Bay Area moderate cracks

My goal for the next 6 months is to not suck at crack climbing so that I can tick some classic Yosemite and high Sierra alpine routes this year.

I train at GWPC and Ironworks in the east bay, but I would prefer getting in a ton of crack mileage outdoors than the gym.

Anybody have suggestions for hand / finger crack routes from 5.7 to mid 5.10 that would be good practice? Closer to Oakland the better - Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam, Castle Rock, St Helena, etc. I've looked around area pages on MP but haven't found much yet.

Trad, TR, bouldering ... open to anything!

Jared

Given what you asked for (bay area place to clmb cracks), I second mike suggestions.

Note that the cracks at ironworks and great western suck, and probably give you the wrong impression of what gym cracks can be like. The touchstone carcks are the wrong texture, they don't teach you any technique, and they don't get you any endurance.

The planet granite ones are WAY better, and way more numerous. There are a large variety of cracks at planet granite sunnvale and san francisco that will train all the different sizes (ow, chimney, finger, off-finger, hands, fist, butterfly, squeeze, layback, etc...)

I wouldn't recommend going to the grotto more than once or twice...

ummm... If your goal is to climb Yosemite cracks, why not drive to Yosemite and climb Yosemite cracks? Lead Jamcrack, then set up a TR on the harder cracks near it. Go climb at Bishops Terrace, do the Grack, climb After 7.

C Brooks wrote:ummm... If your goal is to climb Yosemite cracks, why not drive to Yosemite and climb Yosemite cracks?

That's the plan whenever possible, but my schedule for the next several months is mostly limited to day trips on weekends. 8 hours roundtrip is a lot of driving for a single day, which is why I'm looking for routes closer to home.

@ Mike & mpech - thanks for the suggestions. Good to know that the cracks at PG are better than Touchstone. I get laps in at GWPC but yeah the texture sucks on both cracks. I'll definitely check out PG ... especially with the next couple weekends looking rainy.

If you don't want to deal with Yosemite but still have time to drive, cosumnes river gorge has some moderate cracks. Probably 2 hours from Oakland with no traffic (whenever that is).

I agree though, it's frustrating living out here if you want a quick crack day.

mountainproject.com/scripts…

mountainproject.com/v/mosqu…

Pretty much it. Early season crack conditioning has been a problem for Bay Area dwellers since forever.

castle rock

This issue has been ongoing for me as well and it seems that the best, closest option are the PG gyms..... if only you could get a membership there for just the cracks... I've climbed the cracks at some touchstone gyms and they suck, but they'll get you strong for outside if you can do them!

If you ever need a crack training buddy let me know.

I think Mission Cliffs has a few good cracks. There's a hand crack in the older section of the gym that's short but you can do laps up and down. There's a thin hands/finger crack about 4' to the right of that one that is pretty good too, although it gets much harder at the top. And there's a great layback crack on the left corner of the wave wall (the new section). All the way of the left side of the new part of the gym there are two adjustable cracks that they usually have set up for fist/offwidth. The problem with those is that the surface is still very rough, so bring tape and a long sleeve shirt if you want to do those.

As for outside and doable in a day trip from the bay area, it'll be too cold for a while, but Tahoe has some beautiful cracks in the range you're looking for. The first pitch of One Hand Clapping on the Black Wall at Donner is a super fun 5.8 hand crack, and right next to that is Firecracker, a good 10b. Sugarloaf has two outstanding 5.10 finger cracks, The Fracture and Fingerlock. And there are some great ones at Lover's Leap too, like Hospital Corner, the Line (although there's actually not that much jamming on this one), Surrealistic Pillar Direct, and Traveler's Buttress.

mountainproject.com/v/bay-a…

tim goodson wrote:I think Mission Cliffs has a few good cracks. There's a hand crack in the older section of the gym that's short but you can do laps up and down. There's a thin hands/finger crack about 4' to the right of that one that is pretty good too, although it gets much harder at the top. And there's a great layback crack on the left corner of the wave wall (the new section). All the way of the left side of the new part of the gym there are two adjustable cracks that they usually have set up for fist/offwidth. The problem with those is that the surface is still very rough, so bring tape and a long sleeve shirt if you want to do those.

You're right, some at Mission Cliffs are pretty fun. The adjustable has that walltopia stuff so it's gnarly but if you tape it's fun. If I remember correctly there's also draws next to it so you could lead that if you wanted. Sacramento has one in their boulder area that's just about fists for me (small hands) and that is kinda fun. I guess I'm used to the San Jose gym (I climb there most often) where the cracks are super flared and the adjustable wall moves because they're too lazy to fix it.

Basically if you're gonna do any in the gym, especially Touchstone, I'd wear gloves or tape up.

Mei over at Supertopo wrote a handy guide to PG cracks: mxi2000.net/mudworm/2016/03…

Yeah PG cracks are the best for bay area crack training.

GWPC cracks = horrible

not necessarily bay area only cracks but I remember this thread from a while back:

mountainproject.com/v/your-…

good for the stoke.

edited to add: that PG guide is pretty awesome.

Fly from Oakland to Ontario. Rent a car. Go to J-Tree.

It's not worth driving to just for this, but I practiced leading crack at the bear and far sides of mt st Helena last year for this very purpose. The ratings of the cracks in the bay area guidebook felt pretty soft, and you can always just toprope them if you don't feel comfortable at 5.10 yet.

There's some 5-10 cracks that I've found worth doing if you wander around.

Besides that it seems everything's been said. Hit up PG and check out the grotto a couple of times, but make sure to wait after rain. The rock's not fragile but it seems water after long rains making it no fun.

Agreed with the PG cracks. Surprisingly good at building technique, just make sure you wear gloves (they sell Okun gloves at PG if you don't want to make tape gloves) otherwise the sandpaper texture will give you gobies after one lap. They also have crack climbing classes if you have no one to teach you (technique goes a long way, particularly for the OW stuff), or just find someone climbing the cracks and ask for pointers.

Added benefit of PG cracks is you can use footholds if you're trying to work on jamming technique so you can really focus on your hands, or handholds if you're trying to work of foot technique.

Outdoors, I think I did a couple jams on Degeneration at Castle Rock: mountainproject.com/v/degen…

I think the next reasonable place is Cosumnes River Gorge: mountainproject.com/v/cosum…

For Mt St Helena, I may have missed them but although there are some cracks that are decent if you just want to practice placing gear, none of the cracks seemed like good technique practice for Yosemite climbs.

Danny Herrera wrote:  castle rock

Yo! Where is this at exactly in Castle Rock?

CA Crack 5.10b R/X has been my long time project. No redpoint yet, there is a heinous move with a butterfly overlapping jam as you crest the roof…

Bonus is that it is one of the only pure trad routes on the West Marin coast.

FYI- I’ll go out and work this crack pretty much any good weather day. So, HMU as they say.

where is that at?

Charles Winstead wrote:

CA Crack 5.10b R/X has been my long time project. No redpoint yet, there is a heinous move with a butterfly overlapping jam as you crest the roof…

Bonus is that it is one of the only pure trad routes on the West Marin coast.

FYI- I’ll go out and work this crack pretty much any good weather day. So, HMU as they say.

Maybe now that Chris is working this it might be better, but I tried TRing this a few years ago and it was miserably dirty. I guess it is practically the only crack in the area though. Only other I remember hearing about was a 5.11 crack somewhere on mt tam that I found in an article about Eric Kohl, but no idea where it actually is though.

For those wondering where this is, its on the approach to the egg out by mickeys beach. You can't miss it.