Castle Crags MIXED climbing?

[layton]

Any of you old timers lurking out there gone wintery clamberin 'round the crags? I hate wasting gas these days, but shore do wanna scatch around down there.

[sweatinoutliquor]

I bet the mixed climbing there is off the hook... How much snow do they get in that area?

[wayne]

ive seen some drips in there for sure, from the hiway

[iank2z]

hi michael,

i read your posts on castle crags, good stuff. I know this reply is a little late but if you are still interested. I moved to Weed 5 years ago, for a year, in that year i experienced exactly what you were describing a secretive self preservationist attitude, and distrust for newcomers. But I went on with my business and established a dozen new routes in the gully behind 6 toe crack now known as "the Grotto". These are all single pitch routes but they are some of the best routes at the crags from 10a - 12d. I moved back a year ago thinking I wasn't as much of an outsider, yet this wasn't the case. Still locals either didn't have the info I was seeking or they weren't sharing. So again I got to work, added 2 more routes to The Grotto, and then got pointed in the direction of Castle Lake. Were an unfinished route started by a climber just passing through awaited, It took some work and 2 bolts but I finished that route "Shastafari" 12d and "Raw" next to it at 11d.

Then I turned my attention to Castle Dome's East face, I did the Dike route again just to check things out and because it's the finest route in NorCal. That day I hiked up the ramp past the Dike route were I came across a huge overhanging dihedral with a pin in it. Of coarse nobody new anything about it, didn't matter,

that now goes at 12c all gear "Castle Corner". Then another 4 routes next to it went up all high quality, and a second pitch which I haven't red pointed yet but it will be about 12a or b.

Anyway I started a website AlpineAddict.com were I will be documenting all the info. you are welcome to it or to share what you want. I'll be starting a winter ascent of Beck's Tower in a week or 2, and i've also been active at Ney Spring an awesome little local secret. Check out my site and if your coming down this way drop me a line.

-iaN

[Lambone]

Cool,

 

It was nice to meet you up there Ian! I like your routes! (I was with Shannon and her mom Danielle, and we met at the base of 6 toe)

 

Seems like a cold snap is coming at the end of this week and I might go scope the north side for some ice...

[DirtyHarry]

That's some really nice self-promoting horseshit Ian, but what does it have to do with Layton's question about mixed climbing?

[G-spotter]

he's inviting you to go drytool his new sport routes is what?

[iank2z]

you mean we are not talking about using gear and clipping bolts on the same route, sorry my bad, I guess I'm just mixed up!;-(

sorry I'll stick to rock and leave the real mixed climbing to real hard ass's like Clint here.

[layton]

Hey thanks for that info!

I would imagine that place has a local snoobery like no other. Which is expected, and probably justified. But paranoid, I doubt anyone has invaded the area since I posted a few trip reports.

 

Sweet job on the Castle Dome route (and others). How hard is it to drill in the rock? I'd imagine it's really hard.

[iank2z]

if you have to drill on a quartzite dike you may have to sacrifice a bit or 2, I can get a 2 1/2' inch 3/8" in about 20 min not to bad for granite. The locals are a definitely a tough bunch. but the reason there are so few routes here in my opinion is that the rock just lends itself to more difficult climbing which was just beyond the "past" generation. I found this forum when i was google searching images of the crags and was way psyched when I saw your write up on Battle mtn. I often can't understand why more climbers aren't psyched on this place, but i keep thinking the crags time has just begun and it's nice to be there early on. keep in touch.

-iaN

[billcoe]

Thanks for sharing Ian! Stay in touch with pics and reminders as you do new things and post them on your site so we all don't forget.

 

Thanks

[Lambone]

ha, yeah Ian thought this was about mixed Trad+Sport!

 

He doesn't need to self promote, his routes are the real deal...not the typical overbolted bullshit you find at other crags. bring RPs.

 

Ian, the reason there aren't more routes in Castle Crags is that both past and future generations are to lazy to hike up ther and hand drill protection bolts (myself included) you are the exception. If it were closer to the road and not in wilderness designation it'd have lines everywhere.

 

cheers

[cstemley]

Oatmeal,powdery mica,and plain old sand are the best for dry tooling, YES? shhhhhh Limited parking. your lucky it lets you climb skank2z, maybe it needs company?

[DCramer]

I climbed at the crags in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, maybe once or twice with that Cstemley guy. 25 years ago it was common to poach an illegal campsite at the crags and given the number of cases I have seen packed in laziness doesn’t seem applicable. I mention the camping because the only time a ranger ever did anything was when one safety pinned a note to a friends new tent fly while he was trying a mixed line up the central gully on Butt Rock in February I think in ‘78 or '79. I wasn’t there but I saw pictures. (Butt Rock has another name in the published guides but I can’t remember it)

 

The crags are just out of the way and the rock wildly variable in quality. Even back in the 70s the ‘locals’ seemed to be just several small groups who rarely communicated. The Crags then equalled solitude. There were no Rps, bits sucked, overall standards were lower and sticky rubber didn’t exist. I bought my first bolt kit for use at the crags.

 

The existing guidebooks are somewhat of a puzzle. Some very obvious routes were never shown. For example there are twoobvious pillars to the right of the Good Book that have some fun routes. The left pillar has a Yosemite like flare up its left side. From there several more pitches lead to the saddle.

 

The Crags just like the North Coast are all about exploring and having fun just being there. Seems like its still pretty much the same.

 

[cstemley]

Always had a good time in the crags. huh,. how did we ever survive with out the internet or Guides, all we had were shitty little 1/4's , alpine hammers, and lots of.....time. I had maybe a dozen trips or so. One time we luged enough gear for the seige of africa, but the sping was dry, it was about 105F,and we were to beat from the approch to climb much, a few warm beers just wern't enough to keep us going. Big DC did leave some steel up high, anybody find it yet?

Edited January 20, 2007 by cstemley

[iank2z]

I was up at the crags this weekend, it was awesome as usual, I saw lot's of ice and small frozen falls on my way up to Becks Tower which is on the south flank. Based on what I saw, I would think Root Creek on the North side is a frozen wasteland. If any of you mixed climbers make it out there and find what your looking for, I'd love to come out and get some footage and pics, for some sites I'm working on, let me know.

-iaN

[Lambone]

Ian, we are going up to root creek on Tuesday. Hittin the TH around 9:30.

 

We'll probly be easy to spot.

cheers!

[iank2z]

a little short notice for me today, however let me know how it went and if you plan on going back.

-iaN

[Lambone]

We hiked into Root Creek. The larger falls at the base of the canyon was flowing, but it would be sweet if it froze.

 

We decided to keep heading up and bushwhacked left of the falls around the cliffband, got stuck in some thick Manzanita.

 

We made it to the base of the East Face of Castle Dome, and scoped a promissing looking line in the gully between the E Face and the Mansion. I think people rap this gully to get to the East Face? We decided it looked a little too thin and unprotectable. Maybe if it was a bit colder it'd be a good climb, looked like some rambly WI2 to s WI3 top pitch.

 

So we contoured around and up under the north side of Castle hoping to find some smears in the shade. Not much there unfortunately, besides a frozen Root Creek. For all the hiking we were doing I almost pulled out the tools for some ice crawling!

 

Eventually we spotted something worth climbing, just about on the opposite side of the canyon from the "Dike Route." It was about a 40 meter WI3 pitch with a 30ft steep section at the bottom. We TR'ed it because the ice looked scetchy. Fun, but not worth the bushwhacking.

 

We decided to keep going up to the saddle and go down the trail rather then reverse the bushwhack down Root Creek. That took a while, but the trail was nice. It is sweet up there in the winter.

 

All in all it was a lot of hiking for not many swings, but I am suprised and glad we at least got on something. Would I do it again, no. But it was/felt kind of an adventure exploring for ice.

 

There has to be better ice then that somewhere in the Crags I am thinking up past Railroad park Road, we stopped off there and saw some big and good looking lines way back there, but the FS road is gated.

 

Ideas?

 

 

[layton]

I've rapped that gully while thinking it would make a fun winter climb

[iank2z]

yo Lambone that's some pretty impressive slogging around, let me know when you have some time and want to come down to slog around for some rock!