Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Deuce
Trad climber
Sonoma County, Ca
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - May 12, 2007 - 06:29am PT
|
Any good routes near Mt. Baldy? Pretty tired of driving all the way out to Joshua Tree. Aka please give up the secret stonemaster spots...
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
|
|
|
May 12, 2007 - 11:06am PT
|
I gotta work today but I'll tgry and write up something when I get back tonight. There's not much but there is a great bouldering area near the town of Baldy.
JL
|
|
marty(r)
climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
|
|
|
May 12, 2007 - 12:02pm PT
|
Largo'll probably give more detail, but there's a pretty rad traverse over the river on the underside of the bridge right by Elk Horn Lodge. It's pretty overgrown now and the drought has brought down the swift water danger, but it's still a pretty cool pump. And if that's not cool enough you can go to the trout pounds or try to find Leonard Cohen at the Zen center. A better bet would be to go bouldering behind the school.
Another Inland Empire "destination for the desperate" could be 'the El Cap of Cucamonga'. Here's what JL also had say on that one:
"Wow, I hardly ever check into this site and it was by pure fluke that I caught that "El Cap of Cucumonga" thread. How the hell did anyone ever hear of that?
You're going back 30 years here (Richard Harrison and I were in high school) but I remember this big electrical tower, perhaps 250 feet high, out by Chaffey College, which is way up in the foothills off Haven Ave. We caught it before the power lines were strung -- which lasted about 2 months -- and climbed it many times. It was dead vertical with rungs about three and a half feet apart, so it was somewhat dicy given the mini dynos between rungs. Also, at about 200 feet, you had to do a long move around a corner onto another flank of the A frame structure, and this always scared the crap out of us because, naturally, we were soloing. That bastard was a gigantic rush, even thought the rungs were totally bomber. It's just with 3D exposure, the big reaches and no rope, you felt really out there.
After the cables were strung and the power went on there was always a high hum about the area and none of us wanted to touch the thing after that.
But for awhile, The El Cap of Cucumonga was quite an attraction."
JL
|
|
Deuce
Trad climber
Sonoma County, Ca
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 12, 2007 - 02:28pm PT
|
thanks jl! that was a great story, I am living in Claremont now and just looking for some training routes in the area, preferably trad.
|
|
TYeary
Mountain climber
Calif.
|
|
|
May 12, 2007 - 04:44pm PT
|
You know, there's a couple of boulders in San Dimas Cyn, right off the stream, just past the golf course that offer something and the rock garden up in Baldy Bowl has a number of good problems too. I have found two good boulders up in Big Dalton Cyn above Glendora as well.
You could combine a good hike to the top of Ontario Peak with bouldering on the summit boulder. It's a tall problem , esp. on the east side.
Tony
|
|
marty(r)
climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
|
|
|
May 12, 2007 - 06:54pm PT
|
Deuce,
Really? Claremont? I grew up there. Look up Robs Muir. He lives there and works for the school district. He'd give you a good tour of the Baldy bouldering circuit.
If you're into buildering check out "Stairway To Heaven" at School of Theology--it's the wide crack/undercling up the underside of a stairwell that faces Foothill. Just down blow it and land on the pay phone! There's a cool gym in Upland called Hangar 18, some old glue-up walls in San Dimas, and two indoor walls at the Colleges. Mountain biking is the real draw of the foothills. Just don't breathe deeply--the smog'll kill ya!
Marty
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
|
|
|
May 12, 2007 - 10:33pm PT
|
The bridge above the little village of Baldy can be done one of two ways. The uphill way is long (100) but not too hard and the landing is onto boulders so careful. The downhill version, meaning you are traversing the right side of the bridge as you drive uphill - - this one is very serious and if you fall off it's 25 freefall onto bad stuff.
The bouldering just below the school, down in the creek bed, is excellent and highball in spots. There is some of the slickest rock in creation down there.
JL
|
|
Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 12:54am PT
|
Mt. Baldy Pipeline - 5.3
Drive out the Baldy Road (Mills Avenue?) and stop right where the flat road veers left and starts to climb up into the mountains. East of the road, around the right side of the hill, is a ramp leading down into a concrete spillway/storm drain. Stay on the flat to find the ramp. A fence guards the spillway from intruders.
Climb that fence (the 5.3 crux is the barbed wire at the top), turn left, and walk 200 yards up the spillway until you reach the "Rotten Board", a short, but exposed section across a slime-filled abyss.
Skate the 300 foot long, 15' diameter concrete tube on the other side of the abyss. Bonus points for pulling off the El Rollo.
You might need to bring a shovel (for scraping off stripes of tar) or a bunch of old towels (to soak up the dribble of water coming through the tunnel). Leave the spray cans at home: there's plenty of graffiti already there.
I can't remember exactly where I saw a one-pitch-high rock cliff, near a seasonal waterfall. So, I won't even try. But, it's up in the Baldy canyon, quite a ways below the ski village, as I recall. It was steep, and the rock looked pretty solid.
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 01:26am PT
|
marty(r) - I grew up in Claremont too, went to CHS from 68 to 72 then off to Cal for college...
|
|
Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 01:38am PT
|
There is also some good ice that forms from time to time up there. I was on the Pro Patrol at Mt Baldy for 14 years and I noticed a nice looking falls that would freeze from occasionally on the South side of the road about a half mile below the parking lot. I never did it but it looked to be about a 80' vertical falls that came over a rock band. I was always to tired on my way home to do it and to lazy to drive in from Burbank on my days off.
|
|
TYeary
Mountain climber
Calif.
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 10:54am PT
|
Mike Harbison(also from Claremont) and I have climbed ice near the area you mention Batrock, but I've never seen anything like 80'. We climbed a shaft that spilled out of a hanging gully to form an almost free standing pillar about 15' high once.
Over the last 30 years I have found many small smears in Ice House Cyn and on the north flanks of Big Horn Peak. Telegraph Peak has a big white scar of a gully that sometimes gets ice on the southwest side that can be reached from Cedar Glen Campround on the Chapman trail in Ice house Cyn. A few years ago I climbed a beautiful line of water ice that snaked it's way up the central gully on the North Face of Telegraph. The gullys above Baldy Bowl ocassionally get ice. The best "alpine ice " I've ever heard of is a line on the North Face of Strawberry Peak. It was done years ago and provided over a thousand feet of ice and snow. Alois Smrz knows more about this than I. All of this ice is dependent on the condidtions and can be here today and gone tomorrow, needless to say. It is a matter of just the right temps, snow fall and timing. But it's great when you find it a half hour from home in So. Cal.
I have been waiting for San Antonio Falls to freeze up, but I guess thats not likely in my life time now! Happy hunting.
Tony
edit. Bob Dominic co-wrote an article that was published in the old Summit back in the late 70's or 80's, highlighting ice in Southern Cal. Unfortunitly, it was published without the photographs by mistake.....
|
|
Deuce
Trad climber
Sonoma County, Ca
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2007 - 03:08pm PT
|
I went up to baldy a few days ago to check out the boulders by the school and saw what looked like a decent face in the distance.(at the top of the ridge east of the school) I was wondering if there is climbing there or if it was just an optimistic optical illusion? Thanks for all your comments!
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 03:10pm PT
|
Always wondered if the big stripe on Telegraph was worth the effort to get to it.
The trick with the chutes on the Baldy bowl is to hit them before the sun does. I used to make pre dawn solo runs up it on 1000' of blue that is back to neve by 10:00. Once I discovered skiing the bowl, the timing criteria changed. Haven't done that in years. We once found an 80-100' or so frozen waterfall in the north side of Harwood up from Lytle Creek. Complete with an icicle start. Long posthole approach. It would be exploring that area on skis some time with good conditions. The problem with all So Cal ice is its ephemeral nature.
The bolder at the base of the bowl is a peasant way to kill some time pre or post a summit run, but a long hike for basicly one bolder. Same holds true for Ontario, the only major peak in the San Gabriels with a real summit block. It's worth taking your shoes along if hiking the peak though.
The back side of Strawberry Peak has some old routes that might be worth exploring. There's also plenty of bouldering on the flanks of the falls in several of the lower canyons, Bear Creek etc. Seems like the rock in the San Gabriels is as a general rule quite suspect unless in intimate contact with running water for at least part of the year.
|
|
Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
|
|
|
May 13, 2007 - 04:05pm PT
|
Strawberry has had some good ice from time to time. I have also hit some good ice just below Redbox Cyn on the south side of the road up a gully just below Ladybug Cyn. A couple of good smears and one vertical waterfall.
I have a topo of Strawberry Peak that the Mendenhall's drew back in 1934 I believe. They drew out 4-5 routes on the face. I did one of them about 20 years ago and would like to go back for some more "adventure" climbing someday.
The best ice by far that I have climbed in the Angeles has been at Williamson Rock. Back in 1985 I soloed the Main Chimney in full ice conditions. The crux was, if I can remember correctly, passing a bulge at or near the top. The Waterfall wall also gets fat. I have seen it frozen a few times with ice 5' thick at the base. The Main Face area around the Voices Wall gets ice from the base to the very top, almost 300 feet of water ice if the conditions are right. There is much more up at and around Williamson in the Winter if you are willing to explore a little. We just need it to open again.
|
|
Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
|
|
|
May 14, 2007 - 12:02pm PT
|
bump
|
|
rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
|
|
TYeary said, "...and the rock garden up in Baldy Bowl has a number of good problems too."
Kinda... But it's a long hike for one boulder, though. Here are a few recent images:
Sierra Club boulder, SW face.
Sierra Club boulder, East face.
Nasty falls on all sides. But it's about the only climbable boulder in the Bowl...
Years ago, Richard Harrison told me that someone had done a one- or two pitch route above and SE of the Baldy Boulders. More properly, up Cobalt Canyon (?) East of the "Valley of the Trash". Phil Haney, maybe? Probably back in the late Sixties. There might be something up there (I seem to recall that Richard mentioned several bolts), but it would be like Williamson (before the gardening). Probably contrived with quite an approach, certainly chossy. (No frogs that we know of, though.)
|
|
clustiere
Trad climber
Durango, CO
|
|
Just go to the Big Bear thru Lake Arrow Head area N san bernadino mtns and you should find all the great bouldering sport and crack climbing you would like.
|
|
Bryce
Trad climber
|
|
|
Apr 20, 2012 - 01:42pm PT
|
Hey All,
I too live down in Claremont. There is rumor of a crag below the school house. I was told how to get there from the hobbit boulder. My problem is i just don't know how to get to the hobbit boulder. Does any one know? If so could you please explain how? Thanks!
|
|
Johnny K.
climber
|
|
|
Jun 24, 2012 - 01:59pm PT
|
Alot of the climbing around that area is hush,you gotta go out on foot and find it yourself.
All the highball awesome boulder problems that Largo is talking about behind the school are slathered,caked and baked in axle grease by property owners to deter climbers.There are signs warning about trespassing and climbing not allowed.
There are a few decent problems upstream along the bridges that are on public property,but beware the landings are sketch and the rock is very very very polished as Largo mentioned.
If you are looking for adventure easy rope climbs,I can recommend a couple crags that are easy to get to.
-Crystal lake http://www.mountainproject.com/v/crystal-lake-crag/107313311
-Lower Azusa rt 39 (Tier granite slab right off the road at the lower gates before heading to crystal lake)
-Falling rock canyon/sheep pass (many different crags with a hike and scrambling approach)
http://authors.library.caltech.edu/25057/1/advents/sheepc.htm
There is alot more in the area,sometimes access is easy,sometimes its a bushwack.You will find old stoppers/bashies,button heads/rivets,pins and tat etc all over the San Gabriel Valley.
Fwiw,if you do anything other than bouldering,bring a helmet,you'll want one.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Jun 24, 2012 - 06:45pm PT
|
If ya park by the school and go down to the creek there you'll have no probs.
The dickhead property owners better not get caught greasing boulders within the watershed.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!