Bassi Falls crag (eldorado forest)

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squishy

Mountain climber

Jan 11, 2012 - 12:38am PT

I will have to go back and see if I was on the wrong side...what described is what I saw...a pile of choss..

Baggins

Boulder climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 11, 2012 - 12:48pm PT

Ok thx for directions. Will check it out this weekend hopefully. The top roping boulder also sounds interesting.. Agreed, basalt bluff looks like choss from road. Any bouldering potential on the east side?

I have some nice pics of frozen bassi falls. Will post soon! As for it being small, I was surprised actually how tall the cliff on the head wall is. Maybe I can find some pics to illustrate the height. For being a late fall/winter crag (5300 ft), amongst the limited number of other options, I think I would definitely consider this a good cragging destination.

squishy

Mountain climber

Jan 11, 2012 - 12:55pm PT

The drive is actually longer than going to say the leap. After you get on those smaller roads and leave hwy 50 things go slow. So even though it seems closer than Tahoe or Wooodfords, it's about the same amount of driving time. As for Slick Rock, plan at least 30 minutes on a dirt road, which takes even longer but it's so worth it to have such great climbing all to yourself...

bob hasn't mentioned it, but there is an unpublished guide book for the area, I'll trade one for some bolt replacement on slick rock.

Baggins

Boulder climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 12, 2012 - 12:19am PT

My driving time to bassi falls from sac is exactly the same as for the leap, just over 90 mins. loon is about 20 more mins drive. I guess if youre in some top heavy truck that cant take corners it would be longer, or stuck behind some fisherman in said vehicle. those 4 wheelers boot it though even when they have a trailer with a couple of crawlers in the back!

Pics of semi frozen bassi falls:

Scout 2

Trad climber

Placerville

Jan 12, 2012 - 08:30am PT

Well someone else finnaly showed an intrest in this place. I just saw this post.
Back in the 80's my buddies and I climbed most of the cracks and alot of the face features. like the Dyke and the flakey crack on the face around the corner with the wide crack and the overhanging 12a,b fingercrack on the Right in the pics. nasty fall onto wall but the locks are sharp and sweet. There are a few bolted Routes on the middle slab. but 20yr old 1/4" button heads and very run out. there should be a bolted anchor there too.to rap down insted for bushwhacking the manzanita will shred ya. we had it all trimed back at one pointaround the Base. we use to 4x4 in from the top. but they took out the road. The hike isnt bad.Fun Ice around the falls in winter.and a few short climbs there too.some of the rock is quite chossy more to the R looking up at it. but it dose have everything.

We use to camp up there. and play alot of weekends.There was a resident mountain lion in the area too. We would see it year round.
will have to dig out some old Pics FBITD.
Doug

Baggins

Boulder climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 12, 2012 - 11:40am PT

Doug, thanks so much for getting on this thread - I just couldnt believe no one had been here before. Maybe it would be good if we could make a rough topo for the crag? I heard that BITD you could 4 wheel all the way to the falls. But the hike now isnt so bad. The manzanita is non existant in the middle, (you remember the "lean to" cave that is made from a giant fallen down flake?) but kinda gnarly on the right side. Would be good to have it trimmed... sigh, work!

I will go back and hunt around for that anchor. The middle slab looked quite inviting from below for nice slab climbing.

Scout 2

Trad climber

Placerville

Jan 18, 2012 - 02:01am PT

we had a trail that went up to the left side of the slab i think there was a 3rd class section to get to top.following ledges to the left of the cool flake. but the brush is thick around the base. I tyhink the crack accross the top where the anchors were was pretty wide, and the rock kind chossy. it gets very decomposed on top.

squishy

Mountain climber

Feb 11, 2012 - 09:16pm PT

I went up there today to check it out.

Campsite on the top, next to the Six

campsite near the base, with some cut trail heading up to the base, then it was highly overgrown

We went up the right hand side, wasn't too bad, like a bushwack 3 (B3)

Summit was very nice some use on top outs.

went down the left hand side, shitty bushwack 4 (B4)

tried to get back up to the base, FAILED! The base seemed so close but the growth was just crazy.

that place is so overgrown. There's some ducks leaving the campsite and heading up to the base, we cut as much as we could but it needs a few more days of work. We could see the old trails, and the old beer cans and broken bottles on the summit..

I have lots of pics.