Chockstone Dome

BETA PHOTO: The first 5 five feet of the right climb is not sh...

Description 

Chockstone Dome, sitting in the West Side of the park in themiddle of the canyon, all sport, and all easy stuff. That's notan entirely bad thing, since it's just off the canyon path whichleads to a lot of other clibming and a really easy and faststopping point for a warm-up. This is also a great place to bringsomeone who doesn't feel real confident in their leading shills,but would still like to lead something in Pinnacles.

Routes aren't long by pinnicles standards, but you still manageto get 40 - 50 feet out of each route.

The exiting climbing is all slabs (and I hope no one tries tobolt the other side) and sits on the major trail leading to thecaves. All the routes are away and hidden from the main trail,which is convenient, since the trail isn't all that wide, andalso Pinnicles has some very non-invasive climbing policies.

There are 3 existing bolted routes on the Chockstone Dome,ranging from 5.3 to 5.8. The rock on the routes are pretty solidfor Pinnicles, meaning that every fifth hold you grab isn't sonice instead of every hold.

Chockstone Dome sits right in the middle of the canyon betweenthe Balconies and Machete Ridge, so while there's sun in thecanyon, there will probably be sun on at least some parts of theclimbing on Chockstone Dome.

Getting There 

Approach time: 10 - 15 minutes.

From the West parking lot, head on one of the two trails thathead over towards the balconies and Machete Ridge. The Balconiesare very prevalent from the West parking lot, if you look northyou can't miss their half mesa like appearance.

Continue on the major trail, which will lead you through severalfairly narrow passages, as it passes by Hummingbird Spire, TheGame Show, Flumes Formation, and Osiris.

Just after you see the very steep wall on the right (about 150feet tall) called The Game Show, you will wander down to a partof the massive Machete Ridge, which is the large formation on theright side of the canyon, and is 400 - 700 feet tall, dependingon what section you're looking at. The trail will lead down intothe Canyon with high walls around exclusively at this point, andat some point you pass a sign stating "Machete Climbing Access",and mentions the Destiny (5.8) and Bandits in Bondage (5.11a)routes, which is just before a small bridge.

The trail will lead directly into the Arch, which is a large cavestructure containing excellent scary bouldering opportunities upto the 15 - 20 foot lip.

Continue about 200 yards past this, and just before the SilverAccess gate into the tunnels, Chockstone Dome will be on yourleft. Climb up the slab just before the gate to your left (3rdclass), until you can see sunlight. Manuevering a little to yourleft as you climb up the whole 50 feet, you can turn around andsee bolts on the Chockstone Dome if you look carefully at theslabby surface. The bolts of the Regular Route (5.3) are hiddena little, and cannot be seen from this access direction, thoughif you're looking very carefully a little up canyon, you can seethem.

The Classics