Deep Cut Guide

Marmot Rocks

4 boulder problems · Biotitic gneiss, schist, and migmatite · 5,662 ft

Take me there Routes ↓ Directions

Help locate these routes: survey the wall

How well located

Base placed (one source) 1  Crag only 3 

Rock, from the geologic map

Biotitic gneiss, schist, and migmatite — biotite gneiss, schist, migmatite, minor gneiss, calc silicate schist, marble. Paleoproterozoic, about 2,500 to 1,600 million years old.

Locally contains minor hornblende gneiss, calc-silicate rock, quartzite, and marble. Derived principally from sedimentary rocks

This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:500,000 sheet (Horton and others, 2017, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1052). The point can be a few hundred metres from the rock, a cliff often stands on the line between two units, and at that scale a line on the map is about 500 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. Every crag on this unit: Biotitic gneiss, schist, and migmatite. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.

On the map since 1956

The USGS has mapped this ground since 1956. 14 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.

Thumbnail of the 1956 USGS sheet covering Marmot Rocks
USGS 1:250000-scale Quadrangle for Montrose, CO 1956 · U.S. Geological Survey · 1956 · 1:250,000 sheet
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Public domain, U.S. Geological Survey. The sheet shows the ground as the survey found it then, which is why a trail or road you know may be missing. Every sheet over this point, 1956 to 1983: USGS topoView.

In print since 1877

Free to read: public domain or government work. About Gunnison as a whole, not this wall. More in the reading room.

From the archives

Photographs of this area held by the Library of Congress, oldest first. Every one carries the Library's own "no known restrictions on publication"; anything else is left out.

A rift in the rocks, Black Canyon, Colo., U.S.A. on line D&R, G.R.R.
A rift in the rocks, Black Canyon, Colo., U.S.A. on line D&R, G.R.R. · 1898 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Currecanti Needle, Black Canyon, Colo., U.S.A. on line D&R, G.R.R. · 1898 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Castle Gate, Colo., U.S.A. · 1900 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Currecanti Needle, with cloud effect, Colorado · 1900 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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[Curecanti Needle, Black Canyon, Colorado] · 1900 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Chipeta Falls, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado · 1906 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Currecanti Needle, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado · 1906 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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The jagged, piercing point of Currecanti Needle, Black Canyon, Colorado · 1909 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Giant balanced rock, Gunnison River, Colo., U.SA. · 1910 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Jagged spire of Curicant Needle (N.E.), Black Cañon of the Gunnison, Colo. · 1910 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Photographs near this crag

Taken within 1.5 km of this crag's map point and published under a licence that lets us show them, from Wikimedia Commons. The coordinates say where the camera was, not what it was pointed at, so some of these will be the creek or the trail rather than the rock.

God's Path is Higher than Men's Path
God's Path is Higher than Men's Path · Wing-Chi Poon · 2006 · 771 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Painted Wall at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park dyeclan.com - panoramio · The Dye Clan · 2012 · 817 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Painted Wall at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park dyeclan.com - panoramio (1) · The Dye Clan · 2012 · 817 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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U.S. Route 50 Colorado Black Canyon Painted Wall - Flickr - Mobilus In Mobili · Mobilus In Mobili · 2017 · 830 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison - panoramio - Frans-Banja Mulder (2) · Frans-Banja Mulder · 2001 · 833 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Black Canyon Of The Gunnison · Ej Lowell · 2016 · 846 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Sunset View Overlook at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park dyeclan.com - panoramio · The Dye Clan · 2012 · 868 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Sunset View Overlook at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park dyeclan.com - panoramio (1) · The Dye Clan · 2012 · 868 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Sunset View Overlook at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park dyeclan.com - panoramio (2) · The Dye Clan · 2012 · 868 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison - panoramio - Frans-Banja Mulder · Frans-Banja Mulder · 2008 · 896 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado (101351099) · Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · 2006 · 1,111 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado (101351381) · Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · 2006 · 1,111 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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4 more on Commons.

Routes

Also within 3 km

Straight line between the two crags' map points, each of which can be some way from its rock. For when this wall is full, or the sun has found it.

Photos from climbers

No photos here yet. If you're at the crag, yours would be the first.

Pick a photo from your camera roll rather than taking one here: a picture taken inside a browser usually has no location saved in it, and we check that the photo was taken at this crag before publishing it. Photos of guidebook pages and topos are refused — they're the author's work. By sending one you're letting us publish it.

Nobody reviews these before they appear, so anyone can report one and it's hidden straight away — including you, if you change your mind, and including a photographer who finds their own picture here.

Taken at the crag by climbers and published as they sent them. Each one's own location had to be within 0.5 km of this crag before we accepted it. See something that shouldn't be here? Use Report this photo under it and it's hidden at once. Anything else, write to us.

Sun today
Wall direction not known yet.
Rain & forecast
No recent weather for this crag.

Conditions reported

Nothing reported recently.

Report what you see

Reports are dated and fade on their own: wet rock after 3 days, a bad bolt after a year. No names, no text.

Access & safety

Emergency: call 911. Read out your location: Works without signal. If GPS fails, this crag's approximate map point is 38.57701 N, 107.73208 W (Marmot Rocks). That point can be off by hundreds of metres, so say so.

The map point for this crag is on land managed by National Park Service (federal), in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It lies inside wilderness area, national park.

Land manager from USGS PAD-US (public domain), read 2026-09-29. It is the manager of the crag's map point, which can be a long way from the wall. What you may do on the rock is the manager's to say, not ours.

Nobody has yet read National Park Service's own rules for this crag and written them down here, so treat the above as where you are, not as what you may do.

Nearby, from OpenStreetMap

Toilets
946 m away (map)
Mapped parking
857 m away (map)
Campsite
North Rim Campground, 2,130 m away (map)

Distances are a straight line from this crag's map point, which can itself be hundreds of metres off; a road may be much longer. Mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so a toilet missing here may simply be unmapped. Parking here is what OSM has drawn nearby, not a guidebook's directions.

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