Piedra Blanca sandstone formation.
Pops came to visit for Thanksgiving. Last time he came to stay I dragged him along on a five mile hike through intermittent driving rain showers out in the hinterlands of San Luis Obispo County. This time we took it easy and spent an afternoon up at Piedra Blanca.
Clint Elliott monkeying around:
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How will I laugh tomorrow if I can’t even visit pictos today?!?
Man, don’t even get me started on the USFS. If you heard about a rash of local FS gate locks being snapped a year or two ago I might know something about it. Seems somebody was illegally riding a Yamaha 450 all over creation without authorization. Fuckin’ bureaucrats.
we should do a trail sometime
You tryin’ to kill me? . . .20 mile day hikes through “the most jacked up piece of terrain in the Los Padres” . . .”The Suffer Machine”. . .
To be serious, though, yeah sure, let’s do some hiking.
Is there any climbing at Piedra Blanca? My friend just went out there, not a climber, and he brought back pictures. The rock looks steep enough but was not sure on restrictions and if the rock was hard enough?
Not sure. I’m not a climber, but I’ve wondered why I’ve not seen people out there climbing when I’ve been up there.
Does the rock seem pretty crumbly? I think I am going to head out there to check it out soon.
No, it’s really solid stuff for the most part and seems like perfect climbing material as far as sandstone is concerned, which can be unstable and crumbly like you mention. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve wondered why I haven’t seen climbers up there. It looks like prime terrain. There is some crumbly areas of the formation, but a lot of it is solid, stable stuff.
Sweet. I think I am going to try to get out there this year to scope out the land. It looks so epic and would be worth visiting just for the hike even if there was nothing to climb.
We’ve scrambled to the summits of just about every formation in Piedra Blanca with an eye out for technical rock climbing. We never found any feature or line to inspire us other than blank slabs that would require bolts for protection and belays. The rock quality, while better than most San Rafael sandstone, has enough of a powdery surface with loose embedded pebbles to discourage any high-grade effort. There is better climbing closer to Santa Barbara or just north of Piedra Blanca on Pine Mountain, where superb quality sandstone make it a mecca for bouldering.
Cheers,
Ted