Devil's Lake Climbing PREORDER

About the Book

Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin is hands-down the Midwest’s best rock-climbing area. It has even been called the best place in the country to learn to climb. It’s the closest major crag for countless climbers from Chicago to the Twin Cities, and also features great swimming, hiking, and camping. The unique quartzite is a wonder of nature — vibrant purple in color, with made-to-climb features.

Grades at the Lake are fairly stout — 5.10 is the real deal here! — but it’s also one of the few crags that uses 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc. No matter what grade you climb, you’ll find challenge and delight on the purple cliffs. The Lake itself is basically all trad, but a few nearby sport-climbing areas are also included in the book — Necedah and Hillbilly Hollow — if you want to give your brain a break and just go clip some bolts.

This updated and expanded 2nd edition includes some additional cliffs, as well as a new chapter featuring the best of the Lake’s bouldering, as requested by many who loved the first edition. There’s also a fresh selection of action photography to help build the psyche.

Areas Included

• Devil’s Lake

• Nedecah

• Hillbilly Hollow

• Bouldering (new!)
  

About the Authors

Jay Knower grew up in Baraboo and began climbing as a teenager at Devil’s Lake in 1993. This introduction served him well, and he has gone on to visit crags all over the world, climbing up to 5.13 trad and 5.14 sport, as well as establishing many new routes. 

He met his wife Kayte in Yosemite and the couple moved to New Hampshire together in 2003. They now split their time between New Hampshire and Wyoming, with their daughter June, and Blue the Mountain Poodle. Each year, Jay makes it a point to get back to Devil’s Lake to visit family and scare himself on the quartzite.

Chris Eggert might be the only climbing guidebook author who has the dubious distinction of having been banned from the state park the guidebook covers. Thirty years ago, he was part of a rowdy camping group that was told they were no longer welcome at Devil’s Lake. Fortunately, the statute of limitations for the ban seems to have passed. When he is not otherwise employed or climbing, he tries to be a good parent and husband, competes in cross-country skiing and biathlon, plays guitar badly, drives the tour van for his favorite punk band, and attempts to not get banned from any other state parks.