Caveman is basically one large boulder with a couple of stout routes on its south face. Its namesake route is worth the hike by itself. This area has a great view of Santa Barbara and is reminiscent of the fir tree paradise of Pine Mountain. Not a bad place to bring non-climbers as well, if you can convince them to belay you on your project.
Getting There
Per the Kevin Steele guidebook: "This is the large boulder, with a cave at its base, on the unnamed peak between Gibraltar Rock and La Cumbre Peak. The outcrop sits near the top of the hill among a group of pines facing the ocean. The rock is visible from Gibraltar Rock. The approach starts about 1.2 miles up the road beyond Gibraltar Rock. Start hiking up a small wash on the left, then across the hillside following a faint trail."
An added suggestion for the approach is to take a left at the Gibraltar Road/Camino Cielo "T" a park in a turnout on the left side of the road. Walk back DOWN Gibraltar Road about 100 feet, then take a trail up and to your right. The trail is actually in pretty good condition. Once you climb the small peak and enter a boulder field overlook, look for weaknesses in the manzanita to your left. You can see the formation down the hill about 100 meters. The trail is a little overgrown, but not too bad.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Caveman:
The peak is called Potter's Point and there are a handful of routes scattered around. Probably 10 at least--I should know but I don't feel like looking at my book. Seems odd to use this old description.
There's a lot of rock on this hillside. We established quite a few routes and, since, I've heard of some people sorting out some of the bouldering possibilities.
Away from Caveman, most of the routes are in the 10 range, and there's a cool long-ish 5.7 behind a huge pine tree on the biggest face you see.
At the cave, there's, hmm, an 11+,12a, 12c, weird slanting hard 10 or easy 11, and a great 13a.
Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!
RSS Feed
