Needed: Help with Black Bluff approach beta

Afternoon gals and gents, I was hoping someone could help me with the approach beta for black bluff. As the story goes I attempted to find the place aprox. a month ago but ended up wandering around for a good 4h with no climbing. To be specific, we parked at the campground and found the cairns, and more importantly the climbing trail markers, and followed these a ways until we were in a LARGE open field that had been recently clear-cut. At this point a small ridge was in front of us. We decided to head over the ridge in front and quickly reached the ridge line. Didn't see another climbing post after the open field, only small-ish cairns that may have been psychosomatic. We thrashed around this ridge line for a while and found some formations but none that were clearly "black bluff". All looked rather mediocre. After searching this ridge line and getting scraped up for a few hours we decided to turn back with our tails between our legs defeated.

I was hoping that someone who is familiar with the place/been there recently could possibly make sense of my ramblings and possibly give me some more specific directions (or GPS coordinates) to aid in my navigation of this area.

Any help would be very appreciated.
Rob

Where is this "Black Bluff" ????????????????????????

maybe it has a different name, to some folks.

Jess saying.

Good point Guy, I am speaking specifically about the black bluff in the san bernadinos, south of big bear lake.

Thanks

Contact this guy.
He knows the area.
mountainproject.com/u/joe-d…

Thats the Place with the "BEST CRACK in The SB Mts." right and where the Slack Liners go?

Its hard to find, for sure. If its the same place, I went to. The only advise is to Follow the carns... always.

Getting lost in the woods is part of the fun.

I was there a month ago. they are fire clearing the whole plateau. Everything looks different and the original cairn trail was pretty much gone in the beginning of the trail and towards the end. If you haven't been there before it's going to be really hard to find. It took me 30 minutes to find the original path out of the campground/parking area. I tried my best to rebuild cairns at the start of the trail to link to the middle. it will still be hard to find towards the end.

edit: also, if you're wandering around there it is terribly easy to get lost on that large plateau so be very careful

Looks like it's time to redo the trail? I won't have any time this weekend, but maybe next weekend I'll head over there and see if I can do a re-duck.

That would be awesome Chris. I've been wanting to check this place out to hone my crack climbing skills, but kind of hesistant because of the numerous stories I hear people not finding it. I have a friend that's been there once and he did say it was very tricky.

Chris Owen wrote:Looks like it's time to redo the trail? I won't have any time this weekend, but maybe next weekend I'll head over there and see if I can do a re-duck.

The approach from Bluff Mesa Group CG takes about 20-30 minutes assuming you stay on track and don't get lost; going with someone who's been to Black Bluff before is highly recommended if at all possible.

we were there today. we followed the cairns very carefully for 45 minutes then ended up in the middle of nowhere... after wondering around in the woods for a few hours in the rain we finally found the cliff. As the description says, it is very easy to get lost there.

We did our best to build cairns to lead the way and knock over cairns that lead you off into nowhere. it is a particularly difficult to find the trail because there was all the recent logging, creating a lot of foot and tractor traffic going all over the place.

if you have not been there before, you might find the trail, but i recommend going with someone that knows the area... or enjoy the hike!

Just went here last week. We went with someone that has been there before but it was a few years for him. Once we found the start of the trail that was marked with a few cairins, we found the cliff pretty easily. I would say if he wasn't with my wife and I, we would have had a hard time finding the start of the trail. But once you find the start of the trail, the rest of the way is easy to follow. There were plenty of cairins and we even added more to some sections that we thought needed it.

I added a photo on the black bluff page where I think the OP got lost at (a huge open clearance after you pass a logging road).

Go past the large open clearcut area after the logging road go uphill a bit, and trend RIGHT. I was there a few months ago and went left at the end of the plateau , got lost for a bit, then went back and found it. That place is awesome!!