lot like this:


If you look closely you can see some yellow spraypaint on one of the rocks that some moron thought would look cool. Look here:


In the first picture of the talus field you can actually see the top of the Hogleg Boulder in the upper left. Thats where you need to go. Just start hiking and it'll be obvious.

We'll start on the right side and go left. First is a pretty cool traverse that needs some cleaning. It'll probably be a nice warm up. There is also potential for some problems going up the boulder but I'd like to say that we shouldn't clean off all the ferns on the top. There are plenty of problems already and we don't need to destroy plantlife to climb these ones. Just be happy with the traverse please.

Here's a picture:


The left arete of that is also a nice little V1 or so with fun moves and a cool topout. Heres a shot of it:


Just to the left of that is another nice overhanging corner. This one is a touch harder and is maybe V3 or so. I personally like this one better. It's really fun and is actually fairly overhanging. Here you go:


Directly left of that is Hogleg Overhang. It climbs up the overhanging face using whatever you want to use, as far as I know!! Classic and comes in with a grade around V5. It's a bit highball so bring pads and spotters! There is also apparently a direct version that goes at about V7 but I'm not sure what the exact line is. Here's a picture:


Directly left of Hogleg are a couple of problems that climb up the smooth face and corner. They range from V1-V3 and have interesting fall potential.

Anchorpoint starts on the obvious prow left of Hogleg. Start left hand on juggy side pull and right hand on the good flat ledge. Use whatever trickery you can to gain a high right crimp and topout squeezing slopers. Classic and super fun!! The big detached block is off. Here's a picture of the left side of it.


Just to the left of Anchorpoint is a short problem that does in fact use the block in question. Would also be doable without it but with MAJOR dab potential. I think this comes in around V1-2.

If you walk towards the back of the boulders you'll see one of the coolest slabs in the entire park! Great warmups on super unique rock make the Trust Fund Slab an absolute must do!


Up and to the right, past Trust Fund is another new V0 highball. This apparent classic is a jug haul the whole way. You can see the backside of it from Trust Fund. I believe it's being called TCC.

So there you go! Check it out and let me know what you think of the area! Like I said, it's one of my favorites and it's very unique for Devil's Lake!