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Tim Camuti
Trad climber
CA
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Keith
Here's a flash of Bob Dominick on the formerly obscure Mt. Williamson (used to call it Dome Rock) when there were but a few routes. Phil Gleason and I went up there to climb it in the early '60's and got to near the top in a dense fog. Visibility was about 10'. He lead up anyway on something on the upper formation. Must have been about 60-80'of friction. I was surprised when I got to the belay and he hadn't used any pro. It's a sport route now.
I climb regularly with Bob Dominick and he would like to get in touch with you. You have PMs disabled, but please PM with with contact information if you're interested in reconnecting!
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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The Warbler said,
Jul 11, 2011 - 10:26pm PT
Haha, Swelly, that's funny
As a native San Diegan, I was just feeling left out, and had to represent for us down here in the country's corner.
I'm always surprised at how few climbers on a nationwide scale know how good San Diego County is for climbing and bouldering.
If it makes you feel better, I could have posted more, y'know the REALLY good stuff...
I just went through the whole thread.
You know being a San Diego Native I have to really agree with "The Warbler."
San Diego County has perhaps the most crags and boulders out of any county within the USA. That isn't stretching the truth at all. We have a plethora or really good multi-pitch crags in the BC, and border to border boulders, and all the amenities and fun diversions of a big city (with a small city feel). Everyone can have their "secret crag" down here. And for the most part the rock is really good solid granite/granodiorite. There are a lifetime of crags and boulders down here and you still wont get to it all. And where else can you ski in the mountains in the am, climb great rock in the desert in the afternoon, and in the evening hit some great breaks on the surfboard? Where? (I've done that.) OK, LA County also. Both San Diego and LA county are very unique in that way; no other counties in the US can claim that. Pretty coooooooooooooool.
California is truly blessed with a near infinite amount of really good rock from the beach, coast, inland, desert, and alpine environments. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
Where SoCal climbers are really blowing it: the Gondola canyon on San Jacinto. Dang those spires have to get climbed. That is Sierra big quality alpinish wall climbing there. Also all the long alpine routes to be done on the North Face of San Jacinto in full winter conditions. We have a veritable scaled down Chamonix-Mont Blanc in our own close backyard. There should be all kinds of routes all over all sides of San Jacinto. Dang we are lazy.
Not to mention the many quality JT like regions that are still not well known. (Dang it all Batrock, SSSSSSssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's secret.) Besides, they would all kill themselves trying to get there. 4X4 major obscura and very dangerous. Your gonna die !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't even think about going there. We are saving lives! Just imagine all the skeletons hanging out of the vehicle windows we would have to encounter just getting there. Not a pretty sight.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Uh, Klim, I thought all those spires have been climbed. And as for the N Face
it does offer some good ski descents but despite repeated perusals I've yet to
identify an Innominate or a Peuterey.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Uh, Klim, I thought all those spires have been climbed. And as for the N Face it does offer some good ski descents but despite repeated perusals I've yet to identify an Innominate or a Peuterey.
Reilly,
Now I might be mistaken about some of the spires within the Gondola canyon, where are the write-ups and topos?
Yes, the N. Face of San Jacinto, Snow Creek, is supposed to be a great ski descent, but I'm talking about the ridges that go from near the desert to near the summit bordering Snow Creek. In winter conditions those granitic alpine ridges, with a few long faces on them also would be pretty hard-core. Even in the Spring or early Summer without snow they would be pretty hard-core.
Remember, I said "scaled down," I didn't say it was exactly like it. You could make it as hard as you want to make it by picking the most extreme line. I've sat down there for long periods of time just off of I-10 in the desert with powerful binocs looking and taking images (sorry slides and I don't have a scanner yet) and the routes look as knarly as you want to make them.
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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dee ee,
In the late '60s, a group of us did several routes up the large brownish desert varnish sections of the main formation (among others) in your photo. The right side has an easy route -"White Fangs Revenge". I took about a 70' whipper off a FA (5.11?) line up the left side. Also, as mentioned upthread, the helmet shaped formation on the right has some routes.
John Gosling, Lee Harrell and I did a nice 3 pitch route on a wall in one of the corridors you explored behind the "Fang". As far as I know the place has been off limits for many years. Were you there with us? We went out there almost every weekend. One morning we woke up and one of us had been sleeping on top of a rattlesnake all night! Saw lots of Bighorns.
Klimmer,
In '73, Paul Gleason (RIP) and I went twice to explore the Snow Creek area you discussed^^^. Here's where we started to traverse over to the larger formations. We roped up on some scrambling, but didn't get to best sections. Nah! Nothing to see there. Choss for sure;-)
Tim, Sent you a PM, Thanks
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Keith,
Great stuff. Choss for sure no doubt ;-)
San Jacinto Peak:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jacinto_Peak
“Geography
To the east, the peak towers over the city of Palm Springs; to the west, it borders the mountain community of Idyllwild. The peak is also frequently called Mount San Jacinto. The steep escarpment of its north face, above Snow Creek, climbs over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in 7 miles (11 km). This is one of the largest gains in elevation over such a small horizontal distance in the contiguous United States.”
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Santa_Rosa_and_San_Jacinto_Mountains_283.jpg
“Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, California, USA. North face of San Jacinto Mountains, on March 30, 2003.
The steep escarpment of its north face climbs over 10,000 feet (3 km) in 7 miles (11.3 km). It is the steepest escarpment in North America. Snow Creek can be seen as the snow-filled gully reaching to the summit. The lower reaches of Snow Creek belong to the Palm Springs Water District, which strictly enforces a ban on trespassing. From right to left the named summits in this picture are: Folly Peak, 10,480+ feet, San Jacinto Peak, 10,804 feet, Miller Peak, 10,400+ feet, and Cornell Peak, 9750 feet.”
The North Face of Mt. San Jacinto in all of it’s glory:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/San_Jacinto_Peak_0675.jpg
Someone please try to tell me there isn’t incredible climbing on the North Face of San Jacinto.
Like I said, we have our own (smaller scale) veritable version of Chamonix-Mont Blanc right here in SoCal, whether you climb it Spring, Summer, Fall, or in full on Winter conditions.
There should be tonnes of climbs already done on this massive North Face escarpment. Guide books could be dedicated to this wonderful superlative physiographic feature with the routes labeled that are done and topo-ed, along with those that are possible. My mind goes into incredible climbing dream fantasy mode when I look at this face and all the possibilities.
For crying out loud it is right here in our backyard. There are no excuses.
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curt wohlgemuth
Social climber
Bay Area, California
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Snow Creek. One of the most adventurous days of my life. I hiked/climbed up Snow Creek in Mar '81 solo (after partners bailed) when I was a young alpine-hungry proto-climber. Bivied right on the summit, hiked the next morning to the tram, bluffed the operator into getting a free ride down, then hitch-hiked back to my car. It was awesome.
Curt
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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With climbing/ski friends I've gone many times from the Tram to the summit via BC skiing. I have yet to ski the North Face, via Snow Creek though. Someday. Hopefully soon.
But the entire North Face of Mt. San Jacinto sure has some great potential for climbing and BC skiing.
Just dreaming about what's possible. There are a lot more dreams here than I have indicated that's for sure . . .
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SpeedyTaco
Mountain climber
Baldy
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Oct 17, 2011 - 05:35am PT
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Oh shnap
Nice photo of Crystal Lake Crag. I'm real interested in hearing about what y'all have done up there and whatnot. I'm actually in the process of writing a book about climbing and assorted stuff up in the San Gabes. It would be cool to hear some stories and info, even if I don't end up putting it in the book.
Some Crystal Lake goodness... the cleanest line so far.
Also, one of the nicest winter lines on Snow Creek isn't on your topo. :-)
Howdy Tony!
Cheers all
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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Oct 17, 2011 - 10:15am PT
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Nice pic Speedy, I remember that climb! Several of our group did about 8-10 routes on the Crystal Lake Crags in the late 60's. We did some serious trundleage up there, much to the dismay of the fishers below! As I recall, if you traverse left along the sloping ledges near the bottom of your photo, and gain a corner, there is access to a thin crack up the flat wall to your left. Some old photos: Gary Cifra reaching that corner on a winter outing.The short, thin crack up the blackish face took rurps and knifeblades and went mostly free except for a few moves.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Oct 17, 2011 - 11:29am PT
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Those pics of Granite Mountain (The Fang, etc.) bring back great and old memories. We first went out there right about the time the previous generation of So Cal guys (Haney, the Gleasons, Dominick, Jach Schnurr, Barker, et al) were just getting finished with the place. My first tripe out there Paul Gleason showed me a crack for the ages. Then Rick Accomazzo, Richard Harrison and I did a 1st ascent in the canyon Dave E. described that to this day is one of the greatest new routes I've ever done, passing over a huge A-frame roof via a slanting .11a crack. Ricky took a number of legendary falls into the terrifying open space beneath the A-frame. Richard and I watched in awe!
JL
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SpeedyTaco
Mountain climber
Baldy
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Oct 17, 2011 - 12:33pm PT
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Keith, that's awesome. I really appreciate the photos and your stories.
Is the face you're talking about the one on the left of the climber here?
I've been eyeing it for a while. Did you guys aid it or free it?
Did you guys give those routes any names?
Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. :-)
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
Seattle
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Oct 17, 2011 - 12:41pm PT
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Largo, I was looking for some old timers online and read that Jack Schnurr is a colonel in the Air force reserves-recently did a MEDRETE? mission to Bolivia. Also it seems he did become an Osteopath working at a hospital in Carson City as late as 2009. Haven't seen him since we dropped off a bunch of biners at your place in Upland in '71? on our way to do the "Step" at Tahquitz. He's another So Cal character. If I make contact I'll say Hi.
Speedy-That's it. We gave some of them (corny) names. We named one the Leeper Route, since it was the only piece (stubby) of pro I could get in on a steep, wet, scary loose fit of desperation where I remember at one point crying out loud in a storm drenched ascent-"God just give me one handhold"!! Amazingly a beam of light broke through the clouds and illuminated a small key handhold -the solution to the climb. I kid you not! (A few aid moves in the snow).
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SpeedyTaco
Mountain climber
Baldy
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Oct 17, 2011 - 01:29pm PT
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F'in rad. :-)
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Oct 17, 2011 - 01:38pm PT
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No fair posting photos of San Diego Warbler. There's so much rock littered throughout that county, it makes me sad LA doesn't have one-tenth of that amount.
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Johnny K.
climber
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Oct 19, 2011 - 12:57am PT
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....
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Big Piton
Trad climber
Ventura
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Oct 19, 2011 - 03:40pm PT
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I haven't been to this tread in a while. And saw this about Rocky Peak Rd. Around 1990 me and a friend I'll call him J.0. started exploring the area. J.O. was driven to bolt the overhang. So, we started doing routes on the apron to get our feet wet. On the same day I wanted to climb the corner to the left of the overhanging bolt ladder. About half way up the expanding flake all the pins I put in fell out. I was looking at a good 40' fall landing on the apron. Lucky I was able to down climb. J.O. told me that he did it free with a friend and rated it 5.11 tr.
Next we climbed the 40 foot crack noted on the Big Wall web site.
2) THIN CRACK (A3+?)
This route is passed on the walk to the roof, a 40' wall located 35 yards south of the roof. Looks like it's only been done once.
Pro: KBs, LAs?
This is a great place to teach someone to aid climb. It been climbed at least 10 times. 4 by me.
The deal we made is J.O. mess around on the stuff I wanted to do if I belayed him as he bolted the roof. J.O. called the route Plasma and it took him a month to do all the bolting.
Other areas off Rocky Peak Rd. When you get to the area of this formation look North (left) towards Simi and you will see a ridge of rock. I climbed there off and on for two years. The walls get taller to the right (north).
As a caution this whole area has a lot of poison oak. However, I did find some petrified wood in cased some of the sandstone.
There is also a nice boulder 5 mins from the car. Once you walk up the first 100 ft of the road and gain the flat area, just keep on walk towards Simi ( down hill ) off trail and it will come into view. The boulder looks like a loaf of bread broken in half.
If anybody wants more info PM me.
On the Big Wall site I just saw the Tampa Bridge Area. I put all that stuff up. Ha Ha
I no longer live in the area. But, I am glad to some of my work is still there for peps to climb. There is a small amount under the Desoto Exit.
MMM
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Iron Mtn.
Trad climber
Riverside, Ca.
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Oct 24, 2011 - 03:17am PT
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Thanks for the Crystal Lake pics (past & present) Freakin' Awesome!!!
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