Malibu Creek State Park - 11/26/201

One of the best things about living in SoCal is the weather. Two days after Thanksgiving the weather was so beautiful that we decided to head to the beach. Since we were heading that way I wanted to check out Malibu Creek State Park since the climbing there looks cool and we had never been. We headed to Point Dume beach and had a great time there playing in the water and sand (it seriously felt much nicer than many days in the middle of the summer). Point Dume has some climbing right on the beach but the rock was really wet so I just bouldered around a bit but we didn't break out the gear.

After a few hours at the beach we decided to check out Malibu Creek State Park. We drove the 20 minutes from the beach to the park and then started hiking in. We reached the first climbing area called Planet of the Apes wall after a couple miles of hiking, but I didn't really want to climb there since it is toprope only. We continued hiking down the trail, but quickly reached a dead end. In order to continue to the other climbing areas requires that you traverse across a fourth class slab above a big pool of water. The traverse was packed with people and no one was moving in either direction and it didn't look like it would clear up anytime soon. On top of that, I don't think Danny would have been able to manage the traverse on his own so we were stuck.

We decided to just do a quick route on Planet of the Apes wall just so that we could check out the rock and then come back at another time without the kids to do some of the better climbs. I hiked around the top and set up a TR on a 5.10a called "Christmas Pump", Amy and I each TR'd the route, then we hiked back to the car.

Even though we only got to do one TR it was nice to be able to check out a new area that we had never been to before.

Frustration Creek - 11/25/2011

The day after Thanksgiving we headed out to have some fun in the great outdoors. We started off by going up the canyon by our house to check out "Big Falls" in the town of Forest Falls. We did the five minute hike to the falls, got some photos, and then headed to Frustration Creek to do some climbing.

At Frustration Creek there is a slab that looks great for Danny to climb, but it doesn't really have any natural gear options to set up a TR from so I have wanted to put in a couple of bolts at the top. Unfortunately I only brought one extremely dull bit with me (I didn't check it before we left) so I was unable to get even one hole in the rock before the drills battery died. I guess Danny's TR will have to wait until next time.

After the failed attempt to set up a route for Danny we decided to just climb. We started with a 5.10b called "The Natural". I ran up it and got the red point, then Amy TR'd it.

After climbing The Natural Amy was done, but I wanted to climb at least one more route, so I jumped on "Eco Challenge" a 5.11a right next to The Natural. I cruised the route and got the red point. The route is kind of funny because it feels like the bolter just wanted a really long route regardless of quality. The route starts out on good quality rock with fun moves and continues that way through the crux, but right after the crux (where it feels like a good natural ending to the route) the rock turns to loose grainy low quality rock through super easy terrain for another forty feet. It feels like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going and going and going and... well you get the point. Even with the low quality section at the top of the route it is still a worthwhile route because of the fun moves through the lower section.

After Eco Challenge we packed up and headed home so that the kids could get their naps. It was a short day of climbing, but we still had a great time.