Its a cold, cold world.

January was a pretty cold and stormy month for me and the Gorillaz. We started out the new year with a morning session at the PJ Slab. Carlo, Max and I hit the crag early, but waited for the sun to hit us before we started climbing

It was very cold and we were slow to get started but once we got going and warmed up a little, the climbing was great. I put together two toprope setups this time; one over Beginnings and the other over the right hand face of the slab.

The boys ran a few laps on Beginnings and were climbing well. After a short break, they began working the opening moves on the second route.

As it turns out the crux moves are at the start and the boys fought with it for about 40 minutes before backing off. Maybe next time. After another quick break, I took down the anchors packed away the gear while the boys did some bouldering near-by. At noon we rolled everything up and headed home.

In the middle of the month, Carlo and I made another run to Tar Creek. We went down only as far as the Swimming Hole proper this time. We planned on doing some bouldering but it seemed the weather had other ideas. Just before we reached the pools, it started to sprinkle on us a little. It never got to be more than that but we had to modify our plans a bit.

We did manage to do some climbing in between spurts of precip; Carlo put up some short, 3-4 move problems on the canyon wall just above the Swimming Hole and soloed one of the arêtes on the creek side of the now up-side down Wave boulder.

I’ve been feeling pretty good about Carlo’s spotting ability lately so I decided I have my way with Locals Only and Abra-Cadaver, two problems that had been giving me grief. We also spent some time working on a new line where Flashflood/Aquaman used to be, working out the beginning moves, figuring out the spot.

No send on this day but the line is gonna go this year, though it’s likely it already has. After a good three hours of climbing and hanging out, the light, intermittent sprinkling turned into a steady rain; time to go.

Tar Creek is the last place you want to be during a rain storm and it bombed on us all the way back to the trailhead. In fact, it didn’t stop raining in the 805 for four days, our first winter storm of the season, and you know what that means……..

After the storm system passed over So Cal, we gave our local sandstone the obligatory 4-5 days to dry out before we went back at it. Carlo and I went up to the Quarry for and afternoon session on some projects we’re working on there. Unfortunately, the water in the Matilija was still pretty high making the base of these boulders a sloppy mess. So we passed on the Quarry and continued up the 33 to Wheelers Gorge only to discover more of the same. Undeterred, we went for the higher ground of the Sespe but even our beloved SnapePits were still partially submerged. Sucks!

We could see that there seemed to be quite a bit of snow on Pine Mountain and Reyes Peak and we knew that the parkies had prolly already thrown the gate on the road leading up to PM, but we were curious just how low the snow actually was so we drove up to the pass (wrongly called “Pine Mountain Summit”). This is essentially the top of the 33, from this point the highway drops down into the Cuyama and Lockwood Valleys and one may continue on toward Santa Maria to the north, Taft to the northeast or Frasier Park and I5, due east. The pass itself sits at around 5100 ft and there was a ton of snow on the ground. After scouting the Forest Service roads the spur away from the 33 on both sides of the highway, we decided that we wound come back the next day for some snow play.

That night, we broke out our cold weather gear, which doesn’t get a whole lot of use here in So Cal, prepared and packed some food and water and gassed up the truck. I don’t think Carlo slept wink that night; while we were up there scouting things out, I could see him hungrily eyeballing the snow covered slopes around the pass, making plans, working out how much damage he could cause with his sled. I don’t blame him, snow is fun, it’s even funner when your 11 years old and pretty much fearless. Anyways, we drive up there in perfect weather and find several cars already parked.

No worries, there plenty of mountain for everyone. Carlo wasted no time and was soon zipping up and down the slopes, having a blast. On the north side of the 33 we could see evidence of a recent fire and could also see where the firefighters cut a fire break and made their stand against the flames. (For what its worth, wild land firefighting is one of the most dangerous and backbreaking jobs there is, whatever they are paying those guys, it aint enough. Had that fire jumped the break, we could have lost Pine Mountain and the Sespe Wilderness Area; thanks boys!) After a couple of hours taking turns on the sled or so we took a break for lunch. After lunch we moved to the other side of the highway for more exploring and sledding.

We noticed ski tracks heading up the road toward Pine Mountain and Reyes Peak and looks like who ever made them, came down another way, maybe Chorro Grande trail. Sounds fun! We also had great views of Lion Canyon and the backs of the Topa Topa Bluffs and Heinz Peak. Around three o’clock the sun started to drift in and out of the clouds which were moving in towards us from the northwest and the temperature started to drop. Time to go. We got out of our snow gear, packed the truck and shook the spot for lower elevations.
Just below what used to be called Wolfs Grill, now called Pine Mountain Inn (though I’ve never seen anyone there) just before the Chorro Grande trailhead is a little place just off the highway we call The Beastie Boulders.

They’re pretty much choss but we’ve go a couple of things working up there and who knows, might be nice if they clean up. Nice kick back spot though. Anyways, after a short session at the Beasties, we figured we’d had enough fun for the day so we rolled it up headed on down the road.

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