Underworld Rock
Climb Review
Underworld Rock is sandstone, much like the rest of the rocks at Castle Rock State Park.
The trails to get there were very sandy, very steep and very slippery. Very.
It was pretty clean around the rock and I did not see much trash.
I parked at the lower parking lot, as this was a part of a group meet. If I were coming here specifically for this, I would have parked at Indian Rock free parking or the upper Castle Rock State Park lot.
High on Life (5.8; Underworld Rock)—This route was the easiest route at Underworld, and I thought it was a soft 5.8, though for shorter people, it’d feel more stout. The route was rather interesting in that there was a mini roof with bomber holds and a interesting stemming start. It was also a really short route compared to the rest of the routes, which were almost triple the length of this one. Oh and the anchor to set this up was super accessible and a great place to learn to rappel.
Hair Dresser (5.9; Underworld Rock)—This was the left most route on the south-east face of the rock. The start has some really juggy holds and was pretty easy to start up. The main body of the route is like 5.3 or 5.4 climbing with so many huecos that there was always a solid hold somewhere, which is kind of wild for sandstone. The crux (at least for me), was at the top, where there’s a balancy move with just a sloper for a hand hold, but isn’t so bad as, there’s an immediate finger crack to find purchase with.
Balance Sheet (5.10a; Underworld Rock)—Immediately left of Hair Dresser, which is Balance Sheet, which has the same middle and the end, but the beginning is much more interesting. It’s jug hand holds with only feet being smears. I tried this one like 4 or 5 times and gave up on it, only to try again later in the day and send it without much issue. I think it was plain dumb luck that I sent it and I kinda want to try again in the future to ensure that I really can do it.
Up the Poop Shoot (5.10d; Underworld Rock)—I tried the start for this one, but could not get more than 3 moves into the climb. Gotta come back to this one when my ankle is feeling more solid and I don’t have other excuses :)
What I Learned
It was my first time climbing with Bay Area Adventure Girls (BAAG) and they were a delightful bunch of people, much like the fun people I’ve met through Coalition Crag. There were certain members who were strong climbers and some who were just beginning their outdoor climbing journey. I do hope I climb with many of them in the future as they seem to be charming people
Friends
Sadly, Marina fell ill and could not join, but Louie and Darlene were folks that I knew and had a great time climbing with them. I did get to interact with Courtney and Leslie and they were really fun to climb with. Courtney was one of the fastest climbers I’d seen, and it was a wonder to watch her climb High on Life in 47.5 seconds flat! Darlene was a good sport and climbed the route in like 2 mins 12 seconds or something like that. I didn’t even try it, since I’m such a slow climber outdoors. With Leslie, it was pretty fun being her amplifier when she was climbing Up the Poop Shoot, as her belayer could not hear her and I happened to be climbing Balance Sheet and was next to her. The other folks were nice too, like Ramie who organized the event, Andrew who I found out was a fellow internal web developer (and continued to trend of awesome Canadian people I know), and Sak who was the other anchor setter. I didn’t interact with the other folks too much, but again, everyone was really nice, supportive, and respectful of others.
What Happened?
On the Coalition Crag discord, I learned that there was a women’s climbing event hosted by BAAG. I initially thought that it was a women’s only event and that I would sit out this one. But then Marina pinged me and asked if I could help set anchors as they were looking for folks who could do that. Since Marina is a good friend and I wish to represent Coalition Crag in the best light, I volunteered and quickly started helping Ramie plan some parts of the event.
On the day of the event, I brought the girls (I always want to show examples of strong women to Kaylee and Annabelle) and we hiked down to Underworld Rock after meeting near the parking lot at Castle Rock State Park. The hike down started off mellow, but as soon as we got to California Ridge, the trail became sandy, steep, and slippery. So much so that I was worried that the girls would demand to go home. But they didn’t give up and slowly made their way down to the rock that awaited us at the bottom of this ravine.
When we arrived at the top of Underworld Rock, Louie and I set anchors while Darlene, Hannah, and Kaylee stayed up on the rock and the rest hiked carefully down to the bottom of Underworld Rock. With Darlene supervising, I set the anchor for High on Life then double checked Louie’s handiwork on the other directional anchor that was used for the other routes. I then helped Darlene do her first rappel, which was probably 10x safer than walking down. I then helped Kaylee hike down and started belaying and climbing.
The day went by pretty fast, with the California Ridge crew joining us after a few hours and there just being lots of laughter and great climbing. Kaylee and Anna did amazing as they kept themselves busy with either videogames, crocheting, or trying their best on High on Life (they didn’t make it to the top, but they did learn some stemming techniques and pushed their comfort zone on outdoor climbs). I must say that Louie leading Up the Poop Shoot was super impressive, as there were moves that they had to perform that just seemed way too scary for me to ever try. Also, as stated above, Courtney speed climbing High on Life was really fun, especially since I was the belayer and I had to just take out slack as fast as I could—I can’t remember the last time I moved my arms so much!
Around 3pm, everyone seemed satiated with the route and we slowly hiked back to the parking lot. There, we took a group photo, washed our hands, and headed off to home. The girls had done such a great job on the day that they got their snack and drink of their choice. Since they had boba yesterday, they landed on McDonalds where we got chicken nuggets, fries, and slurpees. Not the healthiest of snacks, but after a long (but fun) day, a welcome one.
Thanks to Darlene for the first picture above and Louie for the following three!