Sugarloaf appreciation

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Trad

Trad climber
northern CA
Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 8, 2010 - 01:08am PT
Climbing withdrawal. Would've gone to Sugarloaf despite the marginal forecast but when I turned the key the car was dead.


So here's a Sugarloaf appreciation instead. Sugarloaf is my favorite Winter crag.

It's got cracks...


and face...


and burly liebacks...


and boa constrictors:


plus other interesting reptiles:



and then there are the chimneys & offwidths:



Did I mention the chimneys?


And the world's first 5.13!


Nothing beats topping out on a balmy winter afternoon...


Crimpergirl

Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:10am PT
Ha! I thought this was going to show Brazilian climbing! Where is this sugarloaf? It's beautiful (well, except the off widths) :)
msiddens

Trad climber
Mountain View
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:24am PT
Thanks for the post...love that place and might need to make a trip sooner than later. Snowshoe time
JOEY.F

Social climber
sebastopol
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:27am PT
Never been,
looks awesome!
Thank you!
aaronfm

Trad climber
BA
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:30am PT
The "self-abuse" picture is awesome. A man-eating squeeze. What's that rated?
Mike Bolte

Trad climber
Planet Earth
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:31am PT
Outstanding! Thanks!
Evdawg

Trad climber
Sacramento/S. Tahoe
Mar 8, 2010 - 01:37am PT
Which route is the one before Grande Illusion?
Trad

Trad climber
northern CA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 8, 2010 - 01:57am PT
Where is this sugarloaf?

Pardon my parochialism. Sugarloaf is near Lake Tahoe and is in a few climbing guides, including one published by some company - forget the name - that even has a website and online climber's forum! (Joking, of course - it's in the South Tahoe guide or check the beta page.)

The "self-abuse" picture is awesome. A man-eating squeeze. What's that rated?

It's 'only' .10b and is remarkably protectable - lots of smaller-sized placements available in the back.

Which route is the one before Grande Illusion?


You mean how to get up to the base? There's lots of options - Scheister, Farley, Fracture, Dominion, Captain Fingers, to name a few (check out Mic's Grand Illusion TR, too).
Willoughby

Social climber
Truckee, CA
Mar 8, 2010 - 02:16am PT
Hmmmmnnnnnn....


enjoimx

Big Wall climber
SLO Cal
Mar 8, 2010 - 02:21am PT
The Fracture!! Love that route
waulrat

Big Wall climber
Santa Rosa, CA
Mar 8, 2010 - 04:27am PT
aww yes... Sugarloaf, great place for a winter day! Waist deep snow at Lovers Leap and shorts and t-shirt just down the road at Sugarloaf, gotta love it.
Ghoulwe

Trad climber
Spokane, WA
Mar 8, 2010 - 08:37am PT
Thanks for posting the photos Trad and Willoughby. I used to spend a lot of time there back in my Sacramento days. Phantom Spires too. Love that area!

Eric Barrett
Spokane, WA
skychild

Trad climber
Birmingham, Alabama
Mar 8, 2010 - 12:13pm PT
The loaf is a good spot... although the number of climbs at any particular level of difficulty is very limited. The rock quality is top notch but there aren't really that many true splitter cracks... most of the climbs follow nice corners but offer little in the way of straight-in jamming. I recently got a tour of another area close to Tahoe, called Woodfords Canyon. The rock while not nearlly as compact and clean as Sugarloaf offers WAY more climbing. The winter side of the road has more than 130 pitches of excellent crack climbing. The Loaf is good and deserves recognition, but it doesn't compare to The Woodfords when it comes to sheer volume and diversity. Just Sayin' Don
ct

climber
CO
Mar 8, 2010 - 12:20pm PT


A great winter crag, such beautiful granite!
Tattooed 1

Trad climber
Sebastopol, Ca
Mar 8, 2010 - 12:27pm PT
Sugarloaf is an Awesome winter crag. It's always nice up there than you expect it to be. There may not be a huge number of climbs at any particular grade but they are almost all great climbs.
Tim
skychild

Trad climber
Birmingham, Alabama
Mar 8, 2010 - 12:39pm PT
I agree that all the climbs are excellent, but really how many times can you climb the Fracture or dominion or farley or Pony expree until you get sick of doing the same old thing each weekend? Do yourself a favor and download the woodfords obscurity Pdf file. There is some supplementary info on Moutain project if you run out of stuff to do from the old guide. Repeats are cool, but onsighting is the real deal. Don Burn rock burn, thanks for the photos D.
Trad

Trad climber
northern CA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 8, 2010 - 09:38pm PT
Shoot, that's right - I wanted to climb at Woodford's this winter! (Well, there's a few weeks left so it might still happen...)

Glad to see someone posted a picture of Pony Express. I never get tired of that first pitch, but the second pitch is fun too.

Mic

climber
Davis, CA
Mar 9, 2010 - 12:37am PT
Oh no, the black wagon is dead?

Is the next trip going to be in a new Subaru?

Tom, we should go to Woodfords sometime, but in the meantime, back to appreciating Sugarloaf. Maybe we could do a marathon day sometime when the daylight is long, but the temperature isn't too high.

Srbphoto

Trad climber
Kennewick wa
Mar 9, 2010 - 12:42am PT
Is this Pony Express? We went up, thought it looked moderate and took off. We didn't have a guidebook.



leonardo

climber
davis, CA
Mar 9, 2010 - 06:12pm PT
Tom

I was there on Sunday with Raffy. We also tried to call you...
We wasted two-three hour on Captain Finger, trying the movements on TR: a good way to keep the Ego under control...
Overall it was a great day...

Some "old" pictures..
Messages 1 - 20 of total 101 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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