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thatstoohigh
Jul 26, 2004, 4:10 PM
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Hey im moving to the bay area in about a week... i mostly boulder and sport lead... looking for the best gym in the area and best places to go outside as well... ill be heading to castle rock about the second week that i am in the area... im looking for someone to generally show me around... anyone anyone? huh? pm me... thanks! (ill be living near lake merrit in oakland if that helps)
j
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dsafanda
Jul 26, 2004, 4:55 PM
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There's only one gym in San Francisco. It's called Mission Cliffs. The good news is that most of the gyms in the Bay Area are owned by the same group. A membership at the Touchstone gym in SF will also allow you to climb at all of the others(Berkeley, Sacramento, San Rafael, Concord, San Jose).
fyi. Mission Cliffs gets verycrowded. There's been talk of them building a second gym in SF but don't hold your breath.
As for best place to climb outside...umm...well there's this little place called Yosemite that's not too far away.
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edge
Jul 26, 2004, 7:11 PM
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edge moved this thread from General to Regional Discussions.
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burundanga
Jul 26, 2004, 7:40 PM
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And then there is that other small place called Lake Tahoe. Which is an incredible place if you sport climb or bouder. And there are hundereds of smaller areas around Lake Tahoe. So have fun climbing in like USA climbing central.
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thatstoohigh
Jul 26, 2004, 10:40 PM
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yeah yeah i know the valley... how far is tahoe? and what is castle rock like? as for the gyms, how good is the berekley gym.. it will actually be closer to me.. ie about 5 min from my new place, so ill end up prob going there.... anyone willin to show an east coast transplant around? huh? anyone?
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davidji
Jul 26, 2004, 11:17 PM
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In reply to: yeah yeah i know the valley... how far is tahoe? and what is castle rock like? as for the gyms, how good is the berekley gym.. it will actually be closer to me.. ie about 5 min from my new place, so ill end up prob going there.... anyone willin to show an east coast transplant around? huh? anyone?
The climbing areas at Tahoe are roughly 3hrs away.
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alvchen
Jul 26, 2004, 11:21 PM
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^^Ironworks is a pretty sweet gym.
As for Castle Rock, it's pretty much sandstone bouldering very a few roped climbs if you hike around. "slopey madness"
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roughster
Jul 26, 2004, 11:34 PM
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If you're interested in NorCal sport climbing, CLICK HERE
Note: It is a link to a post describing the local climbing
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padge
Jul 26, 2004, 11:35 PM
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There is "urban" bouldering in the Berkely hills which should be pretty close. There's always alot of climbers at the boulders so you can possibly meet someone there for a guide. Mickeys beach is just north of San Francisco on the coast, there is a fair amount of medium to hard climbing and beach bouldering there. A little further out is Mt. Diablo and Mt. St. Helena, there are great views and good moderate climbing there. There are also ALOT of small crags that can be visited with the help of a local.
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karmaklimber
Jul 27, 2004, 12:09 AM
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Both Berkeley and Mission Cliffs are great gyms, but I prefer the Touchstone San Jose bouldering to the Mission Cliffs bouldering because it doesn't get as crowded and the top-outs are higher. If you want to lead sport, you'd have to lead at either Berkeley or M.C. because Touchstone San Jose is a bouldering-only gym.
Castle Rock is all sandstone; little to no edges are present, so the majority of the problems require alot of sloper and pinch strength. There's a pretty good number of easy to intermediate problems, but the area has a big jump from V4/5-ish to V8-9+. There's not a whole lot of stuff inbetween to work on.
The sport at Castle Rock isn't that fantastic. Atleast in my opinion anyways. Most of the people I know who go to Castle go for the bouldering.
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highminded
Jul 27, 2004, 1:21 AM
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Registered: Apr 19, 2004
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Two good guides:
Falcon Guide, Rock Climbing in the San Francisco Bay Area, by Tresa Black
Bay Area Rock, by Jim Thornburg
You can pick them up online at REI (links above) or at most of the Bay Area climbing shops (e.g. Marmot Mountain Works, Sunrise Mountain Sports), or in the gear shops at any of the Bay Area Touchstone Climbing Centers
You can also get the Falcon guide on Amazon, but it doesn't look like they've got "Bay Area Rock."
Indian Rock, in Berkeley (See Bay Area Rock) is pretty good -- not that crappy sandstone. There's also some crags on the top of Mt. Tamalpais in SF (great views), but I don't know if they're boulder-worthy. (Sorry, not a boulderer myself.)
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ricardol
Jul 27, 2004, 1:25 AM
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Registered: Nov 11, 2002
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dont forget that during winter you can always head south to climb at Pinnacles ..
when its raining in the bay area .. its usually dry at pinnacles..
-- ricardo
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