I took the kids out to Pinnacles NP for a day of rock climbing and scrambling.
Ryan mostly wanted to go to do a long run in the park. He had intended to join
us for rock climbing until he needed to break away for his run, but it didn't
work out that way. It was 36F when we got to the Bear Creek Picnic area on the
east side shortly before 8a. Jackie and I decided that was too cold to rock
climb, so we suggested Ryan go running first. While he did so, Jackie and I sat
in the jeep, she sleeping, myself playing games on my phone. He came back in a
sweat around 9:30a, after which we got our act together and went off to do some
climbing.
Video by Jackie
Discovery Wall (Portent)
Our main objective was to climb the highly rated route,
Portent. This
5.6 route is fairly popular and we didn't want to wait around for a party of
three to finish on our first visit. Today there were no competitors, and the
only other climbers we'd see before we were done were doing the also-popular
5.8 route nearby, Wet Kiss. In his book,
Climber's Guide to Pinnacles
National Monument, David Rubine suggests the route is best climbed as two
pitches. There are two sets of belay bolts along the route and we ended up doing
it as three short pitches. This made it very easy for us to communicate with
each other, less rope drag, and a more relaxed experience. Jackie chose to take
the lead, the crux coming at the very beginning with a stiff crack up a
near-vertical 10-foot face. After that the climbing becomes more relaxed with
good holds up to the first belay station. We tied Ryan into the middle of the
rope and sent him up second and cleaning the few pieces of gear sister had
placed, myself batting last in the lineup. The second pitch is mostly easy with
a small bulge to get over, fairly tame. The third pitch is a little steeper but
has big, juggy holds that make it pretty fun and easy. We were about an hour
and a quarter to get the three of us
to the top where another two-bolt anchor makes
things fairly easy. I gave them the option of rapping back down the route (since
there was no one waiting to get on it) or walking back. Jackie spoke up quickly
and opted for the walk (while I was secretly hoping for the rap), so we packed
up what we could (we had the one pack I'd carried, the others had left theirs
at the bottom) and headed back down. They were a bit handicapped by having to
wear their climbing shoes for the half mile walk back. I had climbed in my
hiking shoes (Ryan was wearing my rock shoes) so I was happy to have the tables
turned in my favor now. After retrieving our packs, we packed everything up and
headed off up the High Peaks Trail.
Anvil/Carousel
These are a collection of minor climbing objectives along the High Peaks Trail
between Discovery Wall and the High Peaks area. Jackie and I had done The Anvil,
a short 5.1X right off the trail on a previous visit. She sat it out this time
while Ryan and I went up and down. We then took the short climbers trail out to
The Carousel where Jackie led us around to the 5.0 route on the back (south)
side. A low-angle slab route, it was the first indication we had that Jackie
wasn't too happy about these unroped slab scrambles.
With some coaching and coaxing
from her dad and brother, she eventually made her way back down. I went over to
climb what I thought was a formation called "Mushroom Cloud" nearby, but I
didn't go far enough to get to the right pinnacle. Perhaps next time. The one I
did
climb was closer to the Carousel and looked somewhat mushroom-like. I couldn't
scramble up to it directly, but by summiting a slightly lower pinnacle next to
it, I could jump across to the other and then back again.
Scout Peak
We continued our march up the High Peaks Trail to the very top where the trail
junction is located near a restroom. We were initially looking for Beak Peak,
but failing to find it after a search, we settled on the more easily located
Scout Peak, the highest in this portion of the High Peaks. I had climbed it
on a previous occasion with Adam, so I had a pretty good idea where to find a
climbing route, even if it wasn't the one we were looking for. After some ups
and downs along the ledges at the base of the feature, we found the chimney
marking the start of the Leonard-Horsfall Route, class 5.3. Once again, Jackie
took the lead on this one, finding a bolt to clip about 25' up the chimney,
then a piton hammered into a crack above this to the right. She had some trouble
with her anchor once she was on top. A small holly bush was directly in the way
of the rope and was causing considerable drag and keeping her from being able
to pull the rope up. Eventually she relocated her belay to the bush, using the
1.5" main trunk as the anchor. She then belayed Ryan and myself up in turn,
much like we'd done earlier. The rope length wasn't twice the length of the
climb, so that Ryan was tied in after the halfway point on the rope. To keep
from requiring them to throw the rope back down, I just started up when the
rope ran out, climbing halfway up the chimney while Ryan was finishing
at the top. Once the three of us had topped out, I coiled the rope while we
moved to the north end of the feature, some non-trivial scrambling to reach the
rap chains on that end. Jackie went down first, followed by Ryan, myself going
last, the rope easily reaching the bottom with 10-20ft to spare. After returning
to our starting point at the end of the ledges on the south side, we packed up
our gear once more.
Beak Peak
From the summit of Scout Peak I was able to discern more readily the location
of Beak Peak. Rubine says it is
east of Scout Peak which is technically
true, but it's as much to the south and would better be described as
southeast. Adding further confusion, the guidebook describes it as
the second-to-last big outcrop to the east. The map in the book
oversimplifies the topography and the photo referenced on page 78 is virtually
worthless. This is my roundabout way of blaming the guidebook author for my own
failings. We spent some time descending from Scout Peak down to where this
collection of rock outcrops are found. We ended climbing two of them, both
having similar class 3 routes on the west side. Jackie joined us for the first
one which made her more than a little nervous. Even though she enjoyed the
summit photos on that one, she decided she'd had enough for the second one which
I believe was Beak Peak (it had a set of rap chains on the summit). She napped
while Ryan and I carefully made our way up the knobby west side, sloped at a
low enough angle to keep it class 3, but with enough awkward parts to keep us
from racing up and back. When we were back down and had shouldered our packs, I
led the three of us around the south side of Beak Peak to reach the High Peaks
trail well below the upper switchbacks but perhaps not saving much time. The
cross-country wasn't horribly brushy, but there some steep sections and slippery
places, one of which resulted in Jackie taking a quick fall. She limped her
way back down the trail to the parking lot, none too happy with dad's choice of
routes at that time. Chicken nuggets from McDs in Hollister cheered her up
nicely as did the nap she took on the hour-long ride to get there. Good times...