Poison Oak Warning

:  There's poison oak somewhere up here.  I haven't spotted it (no leaves in Winter) but have gotten it every time I have visited this climb.  I've never gotten it from Tips and the climbs to the right, so I'm guessing there are some hard to spot stems along the somewhat bushy approach or near the base.

Power laybacking up golden granite.  It's sustained - almost every move is laybacking the offset crack.  The offset makes gear tricky and strenuous to place.

There are two starts that form a wishbone.

Left Start) 12c (I wouldn't know).  Bring gardening shears if you want to try it.

Right Start) 11d

The 12a section is near the end.

Robin

Scram

Cramming

Whim

Said and Done

Tips

This and That

Walk, Don't Run (aka The Bouldering Arch)

One of the best sport routes in the valley in its grade. The rock on this pitch is exquisite with many swirly pinches, slopers, golden flakes and even pockets. It's fairly sustained and straight-forward at mid 5.11 for the entire pitch. The short crux comes right at the roof where a multitude of poor hand holds and dearth of footholds on a hard-to-read sequence quickly drain your forearms. It's hard to pull through this move, but once you know what to do - it's not bad at all.

This one bakes in the sun, so it's great for the winter when temps are in the 50s. Unfortunately the steep sand/bushwack approach might prove to be the crux for some folks. Expect 20-25 min to get to the base and don't bother looking for a trail. Just hike straight up from the house-sized boulder 1.5 mi from the 120/140 junction (parking is another 0.1 mi farther down canyon). If you take the approach toward "Tips" and walk along the base - you'll end up bushwacking way more and also without much of a trail for most of it.

If the angle was any wider, this would be a corner with thin hand crack; if it was any more acute, it would be a flaring chimney with thin hands in the back. As it is, it just hard to classify. The crux is right off the ground, awkward 1 1/4 inch jams. It eases off after 25 feet.

Excellent OW and squeeze moves in moderate quality rock.  A must do pitch for the semi-obscure / filth lover!

Ascend an ever widening, straight in, fist crack similar in appearance to Trail By Fire.  Enter the squeeze and wiggle your way up into a rooflet.  Reach over the rooflet for a dirty yet secure hand jam.  Reach a ledge and take your pick of cracks to the top, one of which requires and extra #4 camalot and the other does not.  Give yourself a pat on the back for giving this one a go and reaching the top.

There are three options for descent:  1) Walk to the right and rap with one rope from the Said and Done anchor.  2) Walk off to the left over the top of Tips.  3) Rap with one rope from a slung tree just left of the top out (recommended).

Besides the Bouldering Arch, this is the warm-up for the area.  However, if you are not comfortable at leading down canyon, this will not feel like a warm up.

Short but steep tight hands with double cracks in a right facing corner.  The rock quality is excellent.

Rap off of a bolted anchor with slings.

Brutal face moves start past a bolt are free @ 5.12a (ha) but it is easier to use an aider to cheat to get to the crack. Really sound finger crack (albeit a little flaky circa 1994) lead up to anchors.

1980's photos of Peter Croft soloing the route float around climbing rags of the era. One of the best finger cracks in the Valley off the ground (a must do- please someone post a photo!), but lacks only a good start (being the crack does not touch down).

Pitch one of this three pitch route is a stellar 80 ft. of high quality, clean cut, lieback offwidth.  The crux of which is up high where the crack bulges and veers right(.10a).  Although avoiding the pump is probably the real crux.

This is a 5.10 boulder problem in the middle of the cliff, beneath an exceptionally blank and vertical section of wall that has no routes. The arch provides excellent endurance training and can be a good way to warm-up, or finish off a day of cragging.

Don't bring a pad for it, the approach will suck because you have to navigate between trees and bushes and stuff. You're never more than 5ft off the ground and the landing is flat dirt except for on the left side where some bay trees grow out from the base of the wall and could potentially do bad things to your ankles if you fell on them... but a pad wouldn't help for that anyways.

You can do the whole thing as an under-cling, or for most of it you can get various sizes of handjams in the crack. Either way you're sure to get yolked if you do enough laps in a row.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Ao. This and That Cliff