Trip Report
Mini-TR: after work at Horse Flats 2015-10-29
Friday October 30, 2015 12:11pm
Batrock and I head out from La Caņada at a quarter past two. Pretty drive as usual, and I look forward to finding Toprope Rock after my first trip wandering lost wth my wife a few months ago. It's easier to find from the trailhead going up the ridge from the back rather than from the campground.

Other than runny noses, didn't notice the cold because we were hoofing in at a pretty good pace. But it was more noticeable at the base in the shade:
top left corner top right corner
A bit chilly
A bit chilly
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

I started off with a lead of a hand crack that pinches to tips (with plenty of face holds to keep it from getting hard), with a wide finish. Set up a toprope to play on a very thin crack with some thuggish lie back moves before easing off in difficulty at the roof. Batrock says it's 5.11c. I say I can do each of the moves but will take some big strength/endurance improvements (and better body position control) before I can link it all cleanly.
top left corner top right corner
This will be a fun project for me.
This will be a fun project for me.
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

Then we messed around on a fun easy but grunty chimney climb.
top left corner top right corner
This whole thing he's hanging on have a fearsome wobble when he stood ...
This whole thing he's hanging on have a fearsome wobble when he stood on it
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

top left corner top right corner
Dumping a boat anchor, but carrying plenty more for the hell of it.
Dumping a boat anchor, but carrying plenty more for the hell of it.
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

top left corner top right corner
Gittin' on up there
Gittin' on up there
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

The top out was a short little face section, back exposed in the howling cold wind. But the motion generated enough heat that it wasn't objectionable.

We had talked about doing Pie Slice, but at this point it's getting dark. We threw caution to the wind and decided to make haste over the ridge and sneak in one more.

We half walked, half jogged up and across the ridge and through some bushes and trees to get to Pie Slice. I took a few stops along the way to capture the gorgeous colors of a setting sun:
top left corner top right corner
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

At the base, we quickly roped up and I took the one headlamp between us as I set off. Last time I was here a few months before, the climb was a serious endeavor for me, and I fell numerous times at the summit lip before getting it. This time I felt pretty calm and casual about it, even in the near darkness (I didn't end up needing the headlamp) and biting wind. I didn't hesitate more than a few seconds at any spot, and got the summit lip cleanly, to enjoy this top-out view:
top left corner top right corner
Last bits of daylight
Last bits of daylight
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

Batrock came up quickly, but he would have needed infra-red vision or climb by Braille to get this without the headlamp. So I tagged the light down to him:
top left corner top right corner
Practicing for mountain epics
Practicing for mountain epics
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

top left corner top right corner
On top of Pie Slice, lights of LA off in the distance.
On top of Pie Slice, lights of LA off in the distance.
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

We used the headlamp to scramble through the bushes and trees back to the ridge trail, but from there we had a cool night hike in the dark. The last rays of sun were gone, the moonrise was not for a while, but the light of stars and reflected city light was enough to guide us on the wide sandy trail. When I closed my eyes, I could imagine that instead of the low roar of the wind in the trees, I was laying on the beach at night listening to the changing of tides.

It was a beautiful mountain day that seems so incongruous with the stereotypes of Los Angeles, and yet this mountain-ringed basin holds something for everyone.

  Trip Report Views: 1,770
NutAgain!
About the Author
NutAgain! is a trad climber from South Pasadena, CA.

Comments
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Oct 30, 2015 - 02:35pm PT
Thanks Scott, I had a great time doing some of those climbs I hadn't done in quite some time. Ant Line packs a punch, I'll have to dig up the pictures of me leading it back in the 80's, I can't imagine leading it now.
Here are just a few pics I got, quality is low since it was so dark.
That's funny Scott that you imagine the beach when you hear the wind in the trees. When I'm at the beach or in Hawaii and hear the wind in the palms I like to imagine I'm in the mountains or the desert when I close my eyes.
Fat Dad

Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
  Oct 30, 2015 - 03:14pm PT
Nice. With the warm weather we've been having, you'd think it would be warmer up there. If I didn't work all the way across town in Santa Monica and could actually get out of the office at 2:30, I'd be tempted to join you, provided I actually got a pass from the wife and kids.
skcreidc

Social climber
SD, CA
  Oct 30, 2015 - 03:18pm PT
Cool beans!! Looks like a nice area!
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Oct 30, 2015 - 04:07pm PT
Looks like a great afternoon, thanks for bring us along!
Tipkiss

Trad climber
Orcas, WA
  Oct 31, 2015 - 11:18pm PT
Awesome! You guys are rad!!
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Nov 2, 2015 - 11:48am PT
x15x15,
When did you work at Sport Chalet? I worked in the Mountain Shop back in 85-86? Worked with Chuck Blackwell, Kiran Mcdonald, Pat Stutzenacher and Gene Mezerini. And of course the anemic Norwegian who only sold sleeping bags but I forget his name, he was one of Norberts nazi war friends lol.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
  Nov 2, 2015 - 12:20pm PT
Nice! I wish I knew about this area when I lived in Pasadena from 1979-82.

John
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Nov 2, 2015 - 08:35pm PT
I didn't start climbing at HF until 85. I climbed at Williamson starting in 78 with my dad and also over at Pacifico in the late 70's with my dad. We always drove right by HF and never gave it a thought back then. Bummed Pacifico and Willy are still closed.
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
  Nov 3, 2015 - 07:34am PT
There is some good bouldering, and top roping at the Romeo Void area. It's the first place you come to( on the main trail) when you leave the cg.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Nov 3, 2015 - 08:05am PT
Yep, Romeo Void has some fun thin face and that wide crack in the middle of the face is kind of a fun thuggish workout.
Keith Leaman

Trad climber
  Nov 3, 2015 - 08:38am PT
Is it that cool already down there? I liked climbing there in the winter since the snakes were underground. Hey Jeff, I made it down to Horse Flats this spring and also met up with T Yeary at the Arboretum. Ray Palmer introduced me to Horse Flats in 1967/68. We had a regular circuit of some of the obvious trail-side problems. Paul Gleason (maybe Haney) and I also frequented the place in the late 1960s. Ray had been going there for several years with some LA old-timers too. Great playground even for a septuagenarian!
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Nov 3, 2015 - 08:48am PT
Speaking of snakes. Back in the 80's one day we were TRing Ant Line. I was belaying and it was early morning just as the sun was coming up. I looked down and noticed a rattler in a sliver of sun near my feet. I scootched back a bit and continued belaying. The next time I looked down the sliver of sun had grown and 7 more rattlers had slithered from under the slab and were sunning themselves at the base of Ant Line. I have seen lots of rattlers up at HF but this took the cake. Not since running into a den of Rattlesnakes on the Snake River in Hells Canyon had I ever seen that many in one place.
I am not a fan of rattlers. They creep me out.
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
  Nov 3, 2015 - 09:02am PT
Speaking of Snakes #2

Back in the '80s, a friend and I set up a top rope on the Y crack. We both climbed it, and we're at the base when two guys walked up, and asked if they could try it on our rope. I said sure, so the first guy goes up, and starts hand jamming the crack. All of a sudden he yells he feels something moving. He pulls his hand out, and has hold of a rattler. He threw into the top of the nearest tree. Quite exciting.

I've seen quite a few rattlers at HF. A couple right beside the trail.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Nov 3, 2015 - 09:33am PT
X15,
Those were fun times, back when people who worked in the mountain shop actually climbed and new something about climbing.

Haven't seen McBroom since I got stormed off a Keeler Needle attempt with him back in 1988.

I have yet to climb at the Alder Creek Wall, I guess I was always heading to Willy or Pacifico.
Go