Hi. I am considering a position in Santa Barbara next year. What is the climbing like there in terms of sport/trad/bouldering and access? Is it possible to do day trips to quality areas? What are driving times like to nearby places? How are the local folk, nice? What's the majority of grades? Are there steep juggy routes, slabs, cracks etc?

Best,
Joe

Joe,

Santa Barbara is a pretty cool place to live. As I'm sure you are aware, the cost of living is among the highest in the nation, so take that into consideration with a job offer. I think the average home cost is close to a million, even out in Goleta.

As for the climbing, it's no Boulder, but it's not too bad. It's 99% soft sandstone (with a few exceptions), and most everything is fairly short. There are several local crags - Gibraltar, Toxic Waste, San Ysidro, Fire Crags, Little Lebowski, etc that have some fun stuff to offer. Wheeler Gorge is an hour away and has some fun sport climbing. Sespe Gorge is about 1+ hrs drive and has a few 2-pitch trad lines (Ending Crack, Tree Root, Pipe Cleaner). San Luis Obispo is 1.5 hrs to the north and has some good stuff on Bishop's Peak. Joshua Tree is a 4-hr drive. Yosemite is a 6-hr drive. Needles is 4.5 hrs. All of the areas I just mentioned are listed here on MP.

I don't boulder much, but Lizard's Mouth and Pine Mountain are supposed to be quite good.

Hope this helps.

SOOOO jealous.... and I just moved to New Zealand!

Santa Barbara is effing gorgeous. I spent a few days there back in '03, when I had a friend living in the hills above downtown SB. We went to a creperie near downtown, I wish I remembered the name, but the owner was an ex-pat from France and we chatted for about an hour.

I can't say anything about the local climbing scene, but if it makes sense for you financially to live and work in SB, go for it!!

Hey Joe. SB is a great place to live and climb. I lived there for five years while I was in grad school. The climbing is really enjoyable (considering most of it is sandstone). Most of it is easily accessible and in beautiful locales. For instance, here's photo of T-Crack [5.10b] on Gibraltar Rock:



It's a YNP-type crack and, as you can see, you have a view of the ocean all the way out to the Channel Islands. If you get a chance, make sure to check out Steve Edwards' climbing guide.

SB climbing has everything from 5.0 to 5.14a. Most of it bolted, but there is a fair share of trad routes here and there. For some longer trad routes, there is Black Wall in Sespe Gorge (NW of Ojai), e.g., the classic route is Ending Crack (5.7 R). In most cases, the climbing community is really laid back, friendly and welcomes new people. Also, being in SB puts you five or so hours from JTree, YNP and the east Sierra Nevada.

Also, there's a bunch more stuff within just a couple of hours of SB. For instance, I now live in San Luis Obispo (100 miles north). Our climbing is almost all on dacite. (I much prefer igneous to sedimentary rock!) We have a mix of sport and trad (with a bit more trad than SB). An hour north of us is Pinnacles National Monument which has a lot of routes.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Excellent. Thanks for the info. I am pretty stoked about the job, so we'll see what happens. I actually didn't know where to look for SB on MP(didn't think of searching "santa barbara" doh!) But now I know it is in "central coast" section. Working on my application now.