Hi,

We're trying to plan a trip/get-together that has a Santa Barbara contingent and a NorCal contingent. We're looking to do some easy climbing say 5.5 - 5.9 in the southern Sierra. We're trying to keep it roughly equidistant for both parties and have identified Bishop and Sequoia NP as the midway points (east and west).

We can do some trad and multi-pitch, but we're not sure how many leaders/racks we will have so it's really important there be some walk-up top-ropes too.

I'm assuming bishop would be a pretty good place as there is a large variety of climbing around.
A few people are really interested in going to the west side instead for various reasons. So my question is, is there any areas that would fit the bill either near Sequoia NP or in the Needles/Kern River vicinity? I can't find any beta that points to any obvious top-ropes...

Thanks!

Eric, I dodn't if this is too late, but heres a little info for you.
Alabama Hills out of Lone Pine, about an hour south of Bishop has lots of good moderates. It is however mostly lead, but they are easy leads on Sport Bolts. Check out the section here on MP under Bishop/Eastern Sierras good amount of route info.
Happy climbing
Don

Check out: Courtright Resevoir. There is tons of free camping, the sheer number of domes is insane, there are far fewer crowds than other popular areas, and the climbing is GOOD. Go check out the climbers left side of the Tiger Wall- many good 5.5-5.10 routes than can be TRed off bolted or gear anchors.

Eric, I hope we are not weighing in too late to be helpful.

On the Eastside, the best walk-up top-roping is at Iris Slab, Horseshoe Slab, and Benton Crags. Benton is by far the best of these, but the routes are about 115 feet long so you'll either need to extend your anchors well below the top or tie 2 ropes together and have the climber clip in short.

In the Southern Sierra, you can set up some nice top-ropes on Dome Rock. Simply lead the first pitch of Tree Route and you'll have access to routes to the right and to the left. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like more beta about this option.

Good luck!

I think driving all the way to the Southern Sierra just to top rope the first pitch of the Tree Route and the two climbs adjacent to it is something of a waste. There's not really even any bouldering around.

Don't get me wrong. I love the area. But it's not that close for either of you and if you're willing to have the So. Cal. crew drive a little longer to the Valley, for example, you'll have far more options. The other option is to drive further south to the Kern River areas, where there are lots of much shorter climbs.

We ended up doing Alabama Hills due to the weather. Some of our crew is starting to get better with leading so we just goaded two of our climbers into working as rope guns for the weekend. Not walk up but it worked and was a good time for all

Courtwright was another good sugegstion we got, but was too cold by trip time