Riverside Quarry

This week we went out to the Riverside Quarry, a new place for me. Driving out there was sort of nostalgic for me, I used to live in Riverside, and I learned to love the high desert. As for the crag itself … I did not entirely know what to expect. My older brother loves this spot, loves the climbs, and talked us into trying it. Unfortunately I just don’t think this was the right time.

To begin with, we did not get to Riverside until about 10:30 in the morning, which means that the sun was already out warming things up.  The weather channel had said it would be about 80 degrees, but I’ve been spoiled by an 80 degrees in Malibu Creek, or Echo. The Quarry is right next to a neighborhood, and you park on a street next to some houses. It is really easy to spot this area approaching, the hill has been split down to get at the granite, exposing the climbs. So the approach is really very simple, just follow up the dirt road.

This place has a very Mad Max sort of feel. There is rubbish laying around- old tires, sofas, broken glass, graffiti on the rocks, and people doing motocross. I thought about what a Bartertown would look like if they had set up in this area, and tried to hear the sax player before he got shot. Tina Turner would definitely class the place up some. There is no shade really in the whole area, and no where to relieve yourself, so be ready for that.

There were already a couple of groups on the crag, but they all seemed fairly well spaced apart, there was no clump of people standing all on one route, so I’m guessing that there are plenty of good climbs along the main part of the crag. However, we had a very hard time discerning where exactly we wanted to climb. We were looking for some pretty easy, accessible climbs, because I am still learning to lead climb. Our goal was actually the Schoolhouse Rock face which was described as pretty easy, but we met a couple of guys who had been there before, and were going to Fun City, just around the corner from the main part of the crag. So we decided to start there and come back to find Schoolhouse Rock.

I liked the climbs at Fun City that we did- Mass Production and Made to Order. But the thing is this, a lot of the holds were drilled and chipped into the rock, and then glued to stick like that. I have never seen anything like that anywhere else. It was weird for someone who is used to either natural rock or gym climbs, as this was both. On real rock, but designed by a person.

Ken Lee borrowed a guide book from some fellow climbers, (the ones we followed to the wall) and the book listed Mass Production as a 5.10b, but on Mountain project it is listed as 5.9. The moves are not that hard, and since they are glued they are all very obvious… but it is very pumpy and very very steep. This place is freaking  perfectly 90 degrees! And it’s so sheer. It made it really scary to clip because you can’t lean into the rock. You have to really trust your stance and be really clean. I was really proud that I lead this one.

The next climb I tried to lead, Made to Order 5.8, but got stuck after the first stinking bolt!

Because I could not find a stance that I could trust to stay on the wall. So Mattieu lead it and I top-roped it up to clean it. It was a very dirty route to clean (badum ching!)

(Thats the only thing I don’t like about outdoor climbing)

But there was this cool hawk nest! I have to assume that it was a hawk nest because we saw hawks flying around and there were rabbit pelts on the twigs.

I personally would consider this a little harder than the 5.8 its listed, but not by much. There is such a difference between climbs though, not only from different rocks to different grades, different kinds of holds. This had little ledges that were marked by the cement glue, but again, it is such a straight climb it feels very exposed. The granite that made up these climbs was friendly on your hands; it doesn’t cut into your hand like some of the sharp rocks at Texas Canyon, but I found it hard to make my shoes stick to it. It was a lot smoother than I was expecting. Still fun, but an added challenge.  Both of these climbs were amazingly well protected though! Someone put some love into making these climbs possible. There was seriously a bolt every couple of feet. I watched another climber go up Worker Bee (5.10a) and there was literally a bolt every 2 feet. So nice, it makes you feel so safe!

#selfie #top of the route #baking hot # pink cheeks #hashtag

By this point we were baking in the sun (see previous picture), the rocks were hot to the touch, so we went and tried to find Schoolhouse Rock, to see if maybe we could get some more breeze. Unfortunately we went too far to the left and almost got onto a different face. But after very close inspection, and wandering around for a bit, we did find it, it is the very last block of rock on the farthest right. We did not think it was going to be in any way difficult because of the low grades of the rock. The angle, especially after the near perfect vertical of Fun House, just seemed sad. Also, Schoolhouse Rock is all very short routes, only 40 feet maybe, whereas the next face climbs over would take the entire rope. Those to the right were easily 80/90 foot routes.

Oh, a note about crags, faces and routes: I consider the crag to be the over all location of the climbs, so all of the climbs fall under one crag. Faces are a group of specific climbs, or a wall of individual rock that has routes. Faces do not have to be connected or touching to be at the same crag. Individual routes are just that, a single climb. So you have route A on face/wall blah at the crag triangle. Or at Riverside Quarry on Schoolhouse Rock wall I tried the classic climb Schoolhouse Rock, and completed on top rope Tyrannosaurus Debt.

Schoolhouse Rock (5.8) is, unfortunately, the kind of climb that I have a really hard time with. It is low grade to a sheer bump, so if you got on top of the bump, you have to walk to the next one and clip there, but if you fall, you roll really bad or you could drop onto the rock you just climbed! I know it might be silly, but this kind of climb really scares me.

So, I climbed up to the first bolt and called it. Sadness was mine, and Ken Lee cleaned the route.

Tyrannosaurus Debt (5.9) was much more my alley! Although, I did again get stuck at the first bolt while trying to lead it. There is so little to hold onto after that first bolt! Nothing and more nothing, except one little foot hold under a lip of rock. Everything else was a smear, where you just put your foot on the rock and hope. It is all about the balance, which normally I can rock, but for whatever reason, I just couldn’t stick this move. I sat on the rope for a long time and tried this and tried that, and finally got frustrated and let Mattieu finish it. I did complete it on top rope, but I just feel like a 5.9 should be obvious enough to be pretty easy to climb (maybe that is just my ego speaking). All three of us had to sit and try several different moves and holds to get something to stick. It felt weird to project a freaking 5.9! But for all that it was a pretty interesting climb, really really good for learning and practicing balance moves, with one big move up over a boulder. There is a two or three bald patches on this climb though, where you just sit and think “WTF! There is nothing here to hold on to, nothing to put my feet on, where can I move?!” But, inevitably, there is something there, you just have to keep trying. One example being a really solid ledge half way up said boulder, you have to put your hand in just the right spot as you can’t see it at all. The end of the climb you just walk up to the anchors, but there are a lot of pebbles, so keep moving slowly so that you don’t kick them onto your belayer.

By this time the sun was about to set, and I could not believe how much time we spent out there! I think we spent too much time trying to find the right face. We headed out, but went on the wrong road (who was leading the group? I was. I lead us in the wrong direction) So we had to track back over the prickly brush, which is everyone’s favorite.

I think Riverside Quarry might be better for more intense climbers. Personally, I think it is sort of funny to have a man made face, with man made climbs that are chipped, etched, and glued into the rock. I want to come back to this place someday, when I am a stronger climber, and try some of the other places in the quarry.

Reasons I will go back:

1 Sheerness of the rock

2 Quality of the rock is unlike anything else

3 Length of the rest of the climbs is intense

Reasons I am not in a rush:

1 Ugly location

2 It is enough of a drive to Riverside that I want to be really excited to be there.

Is there anyone whose favorite place is Riverside Quarry? Did I miss the perfect climb on one of the faces that we went to? Most importantly- where should I go next?

Horse Flats!

I’ve been gone! I went home for two weekends so no new outdoor climbing adventures, so I will take you back to a couple of weeks ago…

My buddy Ken Lee and I wanted to climb during the Los Angeles heat wave. But we KNEW that Malibu Creek state park, and Point Dume were going to be swamped with people who also wanted a cool place to climb. So we looked up the next coolest (literally chilly) place. We landed on Horse Flats, which we had never been to before! So we tip toed away to have a super *cool* adventure! (see what I did there? cool? and cool routes? ok.) Most of Horse Flats is known for Trad routes and boulder, but there is the Top Rope Wall, which has a good spread of easy to moderate climbs. But before we could do any of that, we had to freaking get there!

Ken Lee and I stopped for a photo!

Actually it wasn’t that hard to drive there, we just went to the Horse Flats campground. You drive up to Angeles National park, which is only a hop skip and a jump from Los Angeles — 30 or 40 miles plus traffic —  then keep going on windy mountain roads for another hour or so! It might only be about 30 miles, but it is so windy and bumpy that it will take you a long while. So, being real, that place is way the heck up in the mountains. I think it would be easier if you stayed at the campground, for the night, but we were there for a day trip, plus I forgot some cash so we had to park at a lot a mile away. The day was so beautiful that we did not even care. Seriously, as advertised by the weather channel, it was 70* and a little cloudy. A perfect climbing day!

From the campground, we set off from campsite #1, one of  the two possible trails out to the crag. The other possibility is across from campsite #5. Ok, now this is important: the trail starts off easy to follow, you stand with your back to campsite #1, and you can see the trail. I thought it was little demanding physically, but c’mon, we’re climbers, so what? BUT there are places where the trail freaking disappears… it’s gone! There are a lot of game trails to get a little lost on, and a couple of places where it goes through rock beds that are really easy to get turned around with. We almost got lost a couple of times… But Cairns  — little piles of stacked rocks — saved our freaking lives, another climbing friend, Tim, told me about these while we were hiking in Echo Cliffs.  Seriously, it is important to keep an eye out for these guys to keep you on track. Please do not set up ones off trail or knock any down!

(See the cairn? They’re not always easy to see!)

Finally though, we did make it to Top Rope Wall, and climbed around back to enjoy the view and start setting up our top rope. It looked like there had once been a couple of bolt anchors, but someone had taken them down.

All that’s left is the tree, lonely, at the top of the rocks and a boulder to tie on to.

On the tree was a couple of… well we call them cow tails, but I think they’re really nylon loops.

Ken Lee used them to tie into while he was setting up our anchor, we made a dedicated anchor — a quad anchor, which is really bomber–  that is already equalized, using an X pattern. I will have to take some pictures of this some time to show you all what I’m talking about, and get Ken to explain it.

It looks like this one, plus two opposing locking carabiners

ANYWAY we finally got the rope up and us down, and ready to start climbing. We only tried two climbs on Top Rope Wall: Horse Play (5.8) and Ant Line (5.11c)

Horse Play was just that! Super fun crack climb, a tiny bit tricky first step, then up and away until you have to leave the crack, then it gets balance-y. I really liked this one. Usually Crack climbs are not my favorite, because they scratch up the back of your hands, and hurt your feet (yea,I am a bit of a baby.) This one had holds on the inside of the crack in places, so you didn’t have to use so much of your body to make the holds.

Like on some cracks where you have to make a fist and use your fist as a hold. This was a lot kinder than that, plus there was a bit where you could put your back against the rock and chimney up. The second half was, as mentioned a little balance-y. What I mean by balance-y is that while there is not big jugs coming out of the rock, there are little pieces that you can put your feet on and lean into the rock and balance on the smallest bit. There were a couple big friendly jugs though, jugs as in big holds. I felt like it was a really solid 5.8, not too hard, but still fun.

(That’s me looking at Ant Line, wistfully)

I’ll be honest, I did not finish Ant Line. I plan on going back and finishing it, but that day, with one thing and another, I just didn’t want to push myself so terribly hard. I did make it to the crux though, and the under-cling bit is really fun. You start off almost in a dihedral with some cool body positions, pushing against the rock with a drop knee move. Then around a tricky bump from having your feet in the dihedral to real face of the climb and your hands to the under-cling.

Footing was a little tricky, but if you trust it, it’s there. I really like under-cling climbs generally, they’re like doing a lie-back, where you hold on and put your feet against the rock and move up that way– I pretend I am like batman doing a lie-back, that’s how my brother taught me. Under-clings work the same way but you’re upright with your feet under you, your palms up. I think if I had continued in that vein maybe I could have finished, but I’ll have to get back to it. If you have a cool beta, please leave it in the comments!

Showing off my hands after a day climbing around!

Then the sun was starting to dip, and we certainly did not feel comfortable trying to hike out after dark. Part of safety is knowing your own limits! So we packed up and wound down the trail… I was proud of myself as I set up a bunch more cairns coming down the trail. I knew it was the right way because we had already made it up. Next time you climb there and see some of the cairns, maybe some will be mine! Oh! ALSO I should mention; we had not seen ANYONE during this whole time.

The whole freaking day we were 100% alone. Look at the picture, you can hear the wind whistling right? Nothing else. It was pretty nice, but sometimes it would have helped us to be able to ask someone where we were and stuff. Being ALL ALONE is nice and a little scary at the same time.

We made it back to the Horse Flats campground only to remember that we had parked a mile away at the parking lot! We kept trying to convince each other to hike up to the car and come back to us. We were so pissed to forget about that last hike! But we both made it back to the car fine, and drove back to hot hot HOT Los Angeles.