I made my first trip to Williamson Rock in the San Gabriel mountains north of LA on Friday with Roy Boswell. It’s a pretty nice crag – I took the picture from the parking area across the valley. There are climbers on the first route we did, Being There (5.7), just left of the big chimney. Roy led the long 15-bolt first pitch on the picturesque arete, and I took on the overhanging crank over a bulge on the second pitch. There’s a 5.8 right next to it called Scenic Route, which I really enjoyed leading. I thought it was as good as Being There, and it was a perfect way to ease myself back into the lead.
As the morning clouds cleared and it got hot we sought shade lower in the valley, and wound up by the aptly-named Mushroom Boulder. I did a short but very pumpy 5.8 on that, and tried toproping an 11a but didn’t get too far on it. There’s lots more stuff I’d like to do at this crag, but that made a good first day.
4 responses to “Williamson Rock”
sounds good.
what did you think of the rock quality?
there is good and bad there, i s’pose it’s no different than any other place in that respect.
i hit WW brutal hard 2 days this weekend.
I could see lots of loose stuff, but there wasn’t any on the routes I did.
I figured you’d slam the WW in the break from the sun. What did you do?
i went to the “Exacto” area. did that route (in a different – no foot holds, just smears). felt excellent.
wanted to the one just right of it, BUT the right hand hold has broke i barely got on the mfr… very disappointed.
did the left and right version of the overhanging arete on the end.
did the suuuper overhanging problem 2x (in ~ 5 tries).
did the no-hands problem like 20x (2 variations). i like that. i had never done it. i would say that “no-hands” bouldering is … way cool, very fulfilling.
i then tried a FA on a seriously overhanging rock. it’s over a clean slab of granite.
i figgered i wasn’t going to do it, just test it, i.e. = NO PAD = MISTAKE.
the big righthand hold disentigrated under a full pull… i mean, it EXPLODED. it was like i threw it down, it smashed into countless pieces. atoms were split.
meanwhile, my left elbow and ankle met the slab.
i kinda freaked, but i didn’t even hit my head, which is amazing since the problem is like ~30 degrees off the horizontal plane.
OUCH!
got it together and did the no-hands 2x more.
tried a 3rd and littorally slipped and faded THE SAME elbow that i just bashed.
i packed and left.
the other day,,,,,,,,,,
i did stuff in the front:
the crimpy problem in the corridor
right side of walter’s a$$ (2x)
walter’s crack (3-4x)
buncha other knowns
and
tried a bunch of other REEEALLY hard probs… like to the right of the right of walter’s crack = hard.
i bouldered 4 consecutive hours in PERFECT condtions that morning.
Nice. Congrats on the no-hands slab. Glad yer noggin survived the fall – sounds like you’re on the goods.