I was scouting approaches at Pinns today. Got started with overcast skies just before 10:00 and was wishing for an afternoon thunderstorm. I went back and took a closer look at all the Teapot climbs. After that I did the approach for Arch Pinnacle. This is a nice little serious injury or death climb with one meaningless bolt. The holds looked good though and the rock felt pretty solid, so I’ll just treat it like a solo and set a sling for a direct belay on a nearby small but sturdy tree. A couple of the pockets might take some pro but I'm not too sure they would actually hold a fall – and you’d be losing some nice holds by “blocking” them. If you screw up on this one you'll fall into a gnarly slot with a little bit of brush and if you don't "stick it", the slot is bottomless and just drops off into the void. In my humble opinion this route seems to merit an X. No R or X in either Rubine's or Brad's guide so maybe I am missing something - balls?
I went to find Owl Be Back next as my first attempt at that…well that’s another story altogether… This time I found it and the urge to solo got the best of me. Each time I made a move I reversed it and with every additional move up I came all the way back down to within one move of the start. When I was a few easy moves from the summit I topped out, took a few pics and downclimbed.
My final goal for the day was to check out the approach to Feather Canyon. Bonus – I got to check out Pot and Peyote pinnacles along the way. I headed down from P&P after getting a look at those routes and followed the trampled, loose, steep “use trail”. By then the clouds had thinned to the point where the sun was full on and I was getting close to the end of my water. I stopped short of my intended goal, wondering how much further I needed to go to get to the actual start. I took one last look at the guidebook. It looked like I still needed to cross a valley full of brush to get to the open area at the base of the cliff – or possibly get closer to the base of the monstrous cliff and scramble along it. Knowing I’d reached my limit for the day, I scampered back up the loose gravel, dirt, slippery grass and trampled assorted plants and made my way up, over and back down to the main trail and the west side lot. If at first you don’t succeed…
The new Pinns sign on 101. Evidently it’s still happening in Soledad but with a new twist.
The elusive and potentially deadly Arch Pinnacle
Owl Be Back with approximate path labeled
Nice view of Teapots and Ball from Owl Be Back
View from my furthest point along the Feather Canyon approach – how’d I do guys?
