History of the MCA

& broader climbing in Minnesota

Want the TL;DR?

Visit the abbreviated version of Minnesotan Climbing History HERE!!

Personal note on Minnesotan climbing from 2024-present MCA Board of Directors Chair, Cole Trebelhorn:
”Climbing in Minnesota is as much about the people as it is about the rock. While the sport is still relatively young here, it has taken deep root in our communities—and what makes it truly special are the individuals who’ve shaped it along the way.
One of the many things that continually draws me into Minnesota climbing is something you can only understand when you look at it in the context of places like Yosemite. Names like Warren Harding, Royal Robbins, Lynn Hill, John Long, and Jim Bridwell echo through climbing history. Yosemite is a legendary place for many climbers—but Yosemite is not my home. Minnesota is home to me. Minnesota is my Yosemite.
And the legends of Minnesotan climbing? They still walk among us. While growing older, many are still climbing, still showing up at the crags, still leading by example, putting in the thankless work to develop what we have. There’s something incredibly powerful about being able to work and climb beside the very people who built this community from the ground up. What a rare opportunity.
That’s what makes Minnesota climbing so unique—and so deeply meaningful to me.
Join me in honoring and celebrating the rich history and living legacy of climbing in Minnesota.”

It all started when…

1960’s - 1980’s Era:

Throughout Minnesotan climbing history, Taylors Falls was on the forefront of bouldering through the 1960s,70s, 80s and 90s.
With visits from Historical bouldering heroes like Jim Holloway who managed an early repeat of the early Taylors Falls test-piece B2 Bomber, to bouldering icon John Sherman who choose to feature Taylors Falls and its prodigy Chris Ecklund, pioneer of nearly every test piece on the basalt in his 1990s publication Stone Crusade.

1980’s - 2000’s Era:

During this Period Taylors Falls was on the forefront of Bouldering in the world with top notch cutting edge 1990s problems like Mikes Right V8, Cave Traverse V9, Left of Lloyds V11, and numerous lines that crossed the top Rope/bouldering line like Softer than Ice harder than Diamonds .13c-14a, All Pilgrims Must Hang 5.13c, all lines that were bouldered in Taylors Falls style.
It was in this period Nate and Pam Postma took the plunge to open the areas first indoor rock climbing gym, in Saint Paul. October of 1992, Nate and Pam ushered in a risky business plan that would ultimately blossom into more than five gyms in Minnesota.
In the late 90s with the introduction of crash pads, bouldering began to take off in MN.
Small groups of boulderers began to emerge from the communities with climbing gyms. IE: Rochester MN, the Twin Cities, Stillwater MN, Duluth MN.
Many of the early 1990s classics began to be repeated and some sit starts and modern tweaks to the older problems climbed.
Many small areas began to Emerge as young climbers remembered local small crags near their childhood homes and some smaller areas like The Waz in Southern MN, The granite erratics of the MN river Valley, The Boomsite and Twin Springs near Stillwater MN and Louisville Swamp near Shakopee were climbed at for their high concentration of eliminate type problems and close distance to local climbers homes.
Josh Helke was urged to check out the old sandstone quarry by local legend Doug Dokken to check out an unrepeated traverse in the back of an old quarry. Quarry had nothing on the amazing sandstone potential of the kettle river valley and its natural river featured boulders.

2000’s - 2005 Era:

January 2000, author Mike Farris and publisher Falcon Guides released the areas most “polished” and standardized guide book. This would be the first edition. With 293 pages, it would be titled “Rock Climbing Minnesota and Wisconsin”.
Between 1998 and 2002 over 200 boulder problems were cleaned and climbed by excited climbers from MN, WI and IA in a 4-mile stretch of the river valley, all mostly within Banning State Park land and a dense concentration on private property.
It is to be noted that while exploring and developing numerous chalk arrows were found on classic lines and it was rumored Chris Ecklund had left his mark in this river valley as well with the gift of more amazing lines.
In 2002, no trespassing signs were posted on the highway 123 parking area of Sandstone bouldering.
During this period Brent Zweirs and Josh Helke launched the Minnesota Climbers Association to work on access to Sandstone, acquire bolts at-cost for re-bolting Redwing and some other minor access issues.
Josh Helke contacted the land owners and presented climbing to a woman whose name is not remembered. It was decided that it would be best to respect the no trespassing for a time after this talk and the MCA spread word of this closure.
Development moved to some discrete sections of Banning State Park and the kettle Boulders were developed in the far north sector of Banning state park as well as some bouldering under the boat launch parking area and front Hells Gate to the railroad bridge.
During this period we were approached while climbing in a pot hole along the trail near the rock crusher by a very nice park person and asked to please refrain from climbing and that climbing was not technically allowed within banning state park due to fragile rock and the ecosystem of many of the rock formations. Furthermore climbing was not allowed in any pot hole in MN state parks.
After this most of the Development within the Kettle River slowed to some small illegal sessions by climbers who had heard rumors of what the areas held.
Most of the attention during this period shifted to the North Shore along Lake Superior at areas like Ely's Peak and Sawmill Creek Dome.
Sawmill Creek Dome was first developed in a fast paced phase by Matt Tschohl and Andy Raether who cleaned and climbed many of the first classics.
With Sandstone and surrounding area effectively closed with respect to the rules of the land, boulderers trained for winters in Hueco and for new additions and variations to existing hard lines at Taylors Falls, and remaining projects and sawmill.

2005 - 2010’s Era:

During the mid 2005’s the City of Sandstone became very interested in the climbing potential in their quarries for economic stimulation of the city and climbing access to the city park was granted and some sport climbs and farmed ice began.
During this period Jeff Engel who had emerged as the hero of pushing the quarry opening, sent a letter to the landowners of the private bouldering areas across the river from the quarry, with attention and kindness to landowner concerns, which Jeff had developed awareness of as a hunter using private land. Through his effort, access was granted to some of the private land, and bouldering access opened again around 2007.
During the mid to late 2005-2010 years Vertical Endeavors in St Paul, MN put more focus into expanding bouldering areas/training within their gyms, and a second explosion of bouldering development took place in MN pushing the levels to new heights. Areas like Taylors Falls, Sawmill Creek Dome, and Sandstone saw many hard lines added by a band of devoted climbers.

Nearly all above information is credited to Josh Helke’s blog post, “MN Bouldering: A Brief History by Josh Helke” posted online, HERE, Thursday, June 28, 2012.

2010’s - etc Era:

History is still being written! More to come here soon.
June 5th, 2012, author Mike Farris and publisher Falcon Guides release an updated, second edition to the previously most “polished” and standardized guide book for Minnesota. With 240 pages, it would be titled “Rock Climbing Minnesota and Wisconsin”.

2020 - 2022 Era:

During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, climbing in Minnesota, and accross the world, changed.
Popular gym’s were forced to close for the safety of their teams, and users alike.
After enough time, VE gyms began offering 2-hr window’s of climbing appointments, and required users to comply with CDC mask mandates. The gyms advertised that ventilation was increased, and lobbied for safe indoor climbing.
July 1st, 2022, authors Katie Berg & Angie Jacobsen, with publisher Falcon Guides release an updated, third edition to the previously most “polished” and standardized guide book(s) for Minnesota. With 288 pages, it would be titled “Rock Climbing Minnesota”, and include three brand new areas and describes over 1100 routes at 15 major areas.
October of 2024, the Sandstone Ice Park completes their renovation of “the shed”, built entirely from volunteer labor, and funded by a grant from the MCA.

2022 - present Era:

From December 2023, until June of 2024, Laura Slavsky served as Interim Chair.
In August of 2024, Cole Trebelhorn stepped into the Chair position. Other office positions were filled and re-instated. At this time, the board of directors was held by: Cole Trebelhorn (Chair), Marc Unnasch (Vice Chair), Elizabeth Lyons (Secretary), Steve McCluskey (Treasurer), Peter Lenz (Ice Park Manager), Bryan Ebert, Ed Lysne, Theresa Ptak, Kathryn Gilson, Riley Yi, Mindy Wozniak.
Riley Yi served the board of directors from June 2024 - March 2025.
History is still being written! More to come here soon.