Echo Cliffs

I love Echo Cliffs! It is one of my favorite places to climb, and has my favorite outdoor climb that I have completed. … It’s just, getting there is kind of intense. It’s located out in the middle of the Santa Monica Mountains, not an easy drive in to mountains, like Malibu Creek State Park, but way out into the mountains proper. Part of the drive is on really really old road that has a million switchbacks and long curves. Everyone always has fun driving it! Just, please watch out for the millions of bikers that also use the roads.

Once you park, you hike up the Mishe Mokwa Trail which is beautiful, but really long and fairly demanding. Be ready to work those glutes! The trail is always obvious though, you never have to really worry about getting off trail or lost. One of my favorite things is that there is fair shade for the hike, and this might sound weird, but it always smells so good! And the views are knock out for rolling California countryside. The trail is fairly well peopled by other climbers, and hikers just out to enjoy the views (mentioned previously).

After about 30 minutes of hiking, there is a split in the trail, with the main trail heading to some picnic tables and more views. I have never actually taken this trail, but instead follow a creek or natural spillway straight down the side of the mountain. This is extremely taxing both physically and mentally, because if you fall on this bit, you will roll down the mountain. I have never actually heard of this happening, it is just what it feels like. I once saw some climbers attempt to take some dogs on this part of the trail, and the dogs could not climb down it. Oh! that also reminds me, these dogs also accidentally got overheated, please be sure to bring lots of water for yourself and animal companions!

Once you get down the dry waterfall, you are basically at the Grotto, the first climbing area of Echo Cliffs. This area is one of the best, but it’s also the most used. And everyone uses it because:

1 You just hiked 45 minutes and you’re a little tired, and the next wall is another hike away

2 It is almost always hot out and the area is shaded by big trees

3 Most of the rocks are also shaded

4 More shade

(relaxing in the shade)

Shade is so important because Echo is big and beautiful, but a lot of it is north facing, so there is not always shade to relax in. Many of the climbs are right in the sun and bake all day long, so most people chase the shade throughout the day. In the Grotto you have to be careful though, the rocks on the left of the area are off limits! But there are plenty of fun climbs on the right side. We completed 2 in the Grotto- Superfly, and Lowrider.

SuperFly 5.10a is amazing… to follow. First you scramble up a big flake of rock, which is the best area to belay from (especially if you’re using a grigri) then just jump onto the rock. To start out with, I was not leading this route.

Ken Lee was, but for reasons, he had hurt his back… and it spasmed and he fell, right on the third bolt, before he clipped in. The third bolt is really run out; that from the second clip, you match your feet to the second bolt, then take another big step up, then you can almost reach the third bolt.

(Shout out to my buddy Dennis for catching Ken Lee falling!)

So Ken fell like 25 feet! It was really scary! I think that makes it a factor two fall, because we basically equalized. NO GOOD! NO ME GUSTA! Then it was up to me to lead this route.

I have actually climbed at Echo Cliffs before, and done this climb before, without falling… on top rope. After watching Ken fall, I was pretty nervous myself, but the climb is actually really really fun- all the holds are pretty obvious, good crimps and plenty of little feet ledges. One of the things I like about the Grotto area is that the rock is a lot more compact than other areas, which are more conglomerate. Superfly offers a lot of flakes and finger holds, with a couple of friendly jugs here and there. There is one area — right before that third clip — that only has flat finger ledges (less than two knuckles deep, flat) but if you have some guts, you can pick up your left foot and put it in a really good pocket- previously a really good hold. Then you can stand up and try and reach for other holds. Once my brother told me “you just have to turn your fingers to stone and trust them”, and I think that this climb is a good place to learn that. It’s really about confidence.

Lowrider (5.10b) was to the left of this, just behind one of the trees. It was only maybe 45 ft tall, up to a ledge then two open shuts. It’s just to the right of Stinger, and three bolts to two open-shuts. The way that I climbed it made it seem easy, almost too easy, except for one move that is a spread between two finger pockets. Maybe I used to wrong beta though -I went up the crack of Stinger to the first bolt, then traversed to the right. You grab the two finger pockets, move up your feet, grab the ledge, and the climb is over! By finger pockets I mean two little holes that you can really only use two fingers on, and for this you were spreading your arms out so they are clinging to the sides of the holds. This is the only crux of the climb though, just one move, and it’s a really short climb. Not my favorite.

After we finished these two, our group split up and half the group decided that was it for the day, and headed out. But the rest of us decided to go check out Guillotine on the Alcove wall, and the Easy Street face.

The hike around to the Alcove is also challenging, another place that it would be hard to bring dogs or very small children. Although, once when we were at Guillotine, there were some people hiking around, one group with a smallish woman with a gigantic backpack. I looked at her and thought “What, is she camping here? Did she bring a tent or something? What is going on?!” I did not say these sentiments outloud, that would be rude. But we waved as the group passed us by, and out of the back of the backpack were two little dogs! Tiny little things! So cute! Right after the belay area, the woman took off the backpack and was like “ok you two, you are too heavy!” and the little dogs crouched down in the backpack like “No! We don’t want to walk! It’s hot!” I about died trying to hold in laughter, and I still laugh whenever I think about it. Spoiled little doggies!

Unfortunately though, this trip we did not climb on the Alcove, I was not confident enough to lead my favorite climb — Guillotine (5.10b) without having someone be able to go get a quick draw if I could not finish the climb. In their defence, Ken Lee’s back was all screwed up, plus monster fall, and Mattieu had just run a trail race before coming climbing! So onward to Easy Street.

I like Easy Street because all the climbs are super long. As the name suggests all the routes are pretty easy, but it’s cool because they’re still worth the effort. The bolts are a little run out again, but the climb we did on this day was only a little harder than climbing a ladder, if the ladder was 80 feet tall and had really weird handles. The only problem is that this is the crumbliest part of Echo Cliffs, so wearing a helmet is a good idea, and be sure to watch out for pebbles and rocks coming down.

(Dennis grabbed this of Matthieu as they were hiking out, Matthieu is being lowered from leading the climb)

We did the first pitch of Head Wound (5.7), it used up almost all of our 60m rope. There are parts that are interesting, tons of good holds all over the place, you can get creative if you want. I went for speed and completed it in maybe 5 or 7 minutes. There is one part that you are basically scrambling forward, this is a big area for loose rocks though, so be careful! Also, there is a lot of drag on the rope, but I don’t think it is too big of a risk… just because I don’t think there are many places to fall. Fun, good exercise, and a hell of a view makes this climb totally worth it.

After that we were all pretty tired, and had to hike ALL THE WAY BACK!! The distance from The Grotto to Easy Street is in and of itself maybe 20 or 30 minutes of scrambles and hills for hiking, then back up the waterfall, then back up the Mishe Mokwa trail. … but all that and this place is still one of my favorites. There are just so many climbs! And not too many people, just enough to feel like if you fell to your death someone would notice. Plus the view is really really something else.

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.