Mount Tamalpais State Park in Marin County has some of the best views of the San Francisco Bay Area I have ever seen and a lot of them are right from the seat of your car. Mt Tam is the birthplace of mountain biking with many steep trails for biking or hiking all over the mountain. Local climbers know Mt Tam as a good place to find some easy to moderate top ropes on fairly solid volcanic stone with good cracks, pockets and jugs.

There has also been a slow development of bouldering going on but never more than some spread out problems of varied styles. Now thanks to luck and some inspired locals (Kenny Ariza and Eliot Carlsen) who explored all over the mountain in the last few years in search of new rock it also has a fair share of quality, concentrated bouldering areas. The mountain now sports about 100 problems with legit access on well maintained park trails.

-Bay View Boulder (on right below small turnout with big view) + East Bloc/ATF (on left in trees on hill)
[about 0.9 miles east of Rock Springs on East Ridgecrest]

-Lakeview Boulders [off Lakeview Trail west of the East Peak on East Ridgecrest]

*For more info and pics of Mt Tam on Supertopo click here; SUPERTOPO.COM/bouldering

more pics, info and vids coming soon..

Friday the 13th

Check out some pics of a few friends and I on some spooky Nor Cal highballs/solos for friday the 13th!

California Roadtrip - Nor Cal

California Roadtrip
A Climber's Guide Northern California

by Tom Slater and Chris Summit
1st Edition - - 2009

From the Southern Sierra and Yosemite Gold Country north to Tahoe and Mt Lassen along the mountainous east side of Northern California. Along the Pacific coast from Big Sur to the San Francisco Bay Area and north to the Wine Country all the way up to the North Coast on the western edge of the continent. This book hooks you up with up with info and beta as well as choice photos of most of Nor Cal's premiere sport climbs, traditional climbs and boulder problems!


































Check out: www.slatervison.com and www.maximuspress.com














PHOTOS (top to bottom):

*Front Cover - Shangri La, Shuteye Ridge.

~ Sulfur steam vent, Mt Lassen.

~ Bloody Talon (V7fa) Eagle Pk, Mt Lassen.

~ Richie Esquibel gets primal on Cro-Magnon (5.12d) with local limestone fa master Eric Chemello chillin in the background, Trinity Aretes.

~ Sean Brady on Rossta Dreams aka Living a Nightmare (V7), Fort Ross.

~ Sean Brady on Apocalyptic Bebop (V4), North Cove at Fort Ross.

~ Slackliner at Promontory.

~ Jason Campbell on Steep Climb Named Desire (5.13d), Donner Pass.

~ 90 Foot Wall (5.7 solo), Eagle Creek Canyon.

~ Elizabeth Brand and friends on the classic Spoon (V2) Castle Rock.

~ Tresa Black on Bar Fly (5.11c), The Bar.

~ Charlie Barrett redpoints Naked and Disfigured (5.13a), Mickey's Beach.

~ Kevin Jorgeson has a Dream of White Porsches (5.13b), Mickey's Beach.

~ Valentine Cullen on Bunny Arete (V0), Bunny Blocks, Bald Rock.

Bay Area Top Ropes

Bay Area Top Ropes Instructional Guidebook coming spring 2010 from SUPERTOPO!

Bay Area TR pics on Supertopo at Facebook

Heres a few pics from some of the areas in the book;
Sunset Rock, Mt Tam and Split Rock - girl power = Val, Holly, Kira and Christina.

Tree in the Wall - NEW Castle Rock Bouldering!

These cool new boulders are 2 miles south of Castle Rock State Park Parking Lot - park on the left (east) side of Skyline and hike the main trail northeast about 5 minutes. (VB-V6!?+)

pics= Mr Summit and Andrew Zaslove

Check out some vids from the boulderers (baikelai, d0novan, bouldertroll1) that found and developed this rad new area on my youtube;

MrChrisSummit subscriptions - YouTube

Travis - "Cave Spider" V4 FA

Travis repeats his mega classic "Cave Spider" V4 - Dutch Bill Boulder


I rarely like eliminates but once in awhile they can be almost as good as the original line - like this direct right (harder) variation to Cave Spider - Cave Spider Direct (no left hand rail);

Cave Spider Direct (v5) from Jon McCartie on Vimeo

WestCoastBouldering.com

Mt Tam bouldering unleashed!!

Mt Tam has become a local destination bouldering area! There are about 100 new problems at 5 new areas and one area has a good concentration of about 50 problems from VB to V8! Solid volcanic stone with edges, pockets and cracks. Check out more info and pics and vids coming soon..

pic= Kenny on his classic "Procrastination" aka "Campus Girls" V8 (unrepeated!?) at the Lakeview Boulders (off of Lakeview Trail)

Dutch Bill Creek Boulders

I found these boulders down the creek from the main new area a few years ago. at the same time i saw the top of the rad new dutch bill boulder from the road but never saw the steep bottom - doh!

So now that i love the new boulder so much i figured it needed some warmups - here they are;

Puka v1 stand or v2 sit start in pockets, Puka Direct v3, Bumpathon V0

Pinch Smack v2 stand v3 sit center or right and Hooka v4 low left sit into Pinch Smack stand


climber= Sean Brady
pics= Summit

Chuck B sends BIG!!

Charlie Barrett just did 3rd ascent (after Kevin Jorgeson 1st and Ethan Pringle 2nd) of the Mickey's Beach Arete, Au Natural (with no fake pocket) - 5.14a !!

*Check out more pics and up to date info on this climb and all the best climbs at Mickeys Beach and Nor Cal in the new California Roadtrip - Nor Cal by Chris Summit + Tom Slater at; www.slatervision.com or www.maximuspress.com

The Dutch Bill Boulder

Heres a few pics from the recently found, cleaned and climbed Dutch Bill Boulder!

{West Sonoma County}

Travis and Ryan are to thank for this gem.

pics= Ryan, Emmet, Charlie and Travis

1st blog!!

Word Up Bloggage!

With the words and images on this blog as well as thru my guidebooks (supertopo.com, slatervision.com and maximuspress.com) I hope to teach, train, inform, inspire, motivate, enrich and enlighten anyone with any questions or desires for Northern California Climbing/Bouldering. I also hope to portray the message that the abilities and powers of the human body, mind and soul are more than we can ever imagine. All life on this planet is connected and very fragile and precious and every breath must be cherished.

I hope to inspire desire :)