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roughster
May 8, 2003, 8:44 AM
Post #1 of 4
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Registered: Apr 3, 2002
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Kern River Limestone:
Reference: "Southern Sierra Rock Climbing, Needles", by Sally Moser, Greg
Vernon, and Patrick Paul
About 10 years ago (early 90s), climbers in California lamented the fact that
steep climbable limestone was something relegated to "other states".
Las Vegas called Southern California climbers from 5 hours away. Northern
California climbers also turned their eyes to Vegas only to be daunted by a
10-hour drive. American Fork was nearly as close.
As far as I can tell, the first bolted sport climbing area on limestone in
California was Kern River Limestone. Around 1991, Tom Gilje, Mike Lechlinksi,
and Dan Osmand developed a small wall and steep cave just north of Lake
Isabella.
Skimming through older climbing magazines of the time, one will assuredly come
across the DMM add of Randy Levitt on Holey Power 5.13a in the cave area.
Another picture that brought the area some small fame was Tom Herbert crossing
the amazingly steep and juggy roof of Under Attack 5.12a/b.
The area is rounded up by a number of longer vertical routes flanking the cave.
While not a "destination" climbing area by any stretch of the imagination, it
easily justifies the 2-3 hour drive from Southern California, and is a definite
option for South Central (Bakersfield) climbers looking to pump out a steep
limestone roof.
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Columbia State Park
Reference: "A Climber's Guide to the Sonora Pass Highway", by Brad Young, Hope
Wolf, and Jim Lundeen.
While a very small resource, Columbia State Park is the remnants of hydraulic
mining during the gold rush around 1884. High-pressure water was used to
rapidly erode hillsides around Columbia to reveal the deeper and harder
Limestone bedrock. The area is often referred as the Labyrinth as it is a maze
of twisting corridors.
Though primarily a bouldering resource, a few sport routes have been developed.
However, the massive abundance of poison oak has kept wide scale developing
from happening. A motivated individual with a tendency to high-risk gardening
would definitely have a field out here, as the area remains largely untapped
even to today.
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Mt Clark, Stateline
Reference: "Islands in the Sky", Randy Leavitt, Dan McQuade, Mick Ryan
Then in April of 1992, Randy Leavitt started developing what is currently the
definite reigning champion of California Limestone, Mt Clark. Located on the
way out to Vegas, three huge tears of limestone beckon climbers from I-15, but
up till then, everyone had their eyes casted far ahead to the limestone around
Vegas.
Surprisingly, word of Clark spread quickly through the underground Southern
California climbing network. Many knew of the areas existence but few had the
info to actually make it out to the cliffs.
I made the trip out in 1995 with a hand-sketched directions that I jotted down
from a phone call to Mick. Rob Jenson and I were blown away by the quality of
the climbs of the 1st and 2nd Tiers, but failed to hike to the Monastery at the
time. The rock was fantastically featured limestone rivaling, if not
surpassing, anything at the Hood/VRG.
Further Development in the mid/late 1990s included the awesome Monastery (3rd
Tier) and the Baily Road Crag also on Mt Clark. An interesting side note, a
piece of Bailey's Orange Limestone was circulated and showed off to the
Southern California sport climbing community as a vision of things to come in
1993, though the developers at the time, remained tight lipped.
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NoCal Limestone
Reference: "Bigfoot Country Climbing", by Paul Humphrey and Eric Chemello
Mid 1990s ushered in the age of limestone sport climbing to NoCal in a major
way. The highly prolific tag team of Eric and Paul started developing the
plethora of limestone areas in the Humboldt/Trinity Alps area.
Many of these areas are still under wraps as access concerns and development is
still proceeding at a rapid pace. Ironically, a new guide from Falcon Press by
Steve Mackay was recalled due to abundant mis information to these areas as
well as publishing a massively available topo to Natural Bridge which is
currently under an access crisis. Falcon's willingness to pull the guide was a
good step in hopefully securing the right to climb here, as when fully
developed, this area will rival anything in the state for Steep Limestone
Climbing.
Something of concern/disconcert (depending on who you talk to) is the relative
high use of the new Removable Bolt technology in the area. Many climbers look
at these routes as a selfish statement since few climbers have the means to buy
a whole rack of RBs at about $50 a pop, I don't blame them. On top of that,
safety concerns have been seen considering a fall by a local climber that blew
out a 2-foot plate of rock in the relatively soft limestone. Solid granite
seems to be the more appropriate place for use of this technology, but in
overhanging soft limestone???? Whichever side of the debate you fall on,
currently about 20-30% of NoCal Limestone routes have RBs as required
protection.
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Trinity Aretes
Trinity Arete outside of Burnt Ranch off of the (299) was the 1st limestone
area to see development. Though 2 routes existed from previous unknown
climbers, the areas potential remained largely untapped. Currently, "The
Aretes" as known to local climbers has a good selection of bolted sport routes
ranging from 5.10a to 5.13c. The Steep Wall on the right side of the Aretes is
a beautiful piece of overhanging limestone and often draws a comparison to
Rifle-esque type rock. Further development is ongoing but the area is quickly
filling up to max capacity.
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Cecilville Bluffs
Cecilville Bluffs outside of Cecilville is another area very typical of NoCal.
AMAZING limestone sits on a steep embankment. A small trail winds its way up
patches of slabs and more than a few sections of poison oak, to deposit the
climber at the base of what can only be described as a truly inspiring piece of
limestone.
Early access concerns about shut this area down. One of the developers was
threatened with a $250 fine for improving the trail out to the crag. Once
again due to Eric and Paul, access was sorted out with local land managers and
currently a tentative climbing plan has been agreed to giving access to some
portions of the cliff and leaving others for nesting Birds of Prey.
What is currently developed is still an excellent selection of long vertical
climbs that tackle tiered roofs. Redding climbers have also contributed routes
in the area, particularly the 1st Wall and the Chronic Wall which feature steep
routes up to 5.13. Syles Larson is rumored to have a hand in the developing of
the routes, but he has long since skated out of the area.
It is doubtful, despite the quality of stone, that Cecilville will ever play a
prominent role in California Limestone climbing considering the absolutely
HEINOUS drive out there on a ONE LANE windy mtn road that is in questionable
condition in the GOOD spots. Regardless, the few who make the journey will be
inspired by the little piece of France sitting above the little mountain town.
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Marble Caves
Near Forest Glen off of the (36), several large bone white streaked in blue
cliff bands beckon local climbers. These are the Marble Caves. Some of these
cliffs are TALL and STEEP. The development here holds one of the highest
concentration of RB and mixed RB routes in NoCal. While the area does not
receive much traffic, even by local standards, the stone is of high quality and
future routes are still be developed.
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Natural Bridge
When I originally posted this thread on another internet based climbing resource, a certain individual became upset that I had the nerve to write about an area that has access issues. In contrary to what this person believes, the intention more so than to draw attention to the area, is rather inform others of issues related to access and bolting. This area has appeared in a Falcon Guidebook and information about the area is readily available by talking to the developers, of which I am included. Ironically enough, the person throwing the stink has never put one ounce of effort into the area, and I am not even sure if they have even climbed there. Go figure….
Nestled in the densely forested hills of the Trinity Alps is a limestone feature
that is most likely NoCal's premiere limestone area. A huge limestone plug
straddles Bridge Gulch Creek. Due to the water action of the creek, a small
cave and tiered overhanging face grace the upstream side, but what is truly
impressive is the down stream side which has opened a HUGE cave. Beyond
that, surrounding walls of streaked blue, gold, and white limestone grace the
hills all with a network of trails connecting from the parking area a measly
100 yards away.
Currently, the area is seeing access concerns and a voluntary ban on bolting is
in place (grrrr......) until access is hammered out with local land managers.
The cave currently has an established 5.13c with 3 projects in the works that
will check in for sure hard 5.13 if not pushing the 5.14 grade into NoCal. Up
to 12 bolts long, these climbs tackle nearly horizontal roofs of highly
featured limestone and are spectacular.
The surrounding walls: Dirt Surfer, Orange Wall, UV Wall, as well as others
have bolted routes into the 5.13 range all on pocketed and tufa featuring
limestone. Steep, slab, vert, Natural Bridge has it all, including a few RB
routes.
When access has returned to normal (hopefully soon) I have a bunch of projects
calling to me that I bolted last year. Ohhh the steep limestone goodness :)
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Other NoCal Areas:
There a few other areas scattered out throughout the area including the Fly
Froggy Buttress, The Egg, and Castle Rock, all of which feature limestone of
varying quality and quantity. Who knows what future developments hold for
these smaller areas.
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The Shredding
Outside of Redding to the East is the small town of Burney. The Shredding aka
Burney Limestone is a small area with a good selection of high-end sport climbs
up to 13c. The limestone here is a bit grungy but it is steep. Travis Klawin
developed a good portion of these routes but there is definitely more potential
for routes in the area.
While it seeps heavily in the spring, the relative tight canyon makes the cliff
climbable except all but the absolutely smoking hot days of dog summer. With
easy access from a good highway, I would expect to see more development in the
area soon.
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Auburn Limestone
The site of an old limestone quarry now turned into a state park. Development actually started out here in the early 1990s, but a tragic non-climbing (rope jumping) death resulted in a temporary closing of the area and a ban to people entering the mineshafts.
Some locals developed a few of the initial routes and spread the beta by word of mouth. It had largely remained in a state of no future development due to its obscurity and bad rock.
Currently, routes are being developed at a relatively slow rate, but it is ongoing as it is a great local resource and there is a lot of potential. Issues with access persist though. Rangers have kicked people out and continue to do so when they see people climbing there. The Access Fund is involved and hopefully at some point resolution will happen.
When/If access is ever resolved, Auburn will most likely play a large role in developed sport climbing areas of Northern California.
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Lucerne Limestone
Feb. of 1999, I stumbled across this area on the way out to NJC. A tall mound
rising out of a salt flat, prompted me to give it a closer inspection. The
cliffs are not spectacular nor is the area anything resembling a "premiere"
site. However, it does offer LIMESTONE climbing in an area largely claimed as
"limestone free".
The appeal here is well-bolted sport routes on heavily featured limestone with
Feldspar bands swirling throughout the matrix. Currently around 25 routes
ranging from bolted 5.5 (Wind Tunnel) to Dope Ass Fly 5.11d/12a. A lot of
moderates here in the sub 5.10/5.10 range.
The area is definitely worth checking out at least for a day, especially on the
rare days of cold conditions at NJC. Lucerne Limestone faces due south and
could easily be the "warmest" developed climbing in SoCal.
UPDATE: A fence was placed around a small quarry at the base of the hill. Access is still legal and parking can be found on the East side of the fence on a dirt road that heads toward the large boulder.
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The Future:
Looking at USGS Geology maps will gibe local California climbers hope for
future climbs and even new areas on Limestone within the state. Southern
California's main resource of limestone, the Lucerne Valley Band, is being
mined on the backside of Big Bear. HOWEVER, there are some canyons that have
been visited that have developable limestone with not even a route on them.
All it takes is a little motivation and a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
Amboy/Marble Mountains/Cima/Mitchel Cavern areas ALL have a ton of developable
limestone. The question is: Is it worth it? The long drives are hard to
justify for strictly summer climbing, but I know for a fact that routes are
currently being developed in these areas. Just talk to Chris Miller :)
Central California potential is high around the Columbia area,
Auburn/Placerville, and further limestone developments in the hills around Lake
Isabella though many of the places will include longer hikes, though there are
mining/logging roads in the area.
Lime Rock outside of Colfax comes to mind. Currently 4 routes exist on a
fantastic overhanging limestone face, but alas the owner of the property has
closed the area. I have entertained thoughts of approaching the owner to see
if maybe some reasoning can be made to opening the area back up. There is
potential for a few more lines here as well as other limestone walls that poke
out of the American Fork Canyons.
NoCal is LOADED with limestone and I expect to see further development of
existing areas as well as discovery of new ones. The question here is the
relative remoteness from the general climbing population of California.
Finally, the largest untapped limestone resource of the state has got to be the
Mt Shasta area around the Mt Shasta Caves. HUGE limestone walls, which look to
be 200 -300 feet tall grace the area. It is on the list of places to visit in
2002 and 2003. Who knows, Verdon-esque multi pitch sport routes may eventually
find there way to California.
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roughster
May 8, 2003, 8:16 PM
Post #2 of 4
(2881 views)
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Registered: Apr 3, 2002
Posts: 4003
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bump
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caughtinside
May 8, 2003, 8:49 PM
Post #3 of 4
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Registered: Jan 8, 2003
Posts: 30603
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Warning: Auburn now has security cameras mounted everywhere! If the rangers catch you, they will confiscate your gear, fine you and tow your car!
:lol:
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fieldmouse
May 8, 2003, 9:18 PM
Post #4 of 4
(2881 views)
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Registered: Jul 25, 2002
Posts: 404
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note: the rangers around the Kern limestone have been getting pissed at the fact that some people park their cars directly underneath the crag, on the road. Also, due to mass seepage, the bolts on under attack and holey power should be considered suspect.
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