need suggestions - northern CA area

[neswstar]

thinking about Reno/ Sacramento /Northern CA, over July 4th. Would like to do some lower level rock up to 5.7 maybe easy 5.8. Perfer multipitch alpine, not with a big VEG approach, but maybe a bivy. Any suggessions on what and where to look??

thanks

[larrythellama]

well norcal/reno/sacto area has almost nothing in the way of multipitch. once you move towards the s end of the lake more options become available.

 

lover's leap has penty of multipitch .7 routes. camping is free at the base. tho on 4th of july the bay area takes over and ruins the tahoe basin.

 

bridgeport/sonora pass is where the real rock mountains start. before that most are kinda chossy(carson range) and do not really have any large features.

 

 

you could go to calavaras dome which is semi close to sacto off of 88 and then 20 miles of unmarked roads, but there are not any good multipitch .7's.

 

nice thing about the sierra's is there is not much underbrush to contend with so that part of your request is easy enough.

 

tho on the july 4th weekend everything in cali is fucked as it is on all 3 day weekends. you would be better suited to wait until it is over and come down.

[thelawgoddess]

lover's leap. it's not alpine, but it's multipitch ... and some of them feel quite exposed. well worth visiting if you've never been. there are several good 5.7 routes there ... supertopo info.

[Thinker]

How about Mt Shasta? take your skis!

 

for Lover's Leap. The routes there gobble up stoppers like Klenke does beers.

[fgw]

Nor. Cal ideas (with solitude):

 

Castle Crags suggestions are below. Should be pretty empty of climbers - always(?) is I think (other than pherhaps "Cosmic Wall" route). Specifics:

Mount Hubris: http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/1146

Cosmic Wall route (6P 5.6)

Castle Dome:

West Ridge (II -III 5.8 - have not done it)

Six Toe Rock:

http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/3255

Six Toe Crack (3P 5.8)

 

Lots of stuff in the mid to upper 10's with many routes carrying "R" next to them....again, acc. to guidebook.

 

Trinity Alps. Only one I know is Ycatapom Peak with its north (?) face. Climbing is not stellar but you're almost guaranteed to be alone and in sunny weather. Check snow conditions - no idea if TH is melted out or not.

http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/mountain_link.pl?mountain_id=2266

There's a 10+ pitch 5.7 route on it according to the guidebook. I have not done it but can give you book description - if you want it, pm me.

Good luck.

[fgw]

BTW, Ycat. is an easy car to car in a day outing. The 5.7 I mentioned is called "Orion".

If you want to do multiple routes in Castle Crags, I suppose you could bivy up there (illegally?) but I think you'd have to bring your own supply of water (approach is about 1.5-2 hours so it kind of sucks to have to do it multiple times in a weekend)?

[neswstar]

Thank you all for your suggesssions. We ended up at lovers leap. Had a great weekend: free camping, easy approach, numerous climbs at my level, good wine.......

Need to get back down and ecplore some more.

thanks again