Mount Tamalpais
Climb Review
I finally got to climb the glorious rock cropping at the top of Mount Tam.
This serpentine rock feels so different from Lexington Rock (also serpentine). Perhaps this one felt more positive as there’s supposedly lots of minerals inside the serpentine on Mt Tam?
There was tons of broken glass all around the climber’s trail and the belay area. :(
The hike to the Northern Formation was short and easy to get to (though totally hidden if you don’t know what to look for).
Sun Slab Undercling (5.7; The Northern Formation)—I found the step on to the arete to be a bit scary (until I get used to it, all steps out to an arete is going to be scary for me), but otherwise, the holds were super positive and felt easy. The views at the top were just fantastic.
Far Left East Face (5.5; The Northern Formation)—The climb was similar to the above, except (of course) no underclings. I first attempted to just go directly up the face of it, but found a lack of holds, so I veered left where there were a ton of positive holds. The views at the top were also fantastic.
Face right of “Big Crack” (5.6; The Northern Formation)—This one was my favorite out of the three due to the slight mantles along the way up. Again, there were tons of positive holds which felt great for my hands and feet. At no point did I run out of holds. Again, the views at the top were fantastic.
What I Learned
Because of the number of people we had come to the crag, I placed all the ropes that I had (two dynamic, one static). The static line was used for people to practice jumaring asI didn’t have a need for it (I found plenty of places to take amazing photographs without a static line). The anchors for the two dynamic ropes were made from my 30’ cordalette—just slung it around some bomber horns, then used an overhand knot to make it extra safe. That was the most amount of anchors I had setup in one go and I felt like I was pretty fast/safe at setting them up. Elinor setup her first natural anchor and she did a great job. She set it up with Nick and when I went over to double check everything, it was textbook.
One thing I forgot to do was to tie the stopper knots before I threw the first rope over. I mean, I saw the rope hit the ground with tons to spare, so it wasn’t the biggest deal in terms of safety, but with people who were learning from me, I really should have tied the stopper knots. I did ask the people below to tie the stopper knots before Louie descended (Demir was confident about tying a stopper), but yeah, I definitely have room for improvement.
My previous most beautiful climb was Ring Mountain. No longer. The champ has been dethroned as the views at Mount Tam are unbeaten. So good that I wasn’t the most excited about the climbing and the rock, but by the photography opportunity. I knew that I’d like the photos as soon as I was up there—it felt impossible to take a bad shot. I was also not sad I had not brought a camera other than my X100V.
I ran a short jumar clinic for Nick, Louie, and Mariah and I had a great time teaching them the basics of jumaring with two ascenders. I totally forgot to cover a single ascender jumar, but maybe I can go over it with them next time. It was pretty funny how Louie picked it up at a lightning pace and even gave me something to think about (shortening the sling so that I could take a larger step for possible efficiency gains; something I plan on trying next time).
I also oversaw Nick and Mariah’s first time rappelling with a GriGri. They took to it quickly and were smooth.
Because I was teaching everyone tons of stuff, I was lending out various gear (carabiners, slings, PAS, etc.) without remember who took what. At home, when I racked everything back up, I was pretty certain that I had gotten back all equipment I had loaned out. What a fantastic group of people :)
Maybe it’s because I was already friends with Nick, Elinor, Mariah, and Louie, but I uncharacteristically sang in the car with them in it. Partly to keep myself awake when I got tired and partly because... I wanted to sing. Elinor was especially kind with the compliments. On the way back, there was a point where I think almost everyone else was sleeping in the car (or they were really, really quiet), which reminded me of when I take my girls on long car rides—definitely made me feel even more like a dad. :)
The forecast stated that there would be sustained 14-20 mph winds with gusts up in 30-40 mph range. We saw no wind. So instead of being cold, it was absolutely baking hot—we all sought shade whenever possible.
A few of us went and ate Amy’s Drive Thru at Corte Madera and it was as delicious as always. I was extra thirsty, so I indulged myself by getting both the freshly squeezed lemonade and the iced chai tea. Couldn’t have asked for anything better.
I had setup the static line but it was kind of worthless except as a station to learn jugging. I think next time, I’ll bring my self-belay gear, so that we can use that as another climbing station when I’m not using it for photography. Also, I can teach people how to climb safely when they’re alone.
Nick brought ice water in his thermos and the cold water felt so good when he shared his drink with me. It felt so good that I professed my love for him then and there! I really liked that idea though (need to get some ice trays)!
Thanks to Mariah for the photos of me above.
Friends
Nick, Elinor, Mariah, Louie, Demir, Quinn, Javan, Amanda, and Aubrey joined today. It was extra fun as I had a full car with Nick, Elinor, Mariah, and Louie joining me. We had a great time climbing and hanging out. Hopefully people who came today made new friends.
What Happened?
I’ve been to Mount Tam plenty of times before, but never to climb. What made me excited about this climb was that I knew, as long as the weather held, that the views would be jaw dropping—and the photos... the photos would be mesmerizing. So, even though it takes two hours to drive there and the forecast was predicting gale winds, I was genuinely excited.
I drove up to Mt Tam with Louie, Mariah, Elinor, and Nick, who carpooled with me; it was my first time having a full car of climbers and we had a great time catching up. When we got there, we marveled at the views and the temperate weather with Demir and Quinn joining us after a little bit.
We hiked up to the northern formation and it would have been a bit hard to find, but mountain project had the perfect beta to make it obvious. Mariah headed down to the bottom of the crag and I started building anchors with the others helping out.
Basically, because we had 3 dynamic and 1 static rope with us, I figured we could just drop lines where-ever and just take over the whole crag (of course, share lines if anyone else came along). I built the first anchor while explaining all the steps, and I think people learned a good amount about natural anchors and the thought process that goes behind every decision. While I built out a few anchors, Elinor actually built her first natural anchor setup using her own rope and webbing. I was very proud of her, especially given that she aced my check on her work—there being nothing I could improve when I went to check her work. Elinor and Louie rappelled down using their ATC and Nick rappelled using his Gri-Gri on the static line.
After the anchors were built, I headed up to find Javan, Amanda, and Aubrey, who were a bit lost. After waiting at the climber’s trail turn off for more than a few minutes, I just yelled out Javan’s name, and actually heard a response back from the bushes not too far off! I hiked in that direction and found them! We then hiked down to the bottom of the crag together, and joined the others who were already climbing.
The rest is a bit of a blur to me, but I basically climbed, took pictures, ate some food (the inari I packed and shared was a big hit), drank water (but not enough), and taught my short clinic on jumaring.
At the end though, lots of people (including me) just got a little too hot and so we headed back to the car after cleaning up. I was really excited to take them to Kaiju Eats, but they were closed due to constructions, so “settled” for taking them to my other favorite restaurant, Amy’s Drive Thru (which I mistakenly remembered as “Kim’s Drive Thru”; I am so bad with names!). When we got there, I ordered my usual—“The Amy” with spicy sauce and lemonade—except this time I also ordered their iced chai tea. It was as delicious as I remembered their food and drinks. It also worked well given we wanted to find food with lots of veggies with gluten free options.
In sum, it was a sublime day. Simply sublime.
Thanks to Elinor for taking pictures of me running my jumar clinic above and the photos below. If you’d like to see more of Elinor’s photos, please consider following her on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockythedog.small.but.mighty/
