Climbing Near Coalinga, California

This is probably the first crag you can climb on the east side with a very short approach. The routes are moderate, but the rock is questionable and mossy. Park in the Peaks View paking lot. It’s the first lot you come to after the campground and we’ll before Bear Gulch. From the far end of the parking area look across the creek and you can just see the top of Peaks View Pinnacle poking out from the tops of the trees. It’s a small crag and easy to miss. Just head across the creek and straight for it. It does get brushy during the last 200’ or so.

North Yak is a distinct pinnacle found just south of Yaks Wall.  The North Face route is an excellent way to reach this rarely-visited summit. Dave Hammack, George Larimore, Alice Ann Dayton and Manford Samuelson made the first ascent of North Yak in June of 1951 via Tyrolean traverse from the summit of South Yak. See the excellent description one page up for the entire Yaks area to get to the formation, but you aren't there, yet!  To actually access the routes on the north face, you have to get yourself into the corridor between the North and South Yaks and the wall to the west.The southern entrance into this corridor looks very improbable and I have never found a safe or reliable way to climb up into the corridor from there.  The northern entrance consists of tunneling between talus boulders.  You may or may not have to take your pack off to get through some of the constrictions.  It's a real adventure.The third way to access the routes on the north face is to walk to the top of the wall to the west and make a 100-foot rappel from the anchors atop the route Beast of Burden into the corridor.  If you plan to go back that way, you need to either climb Beast of Burden or one of two other routes, Clint's Escape or Bruce's Escape which were climbed specifically to provide much easier ways to get up and out of the corridor.

This the distinct twin pinnacle to North Yak. It is probably one of the least-visited summits in the entire Pinnacles National Park. That fact alone warrants a visit! See the excellent description one page up for the entire Yaks area to get to the formation, but you aren't there, yet!  To actually access the route on the west face, you have to get yourself into the corridor between the North and South Yaks and the wall to the west.The southern entrance into this corridor looks very improbable and I have never found a safe or reliable way to climb up into the corridor from there.  The northern entrance consists of tunneling between talus boulders.  You may or may not have to take your pack off to get through some of the constrictions.  It's a real adventure.The third way to access the route on the west face is to walk to the top of the wall to the west and make a 100-foot rappel from the anchors atop the route Beast of Burden into the corridor.  If you plan to go back that way, you need to either climb Beast of Burden or one of two other routes, Clint's Escape or Bruce's Escape which were climbed specifically to provide much easier ways to get up and out of the corridor.