This crazy 700 foot wall holds some excellent routes, some trad,most sport. It's about 1/2 a mile long, so there's something foranyone willing to lead 5.8 and above, and willing to commit atleast a few hours (if not a whole day) for some multipitch fun.You can also boulder in the arch, which is pretty easy to get toif you're on the west side of Pinnicles National Monument.
Type of rock... All sorts of shit. Volcanically generated looseshit that's scary and fun as hell.
This rock will be in the sun part of the day, and in the shadesome, depending on what you're climbing.
Classics: Machete Direct (5.12a or 5.8 A2) and Destiny (5.8).
Getting There
Approach time: 15 minutes.From the West end parking lot, take the trail leading down to theBalconies and The Machete Ridge Area. After walking through aserious of large rocks (some up to 150' tall), you will finallyhave the Machete in view, in all of it's magnificance.The trail will lead into the Arch, which is a 300 foot long archthat allows some seriously highball bouldering, and thepossibility for a really really heinous start of a short route.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Machete Ridge Area:
Cuidado! 5.10c Sport, 5 pitches, 500 feet, Grade III
This route, due to incessant rock rain down in the cave below, is CLOSED. Which sucks, since it's a sweet route! Check the postings in the park, it might open back up. Cuidado is Spanish for BE CAREFUL. If this does open back up and you can climb it again, be mindful with the rockfall that you cause on the way up. If someone was hit by some of the crud falling off of the upper pitches of the rock, this would be a nasty blow, with no hope for r...[more]Browse More Classics in CA
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