The Definitive Guide To Bay Area Top Ropes Bay Area Bay Area Top Ropes includes over 260 climbs within a 2 hour drive of San Francisco. T Included are over 19 areas from North Coast, South Bay, East Bay, San Francisco and Sierra op Ropes Foothills. All the classic spots are in this book: Castle Rock, Mt. Tam, Split Rock, Mt. Diablo as well as a number of lesser known spots on the North Coast. In addition, this book includes BAY AREA a 20 pages of information that help the transition from the gym to outdoors. Author Chris Summit personally climbed and mapped almost every route to ensure the accuracy of the information. l Over 260 top ropes from 5.4 to 5.13 l Topos, photo-diagrams, and detailed descriptions to get you to the climbs Bay Area l TOP ROPES Over 40 color photos of the Bay Area’s best climbs and scenery l Inside tips on learning to top rope l A road map to moving from the climbing gym to outside Top ropes Chris McNamara, Summit, V alentine Cullen Chris McNamara Chris Summit Valentine Cullen ISBN 978-0-9765235-8-1 90000> 9 780976523581 Over 260 Climbs! Bay Area Top Ropes by Chris McNamara, Chris Summit and Valentine Cullen 3 FOR CURRENT ROUTE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM Bay Area Overview Map to Ukiah 1 to Middletown 1617 and Clear Lake 5 2 99 3 101 Calistoga 18 Jenner Lake 505 4 29 Berryessa to Auburn 80 Santa Rosa 1 Sacramento 12 80 Bodega 14 Bay Davis 101 12 Napa 50 15 Vacaville to Placerville 37 12 Fairfield (Cosumnes River and Mosquito Coast) Vallejo 1 San Rafael 80 5 99 6 Concord 5 680 Stinson 7 8 Beach Walnut Berkeley Creek Mt San 80 10 Diablo Francisco 11 Danville Oakland Stockton 580 Livermore Pacific 205 Ocean Dublin 101 880 Sunol 12 680 9 99 280 1 San Jose 13 101 9 5 17 Santa Cruz Gilroy 152 5 Salinas Monterey 1 Carmel 19 101 Pinnacles to Big Sur 4 BAY AREA TOP ROPES: SUPERTOPOS Contents Introduction North Coast Dining and Amenities 9 Poison Oak 13 The Climbing Instinct 14 Key Climbing Phrases and their descriptions 16 Ratings, Anchors, and Moving to Outdoors 17 Gear for Top Roping 20 Top Rope Instruction in the Bay Area 21 Introduction to Top Roping Anchors 22 Avoiding the Biggest Dangers in Top Roping 26 Technique 28 Wine Country 1. Mt St Helena (The Quarry, Bubble, Far Side) 34 North Coast 2. Salt Point (Fisk Mill Cove, The Playground) 42 3. Sea Crag 52 4. Goat Rock (Sunset Boulders) 56 5. Mickey’s Beach (Main Rock, Egg Rock) 62 North Bay 6. Mount Tamalpais (East Peak) 66 7. Ring Mountain (Split Rock) 70 East Bay 8. Berkeley (Indian Rock, Cragmont, Remilard) 74 9. Indian Joe Caves 82 10. Mt Diablo (Boy Scout Rocks) 86 San Francisco/South Bay 11. Beaver Street Wall 92 12. Handley Rock 94 13. Castle Rock (Indian Rock, Goat Rock) 96 Sierra Foothils 14. Mosquito Coast 106 15. Cosumnes River (Bucks Bar Dome, Struggler Cliff) 108 Bonus Cliffs 16. Dos Rios (Eel River) 112 17. Squaw Rock 116 18. Twin Coves 118 19. Granite Creek 120 About the Authors 124 Climbs by Rating 125 5 FOR CURRENT ROUTE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM Warning Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport in which severe injuries or death may occur. Relying on the information in this book may increase the danger. When climbing you can only rely on your skill, training, experience, and conditioning. If you have any doubts as to your ability to safely climb any route in this guide, do not try it. This book is neither a professional climbing instructor nor a substitute for one. It is not an instructional book. Do not use it as one. It contains information that is nothing more than a compilation of opinions about climbing in the Bay Area. These opinions are neither facts nor promises. Treat the information as opinions and nothing more. Do not substitute these opinions for your own common sense, good judgement, and experience. Assumption of Risk There may be errors in this book resulting from the mistake of the authors and/or the people with whom they consulted. The information was gathered from a variety of sources, which may not have been independently verified. Those who provided the information may have made mistakes in their descriptions. The authors may have made mistakes in their conveyance of the information in this book. The authors cannot, therefore, guarantee the correctness of any of the information contained in this book. The topographical maps, photo-diagrams, difficulty ratings, protection ratings, approach and/or descent information, suggestions about equipment, and other matters may be incorrect or misleading. Fixed protection may be absent, unreliable, removed, or misplaced. You must keep in mind that the information in this book may be erroneous, so use your own judgement when choosing, approaching, climbing, or descending from a route described or mentioned in this book. DO NOT USE THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU [AND YOUR ESTATE] PROMISE NEVER TO TRY TO SUE US IF YOU GET HURT, LOST OR KILLED. Disclaimer of Warranties THE AUTHORS AND PUBLISHER WARN THAT THIS BOOK CONTAINS ONLY THE AUTHORS’ OPINIONS ON THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. THEY MAKE NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR PURPOSE, OR OTHERWISE, AND IN ANY EVENT, THEIR LIABILITY FOR BREACH OF ANY WARRANTY OR CONTRACT WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENT OF THIS BOOK IS LIMITED TO THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE BOOK. THEY FURTHER LIMIT TO SUCH PURCHASE PRICE THEIR LIABILITY ON ACCOUNT OF ANY KIND OF NEGLIGENT BEHAVIOR WHATSOEVER ON THEIR PART WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK. 6 BAY AREA TOP ROPES: SUPERTOPOS Acknowledgements Thanks to these local climbers for their Cover Photo: Holly Anne on Split Rock. first ascents: Photo by Jerry Dodrill Jordy Morgan, Jim and Jason Campbell, Back Cover Photo: Chris Summit climbs Jim Thornburg, Scott Frye, Jerry Dodrill, Blue Heron at Twin Coves. Photo by Jerry Marcos Nunez, Bruce Morris, Dave Dodrill Caunt, Ken Ariza, Tom Richardson, Mark Howe, Richie Esquibel, Russ Bobzien, Jeff Page 3 Photo: Lita Collins climbs on Mt. Follett, Eric Berghorn, Ken Stanton, Wade Tam. Photo by Chris McNamara Mills, Forest Shute, Ryan Tolentino and Aaron Rough. Cover Design by David Safanda Design Solutions. www.safanda.com Special thanks to these people for their Chris and Val would like to give a help with the guide: heartfelt thank you to all our family and friends that have helped us with this book Stripe aka Buddy–the best dog in the and also in every aspect of life. Chris world, Chris’ wonderful mom Jeanie would also like to give a very special Anderson-Saludes and awesome step- thanks to Val for all her love and support dad Bony Saludes, the beautiful, smart, throughout every aspect of this book. funny, athletic and stylish Holly Anne Grinnell, Harrison Hood, Bruce Morris, Jerry Dodrill, Richie Esquibel, Charlie Barrett, Ken Ariza, Marcos Nunez, Odessa For our best dog friend, Stripe, aka Ladinsky, Dave Buchanan, Westminster Buddy. We will miss you and love you Woods, and Chris McNamara. forever. Book Credits Copyright 2010 by SuperTopo, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the permission in writing from the publisher. Written by Chris McNamara, Chris Summit and Valentine Cullen. Photos by Chris Summit (unless otherwise noted). Edited by Steve McNamara and Chris McNamara. Layout by Chris McNamara and Valentine Cullen. 7 FOR CURRENT ROUTE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM 8 Introduction In the Climbing Tips-Instruction/ Information section of the book we begin By Chris Summit with which gym or guide service to choose for a climbing/belay lesson (or how to best choose an experienced friend/mentor) then we describe what type and size of gear you will need to get started and demonstrate This is a guidebook to the best top rope T how to place it and set up the anchor climbs in the San Francisco Bay Area systems. Our guidebook then takes you to (top rope = to climb a rock with the rope the actual places to top rope in the Bay Area, securely anchored to the top). The top such as Castle Rock in the south bay, Mt rope is the most frequently used technique St Helena in the north bay (wine country), for climbing cliffs that are about 25-100 and Mt Diablo in the east bay. Once at these feet tall, which is the size of most Bay Area areas with your newly acquired skills and rocks. Most of these rocks have access to gear, you will be fully equipped with all the top via walking, scrambling or in a few the information you’ll need to set up a top cases a relatively easy lead climb or boulder rope and start enjoying some of the best problem. Also included are some of the climbing the Bay Area has to offer. We hope best boulder problems at the top rope you discover that the top rope is a tried and areas, since one persons top rope may be true form of “pure” climbing for any level another’s boulder problem or vice versa and climber and that the Bay Area crags have because bouldering is one of the best ways some fun, picturesque and worthy climbs. to learn how to climb. There is also some lead climbing information included since lead climbing is often one and the same as Charlie Barrett on the West Face of Mickey’s Beach Crag.