Sulli on a fun Mickey's Beach traverse photo: Tell...
Description
Mickey's Beach offers some of the toughest sport climbing in the area, along with some interesting bouldering. Almost all climbs are on the beach, and some are tide dependant. The area can be quite windy, making some of the balancy moves more interesting. Climbs offered range from beginning to expert.
The whole area is free.
A brief bit of history tells that the bouldering area west of the main rock was once a part of the hillside, and in a huge storm in 1986 it fell into the surf as one large chunk. Seven days later, the rock split into pieces, directly in front of an unsuspecting picnicing couple.
The main rock also had some storm trouble. In 1993 a huge storm knocked several classic climbs off the main rock and into the ocean, including a classic 5.12 finger crack known as Mickey's crack. A word of caution for people who travel to Mickey's beach, which is that it's a spot frequented by a rather large group of nudists, so if that bothers you, you should probably climb some place else.
Getting There
From S.F. Take the 1 north. Follow the signs to Stinson Beach. Follow the road down the canyon, and then follow it down the beach. It's a ways, but the main parking lot is .3 miles north of the sign to the Steep Ravine campground and cabins. This sign is on the left side of the road.
From the east bay: Take 580 west to the 101 south, until it intersects with the 1, then follow the above directions.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Mickey's Beach:
This is the rightmost route on the southwest face of the main rock. To access this route, you can walk around the right side of the main rock at low tide, but at high tide it's probably best to find a path down the slippery section on the south side of the rock from the main junction that you would take to get to the top of the main rock. This route has a little bit of everything. Powerful pulls, balancy sections, roof sections and near vertic...[more]Browse More Classics in CA
By Aron Quiter Administrator From: Berkeley, CA Jun 22, 2003
Currently, highway 1 from San Francisco is closed to traffic going to Mickey's Beach fromthe South. To get here, instead of following the 1, follow the detour that heads toStinson Beach, and once you get to the fork where the detour hits the 1, hang a LEFT andthe Mickey's Beach pullout will be about .7 miles on your right.Heading a right at thefork will lead you into the touristy beach town of Stinson Beach, where there is food andsupplies.
By Aron Quiter Administrator From: Berkeley, CA Sep 25, 2003
No more construction, but you might want to keep note, since there probably will be again at some point, since California is, after all, falling into the Ocean.
I was pretty sad to find this spot on accident and not have any gear. I was just driving down one and decided to take a walk. I did spend a little time sizing things up and I have to say, it's an amazing spot to get some climbing in. Being from AZ I'm putting a lot of weight on the water being right there but even the routes look great. I can't wait to get back that way and get on the rocks...
As a warning, the areas seems like a very safe place to park and leave your car however when we got back to the car ours and another had broken windows. It was daylight (5pm) and there was a cop sitting within eyesight (close enough we just walked over to tell him). I guess it's pretty common there so take what you can, put everything else in the trunk or well out of eyesight...
Climbed here last weekend, and I gotta say that these ratings (and routes themselves, can be deceiving. I wonder if all of the sand has to do with the ratings being sandbagged?
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