Toxic Waste Wall was developed as a high-quality sport climbing crag almost entirely by the efforts of Pat Briggs & Tony Becchio during 1991/92. Also involved were local guidebook author Steve Edwards, Tim Brown, Dave Griffith and Scott Buchanan.
All routes face due south, making it a great winter destination and fairly miserable during the summer months. Spectacular ocean views. As with most areas around Santa Barbara, watch for poison oak at the base of the routes and on the approach.
Getting There
From the Sheffield Reservoir at the NE corner of 192 and Mountain Drive, drive north along the winding Gibraltar Road for several miles (~15-20 minutes). Just before reaching the Main Gibraltar Rock, there is a hairpin turn to the left. Park here in the established pullout on the right (east) side of the road. If you pass under an obvious bolted face (the old Bolt Ladder) directly above the road, you've gone just a bit too far.
Note: it is possible to hike all the way from Skofield Park up the Rattlesnake Canyon Trail (~1.5 hrs) should Gibraltar Road be closed due to rockslides/construction or if you're just looking for a little extra exercise. The hike is beautiful and highly recommended.
It seems like the two right-most routes and also that route on the left with the red webbing needs permenant anchors placed above them. The bolts seem just fine, but the anchors on top are pretty shady or non existant. I know I'd appreciate if someone took the time and effort to do that. If I had the gear I'd do it myself, but I'd need someone to teach me how first... anyone?? :-D
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Jul 11, 2006
The red tat is on the route Toxic Socks. I made a comment about it when I posted that route to the database last February. That should be swapped out with tan or some neutral color webbing to reduce the visual impact from the road.
From my recollection, all the routes to the right worth climbing have reasonable fixed anchors (a couple of routes share the same anchor).
My friend and I were climbing at Toxic Waste over the weekend and we replaced the old red and black webbing above Toxic Socks with a new black piece of webbing. We didn't have any tan sandstone colored webbing to match the rock, but we figured that it was pretty neutral (sandstone rock there has black marks) and having a new anchor was most important.
I just replaced the rat's nest of decaying cord, webbing, shoelaces and rubber bands with new 1" web at the anchor of Crock o' Stimpy. I left the old quick link and added a brand new one someone had lasso'd to the shrub above the anchor. The sliding x is a a bit twisted (owing to the rethread), but it will hold . Sorry for the blue color, but it was all I had...
Toxic Waste Wall
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