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Green Dome

California > Central Coast > Santa Barbara

Description

Green Dome aka Kryptor is a nice chunk of schist out on Camino Cielo. The rock is dense, but highly fractured, and you're likely to pull off a few souvenirs if you climb there. With that said, Green Dome has a great collection of medium to hard sport routes and is rarely crowded (probably due to the length of the drive). The wall doesn't get much sun, so its prime for spring and fall, and warm winter days.

Good bolts/anchors and most of the routes are PG.

Getting There

Drive up Gibraltar road past Gibraltar rock, and take a right at Camino Cielo. Drive until you reach the dirt road. Drive down the dirt road for about a mile, green dome will be on your left. There's a steep climbers trail down. As you approach the rock, the trail forks. If you go left you can walk up to the top of the rock to set up top ropes, or continue down to the west face. If you go right you can walk down to the east face where there are some easier routes.

The approach is about 10 minutes and could use some clearing back. Watch out for poison oak!

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Green Dome's burly west face. For whatever reason, this vantage makes the wall appear deceptively moderate. In reality, the rock is very much overhanging (by about 20 degrees).
[Hide Photo] Green Dome's burly west face. For whatever reason, this vantage makes the wall appear deceptively moderate. In reality, the rock is very much overhanging (by about 20 degrees).
Green Dome north face as seen from Romero Trail
[Hide Photo] Green Dome north face as seen from Romero Trail
Green dome from the approach trail doesn't look like much. The east face has been marked with an arrow and the anchors over Hero in a halfshell have been marked.
[Hide Photo] Green dome from the approach trail doesn't look like much. The east face has been marked with an arrow and the anchors over Hero in a halfshell have been marked.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Noah
[Hide Comment] The texture and friction of the rock at the Green Dome is very different then the sandstone in the surrounding area. It takes a little getting used to.

Many of routes start off strong but as you approach the top of the crag the rock becomes more fragmented. The resulting climbs tend to be loose and relatively uninteresting near the top, hence the tendency to be PG between the last bolt and the anchors. Feb 8, 2006
Kristin McNamara Horowitz
SLO, CA
[Hide Comment] Steve Edwards touts this as an undiscovered gym. I would advise passing on it unless you just want to tick off a new area. It isn't bad climbing, but it isn't great - and SB has some great climbing. Jul 21, 2006
andy patterson
Carpinteria, CA
[Hide Comment] I couldn't disagree less with Kristin.

While there are some decidedly un-memorable routes here in the easier grades, once you enter the 5.12 realm, the climbing improves dramatically. Monsters in the Maze (5.12b) is truly one of the best lines I've ever been on in Santa Barbara. While I haven't climbed on the other 12's and 13's yet (emphasis on YET), they look spectacularly technical and fun. Dec 8, 2008
bob wert
[Hide Comment] I agree with Andy. The "easier" climbing on the east side of the dome tends to be crumbly. I believe Steve Edwards once made "screamer of the month" taking a long whipper off a breaking hold.
The harder climbing on the west side is very athletic and amazingly good. The rock is very clean and features small, sharp crimpers.

"Monsters in the Maze" is perhaps the easiest of the 5.12s there. Although it's rated 5.12b, it's really 5.12c (specially since holds have come off over time). The 12c grade has been confirmed by visiting climbers. Of course when you're as strong as Andy, 12c or 12b all feels like 5.11 Jun 3, 2011
steve edwards
SLC, UT
[Hide Comment] For the record my 'screamer of the month' here came when I was dropped from the anchors to the ground. I rarely broke holds here. Of course I glued a lot of them but, hey, like Ruckman said about the blankness of Private Little War when I was bolting it, "hit it long enough with a hammer and you'll have a chimney."

Monsters is the same route. At least it was a few years ago when I did it last. Yes, it's hard but Kryptor hard, which really just takes getting used to (no matter where you've climbed for some reason). It's a lot easier than everything else, especially since the crux hold broke on Quartz Crystal. Mar 14, 2012
Adam Shahbaz
Los Angeles, CA
[Hide Comment] I'm not sure if a lot of holds have since broken off of this crag, or if it's just the style of climbing, but I found these grades closer to Tahquiz level ratings than, say, Malibu. Both the 10b routes felt closer to a slab 5.11+ IMO, or closer to a 5.9+ or 10a at JTree/Tahquiz. There were very few holds, lots of big step ups, and in many cases PG-13 run outs and low crux moves.

We had a fun time, but given the distance, the fact that the location of the rock on the MP GPS is totally wrong, the outdated "Getting There" beta (which I submitted an edit for) and somewhat crumbly rock quality, I can see why this isn't a super popular/classic crag. Jul 17, 2018
Shaun Reed
Santa Barbara
[Hide Comment] Here's the correct GPS coordinates:
34.481750, -119.590329 Apr 17, 2020