Dexter Canyon photo's

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TKingsbury

Trad climber

Jan 13, 2010 - 01:23pm PT

Very cool thread!

Thanks for bumping this...never saw this originally, so it was cool to check out.

Cheers!

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 13, 2010 - 01:40pm PT

Tom,

I think you mean Wild Cow Canyon which is to the south and slightly west of Dexter. Thanks for the spelling correction. There is some really good climbing hidden away out there. Glad to see that some are climbing there.

Ken

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 13, 2010 - 02:23pm PT

wild cow canyon, I'll look for it.

I'm not sure why this area is so obscure, maybe not enough bolts. It's not much farther off the beaten track than Clark's or those areas.

What did you guys think of the rock quality for placing pro?

The climbs I did were in pretty hard stuff that I think would have been fine if I had fallen, but there is also some of that grainier volcanic stuff that we see out here.

I really wanted to do that two pitch climb that you show in the pictures. Holy smokes that thing looks good, if the rock is good of course. It was pretty intimidating looking.

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 13, 2010 - 03:25pm PT

I've been curious about those pinker cliffs in Taylor. I guess they are not tall enough to be worth the effort?

They look good though.

I like getting info from others to steer my wanderings a bit better.

crusher

climber

Santa Monica, CA

Jan 13, 2010 - 06:08pm PT

Cool place and off the beaten track. The Bachar wall had some bolts but I remember the rest of it was all trad - walk-offs, etc.

It's nice and quiet.

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 13, 2010 - 06:16pm PT

The Bachar wall has a 12 with 4 bolts in a good sized climb. I always liked the way that guy thought, even though I don't want to do his routes.

the museum

Trad climber

Rapid City

Jan 13, 2010 - 07:05pm PT

Cool place - never saw this thread..

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 13, 2010 - 07:29pm PT

I take that back, I want to do Bachar routes, but I'm too scared.

pyrosis

Trad climber

Flagstaff, AZ

Jan 14, 2010 - 01:37am PT

My impression of the place was that it would really benefit from at least one route having rap anchors added. The way it is now it takes like 30 minutes of unpleasant walking to get back to the base after climbing one of the routes. I'm all down with gear anchors and all, I just think more people would enjoy the place if there were a way to rap down. Although maybe (?) you could fix a single line and rap all the way to the base from the top? Anyone know how high these things are?

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 14, 2010 - 12:45pm PT

Rap anchors might help, but where do you put them? There is a lot of cliff out there. I bet, once you got the hang of the place and could spot climbs from above, you could set up your own rap anchor for the day and clean your gear when you go home at night.

Getting to the top of the climbs seems kind of sketchy, with sand and pine needles.

If rap anchors wouldn't work, easier to find trails might. That just takes familiarity and perhaps a bit of use.

I bet the number of parties out there each year is under five.

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2010 - 02:02pm PT

Grant and I checked out those cliffs in Taylor Canyon and they were plenty tall enough. The cracks were impressive but the rock quality seemed a little bit suspect. My standards may have changed. We also saw some very large, fresh cat tracks while hiking up to the cliffs and on the way back down. We felt we were being followed and got really spooked. I never went back.

We were doing some of the first routes on volcanic rock in the Mammoth area and I wouldn't trust a 1/4" bolt in that stuff. I stuck with the crack lines that appeared to have the best rock and sewed it up. Some of the Dexter routes are superb. The routes are steep and offer three dimensional crack climbing. One drawback is that nearly every route has about a ten foot section of chossy rock missing the patina. I recall there being some trees on top and I would think you could use these for anchors to rapell back down if you wanted to. I never did place any bolts in Dexter. The cliffs are between 150-200 feet tall. There is an awesome camp site on top too.

Ken

Strider

Trad climber

one of god's mountain temples....

Jan 15, 2010 - 03:11pm PT

Made the trip out there a couple years ago and didn't see another soul while we were there. We had climbed Hair Raiser that morning so by the time we drove to Dexter, got the car parked and finally found our way down to the base of the cliff, it was a little late in the day to do much. Hope to go back one day soon.

Here's a few pics though to whet the appetite.

-n

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Jan 15, 2010 - 03:31pm PT

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 15, 2010 - 03:44pm PT

Peter- are those the taylor canyon crags?

That volcanic stuff can take some getting used to, but thanks to guys like ken and grant and that gang, we've all climbed this stuff a fair amount.

I'm still not too sure about gear in these cracks. I've done some crack climbing at the gorge but, I still don't have a lot of confidence in the rock quality. That being said the volcanic cracks can be pretty good, though there are often cheater face holds.

I'll cruise out that way come summer and check out taylor up close. I keep thinking there will be granite bouldering around the Benton Crossing/120 Junction.

Chicken Skinner

Trad climber

Yosemite

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2010 - 04:12pm PT

That is definitely not the main part of Dexter Canyon. Here is the main section.
All those canyons have outcroppings.

Ken

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Jan 15, 2010 - 05:14pm PT

Exploring is a blast, but so far all I ever find is stuff that you guys found years ago. At least its still clean and obscure. I have yet to find the bitchen untouched crag out here, though there are some good ones.

Sometimes I think that if an area was great we'd know about it already, other times I hope that stuff was missed. It's all about having enough time.