During the Challenge back in August, Mason had pointed out to me that I hadn't
really climbed the highpoint of the High Peaks area in Pinnacles National
Monument on my 2010 visit. I think at the time I knew this, but I had fudged
it by climbing something nearby that was
nearly as high and calling it
good. Even though it wasn't. The highpoint is
called Tuff Dome in climbing guidebooks, Mt. Hawkins on the government topo map.
The 5.6 Regular Route is considered a Pinnacles classic in David Rubine's
guidebook and well within the capabilities of my daughter and I. She was quick
to take me up on an offer to go rock climbing in the park without really knowing
anything about it. Temperatures were forecast to be in the
mid-90s so I suggested an early start would be best. The West Entrance gate
opens at 7:30a, so we planned to leave San Jose around 5:30a to get us there by
that time. The gate was in fact already open when we got there shortly before
the
appointed time, so we drove in, stopped at the new Visitor Center to show our
pass, then headed to the end of the road and the parking lot. There were only
two other cars when we arrived but
would be nearly full before
our return. After all, it was a holiday weekend and the warm temperatures
weren't going to stop people from visiting. Interestingly, we were the only ones
we saw rock climbing in the park today - seems the hikers are more tolerant of
the heat, far outnumber the rock climbers in pinnacles or some
combination of the two.
Hawkins Peak (Tuff Dome)
We hiked up the for a mile and a half, past
and other interesting on the west
side of the crest, happy to be hiking in the shade even if it was a bit chilly
at the start. We would be warmed
soon enough and were happy to be on the cold side for the first part of the
morning. After climbing up through a bunch of short switchbacks, we
turned left at onto the Tunnel Trail, went through
for which it is named (I still don't know why someone bothered to blast
a long tunnel through the rock here), more uphill to a junction with the High
Peaks Trail, then a second left to follow the trail to
where it begins to drop down to the east side. Here, we turned off onto
that took a winding path up to Tuff Dome which we had no
trouble locating. We were looking at side where one can
see bolts going up the vertical face. This was where I had come eight years
earlier and decided I had no business on this rock. However, this isn't the
easiest side and I hadn't bothered to look around much on that first visit. We
moved around to the sunny where the notch was obvious
with several possible lines leading up to it. We consulted the guidebook to
determine which was the Regular Route, then dumped our gear at
of it and began to . The route is less than half a pitch and
didn't look
too hard. It starts up a large, class 3-4 flake for about
25ft, then through a blankish-looking section of about 10ft before reaching
easier ground into the notch between the twin summits. I placed one
cam on my way up the flake and was going to put a sling around the top of the
flake when I noticed the two bolts above me on the blankish section that would
do quite nicely. It turned out to be not as blank as it had appeared from below,
with adequate albeit not great holds. The bolts made this much safer and I was
happy to use them. The 5.6 rating seemed appropriate. Once in
it becomes an easy scramble to the belay chains
found partway up the groove to the notch. I set up to belay here,
in short order. Climbing , she
found the remaining part to the highpoint a cinch, so we unroped and scrambled
to , all in a bit under half an hour - piece of cake. There were
from up high and it was all too obvious that this was the
highest point around, much as Mason had described. We
from the convenient chains, just after 10a.
H & L Dome
Immediately opposite the Regular Route on Tuff Dome is H & L Dome. I had
scrambled partway up this when I was photographing Jackie during her rap off
Tuff Dome, noting a bolt that I used to secure myself to while taking the pics.
Jackie remembered this was another climb described in the book. It was given
three stars as an "excellent little climb" so we decided it was would be a
worthy addition. Rated 5.5 and rather short, I thought it would be a good one
for Jackie's . She had only to place quick-draws in
found in the 30-foot route, overcome
and find her way to the belay station just above. After belaying me up to join
her, I unroped and scrambled the short class 4 section to the
, then we both
the lower summit. It was certainly a fun little climb, but three stars seemed a
bit generous for such a short bit of rope work.
South Finger
It was starting to warm now as it neared 11a, but flush with our two successes
we wanted to see what else we could do. I was interested in finding our way
to the highpoint of the High Peaks area to the south, so we headed off on the
in that direction. There were many parties out on the trails
by this time, including one gentleman sitting aside the trail holding an
antenna .
I mistook him for a SOTA enthusiast, but he'd never heard
of Summits On The Air and was, in fact, a condor researcher. He was tracking the
rare birds in the area and had located two of them perched on a rock outcrop
about 300ft below us to the southeast. We watched them take off into the air,
gliding gracefully up through the thermals that were developing over the
landscape. To be honest, it's really hard to distinguish them from the many
turkey vultures that also share the same airspace, but it's nice to know the
condors have a second chance at survival.
After more consultation with our guidebook, we picked out the main features at
the highest of the High Peaks which are clustered in two groups,
Condor Crags and
North/South Finger. We couldn't tell from below which was higher and the
guidebook offered no clues, so we took a guess that South Finger was our target.
We were probably steered towards this conclusion because the Fingers go at 5.5
and the easiest route on Condor Crags is 5.7. The 5.5 routes on North/South
Fingers share the same on the southeast side facing
the trail.
After that the routes go through a corridor to the backside where they
diverge. For pro I took a selection of cams, quick-draws and slings, but needed
very little. The initial pitch is short, maybe 25ft to the corridor opening
where it made sense to belay in the spacious alcove. I placed one cam on
the ascent and used a sling around a large flake for a belay anchor. After
Jackie ,
we moved into the corridor (using the same flake to belay
from) where it was shaded and deliciously cool. I then downclimbed a short
distance to where a wide crack/ramp can be seen going up on the left side.
Though a little intimidating, it had solid holds. I placed one cam before
reaching the top of the crack where the route transistions to steep face
climbing. A series of four bolts makes this much less spooky than it would
otherwise be and I found myself enjoying the route immensely. I even called down
to Jackie to let her know how fun it was. Upon reaching the airy summit I found
a pair of rap chains and set up an anchor. It was here that I noted I was higher
than North Finger but lower than Condor Crags . Rats.
North Finger
also had an ammo register box which South Finger did not. When Jackie
to join me, the first thing she noted was the register box
over on North
Finger and immediately wanted to climb it. It was getting pretty warm now and
I was more or less ready to call it a day, and besides, I figured it would be
good to have her itching to come back another time. We
the , with our 60m rope just making it down to the
starting point
with maybe a foot to spare. It was only when we got home that we found we could
have easily done North Finger by simply rapping back down to the corridor, a
fairly easy two-fer, especially since the North Finger had its own set of rap
chains.
After packing our gear back up, we continued south on the
l to the main
where the restroom is located. I briefly considered
offering to add the climb of nearby Scout Peak, but really it was just too warm
by this time and we simply headed back down the
without
bringing it up. We made a short stop on the way back to let
a fun little of rock adjacent to
the trail. There were tons of other
folks on the trail but they were all in good spirits and hardly detracted from
the experience. It was 1p by the time we
to the parking lot. We washed
up at the restroom before cranking the AC in the Jeep and starting back to San
Jose. A very enjoyable day, indeed...