On Saturday the fourteenth of July I was really itching to try out somewhere where we've never been before. I looked on Mountain Project to try and find something that would work well for us and I decided that Hungover Wall looked like it would work and wasn't too far away. Now Mountain Project says that Hungover Wall is the premire crag of Keller Peak, and was the original southern California summer sport climbing crag, so we figured that it would be a pretty good place to go. Hungover wall is just outside of the town of Running Springs which is on the way to Big Bear, so we were hoping that maybe this could be a new place to go when it is hot outside but we didn't want to drive all the way to Holcomb Valley. We made the drive which went quickly, found the crag which is right off the road (a plus when you have kids), and started climbing.
We started by climbing a 5.9 trad route called "More Moss than Gloss", and the first thing that I noticed was that the rock was pretty low quality with very big sharp grains and was kind of crumbly. The route itself was pretty fun and followed a crack that varied from hands to off width, but the rock was just so sharp. I onsighted the route, then Amy went up it on TR cleanly.
Now I was in the mood for trad climbing, so we decided to do the other main crack on the wall, a 5.10b called "More Punk than Funk". This route ended up being less than fun in my opinion. The crux was about half way up the route and involved some wierd awkward moves over a bulge with really nothing for your hands except this majorly sloping ledge thing. Granted, the route did have a couple of fun moves at the beginning, and the last few moves to get to the anchors were pretty fun, but overall, I wasn't a big fan of the route. I ended up having to hang to figure out the crux, then Amy TR'd the route and we decided to do some sport climbing.
Four our third route we did a 5.10c called "Brian's Song". This route started out as a fun slightly overhung boulder problem, but then the crux once again involved trying to pull over the lip using this horrible sloping ledge thing. Once again I ended slipping off and I had to hand while I felt around the ledge to find anything I could use to pull myself over with. I finally found a spot that was slightly better than the rest, pulled through the crux, and continued up the easy wall above to the anchors. Amy followed on TR and we decided to head home since the kids were tired and wanted a nap.
After our three routes at the Hungover Wall, I kind of doubt that we'll be heading back there. I really don't know why this wall was developed before some of the other (and much better) options that aren't that far away from it. I don't know that I'd ever tell anyone not to go there, but with all of the much better options around I certainly wouldn't recommend it either. Sorry about the lack of photos, we forgot the camera again.
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