On the way home from San Diego, I decided it was well past time to take an exploratory hike of Descanso. It has been on my rock climbing RADAR for a while, but I wasn't sure exactly where it was or what the climbing looked like.
I half intentionally passed the trail, in order to explore the area a bit more. Which was marked by an unusual large amount of dirt on the road.
I wasn't sure which face was which. I took a quick break on the large boulder at the base of the wall.
After that I made my way east along the wall and saw a bunch of bolts along the way. At least four bolted routes, most of them look easy from the bottom. After exploring the bottom I scrambled up the rocks immediately behind where the memorial is to the top. There wasn't much up there until the east end of the face where there were 2 anchors and the easiest path down to the bottom. I look forward to head back here and do some climbing. Because of the easy access, hikeable top rope anchors and variety of difficulty, it should be a good place to take new climbers.
The turn around at the gate also serves as the parking lot.
I half intentionally passed the trail, in order to explore the area a bit more. Which was marked by an unusual large amount of dirt on the road.
"Cliff" at the base of the trail
The hardest part of the hike is the steep "cliff" between the road and the trail. Once I passed the Fire Fighter Memorial,
I wasn't sure which face was which. I took a quick break on the large boulder at the base of the wall.
Bolt on top of the boulder facing the main wall
After that I made my way east along the wall and saw a bunch of bolts along the way. At least four bolted routes, most of them look easy from the bottom. After exploring the bottom I scrambled up the rocks immediately behind where the memorial is to the top. There wasn't much up there until the east end of the face where there were 2 anchors and the easiest path down to the bottom. I look forward to head back here and do some climbing. Because of the easy access, hikeable top rope anchors and variety of difficulty, it should be a good place to take new climbers.
View from the top. Parking center left and I8 across the top
-James
No comments:
Post a Comment