Boulders with cracks in SoCal?

I'm a relatively new trad leader & suck at jams. I was thinking bouldering with cracks would be great practice to nail down technique.

Any suggestions near Los Angeles?

Mt. Woodson or Point Mugu.

can work on crack jamming by practicing along the ground, on boulders like you want to, or also along the bottom of taller walls. Stoney Point has scattered boulder and wall cracks at ground level, or short toprope cracks that you might well want to hop on. the mentioned little Point Mugu Boulder is laced with short but steep cracks, if you don't mind tourists watching

helps to have someone show you in person how to properly crack jam. you could read descriptions and watch vids and try to figure it all out too. some have, that that's possible. but who knows what obvious tidbit you didn't quite get, or innovative issues you might've come up with to make it not work

hand jamming isn't that hard, nor complicated. it could be shown in a few mins, and then up to you to execute properly, usually getting it fairly quickly. always cool to see people's eyes light up and smile big when they hang entire body weight on their first solid handjam. over the years, have shown numerous that. but have also come across a few aberrations who would just insist on doing it in their own ineffective ways, who just refuse to give different ways even a serious try. like, hey, no one's going to put a gun to their head to force them to listen. it's every individual's inalienable right to be as stupid and inept as s/he wants to be, and some of us do completely respect that

if you know some solid crack climbers (should be obvious by the way they cruise up cracks), just ask them to show you, at one of the local spots or next time out at Joshua Tree, and be open minded in trying out a different way that might actually work better

Rubidoux has a few nice cracks: Turtleback Dome and Half Dome immediately come to mind. Hard to beat the ease of access and vast quantity at Woodson though.

Horse flats off highway 2, the tunnels if you into sport climbing, out in the desert NJC and josh.

Mt. Woodson
Joshua Tree

+1 Mt Woodson

Thanks for all the suggestions! Sounds like I'm heading down to Woodson soon - horse flats or point Mugu for an afternoon burn due to proximity.

Yeah, I definitely could use someone showing me in real life. I just moved to the area, so I 'lost' my previous mentor. I'll bug someone for some tips next time I'm out there. I feel ok with fingers and hands that are juuust the right size, but once it deviates even a little...

I appreciate it guys!

Jam crack at Stoney. run laps on it. Perfect hand jams. Thumbs up jams with both hands, thumbs down with both hands, switch it up. Eyes closed laps, one leg laps. It's so fun.

Also horse flats has a ton of stuff.

A note about Woodson. Many of the finer cracks tend to be in the 5.11 range, with some folks wanting a TR. If you go there, it would be beneficial to have a partner and a 80' piece of cord and two draws to work some of these. Not to say they don't get 3rd classed all the time, but just in case.....

This place is basically a pile, but it's a great place to learn how to handjam.

mountainproject.com/v/point…

Also, calling any of the routes on this boulder 5.10 is pretty generous...IMO

Horse Flats is great, but not that much crack climbing. Really.

Also, Woodson has a ton of stuff that's sub-5.11. Do a search on this site and you'll find plenty. I think of quite a few just off the top of my head: Baby Robbins, Robbins (Crack), Rockwork Orange, Monkey Crack, Hamburger Crack, from the top of Robbins you can lower down to the top half of Lie Detector, which is also .10a. Locals could probably tell you a gazillion more.

Thanks again!

I like the idea of being able to set up a TR at some of these places (Woodson esp). Definitely gives piece of mind when trying to figure out moves which tend to feel insecure (to me).

Sigh, I lead 10/11's sport, but stick a crack in there and it's no bueno! Haha...

I really appreciate all the input. Hopefully, I'll run across you guys out there one of these days. If you need a partner in the LA area, give me a holler!

Crack climbing is its own game completely, especially when you throw in off widths. I would highly recommend Woodson I learned crack climbing there and it's a great place to learn how to build gear anchors. For a new crack climber give elsas crack, poison oak crack, and baby Robbins a go. It turns into an oven during the day though lots of water and some sunscreen. Also jump on YouTube and look up wild country crack school if you don't have a good teacher. CheerS

Woodson is great, if you want to make the drive.

Couple good resource threads:

Woodson 2015

Woodson 2014

Pt mugu is one Boulder in asphalt parking lot but it's all crack. There is another good crack at stony point I think called Maggie's Farm ?

they recently found the body of a Vinci city manager there, about 7 weeks ago. detectives Ani Bezzerides, Ray Velcoro, and Paul Woodrugh been on the case, well, just two of them now, after one got shot last night. there also been shady land deals, mob intrigue, monkey fuck congestion, big street massacre, rampant corruption, mansion orgies, 3-stab knife kill, fugitive sex. they should close the case in another 6 days, by Sun