Voodoo Dome conditions?

Anyone have recent info on voodoo dome? Climbable at the moment? 

It's a pisser that they close that road. Climbing conditions there are usually perfect this time of year.

Get creative.... toss that E-Bike - dirt bike over/under the gate. It’s a crime that our “public servants”... can’t figure out how to twist a key in a lock. Like Kris says- at one time they would as soon as it melted out.
But our government says they “don’t have the money” That’s complement bull shit IMHO. How do they afford brand new SUVs every year and re-modeled Headquarters?
This has been discussed before- many users- Fishing people, hikers, white water enthusiasts and climbers harp on this every year but nothing changes.
Start calling your State reps... they don’t really give a shit.
Just down the road by Lake Isabella there is/was/is a gate that got installed to keep folks out of a large area. Those locals fixed it by yanking the entire gate out by the roots and tossing it down into the Kern river..... it took 3 years for the funding to be approved and the gate replaced- then it got yanked again!!!!
When the Federal gov takes control of your local area they generally do a terrible job. The local Rangers do a good job despite the rules they must follow.
So welcome to climbing season 2020, call the Kernville Ranger Station at 760-376-3781 and ask them when they will get around to opening it.

Really guys, Voodoo at this time of year?  I was in Camp Nelson over MLK, which is a couple of thousand feet lower and there was quite a bit of snow. South facing aspects were fairly snow free though, so who knows.  

Fat Dad wrote: Really guys, Voodoo at this time of year?  I was in Camp Nelson over MLK, which is a couple of thousand feet lower and there was quite a bit of snow. South facing aspects were fairly snow free though, so who knows.  

Voodoo Dome sits there and bakes in the sun all day long. There is nary a tree, or a ridge line to cast a shadow on that face on a sunny day. There are other areas in the Kern Canyon, Rincon comes to mind, at about the same elevation. Those south facing white granite walls which are without shade all day will have the best climbing, while there is snow cover everywhere else but there.

revans90 wrote: i find a yosemite hammer and funk -ness incredibly useful for accessing public lands/roads.

? You must be strong as heck. The Isabella locals used a dump truck! 

Just curious -- what would a backpack / combo ski approach to Voodoo look like in the winter? Totally insane from where the road is closed? Is there lots of snow leading to the sunny dome?

jt newgard wrote: Just curious -- what would a backpack / combo ski approach to Voodoo look like in the winter? Totally insane from where the road is closed? Is there lots of snow leading to the sunny dome?

Are you talking about going in from the upper road and descending to the base of Voodoo, or going in on the lower road from the gate?

JT the deal is this. The lower road is usually snow free. As Kris mentioned, it’s completely south facing and at a fairly low elevation. Going in it’s almost all uphill. I have run out after a car failed but that’s another story. When logging was going on those companies had some serious pull with Forest Service.

Via the lower road it's roughly 10 miles from the gate to the Voodoo Dome approach trail. A lot of the road is in the sun, and I wouldn't expect the snow to last long there. The stretches in the shade? who knows. Kernville locals have told me that the road is usually clear of snow, and if there are obstacles they'll be in the form of rocks, gravel, and maybe a tree. YMMV.

" I have run out after a car failed but that’s another story." Yes, it is. I'll never understand why Erik's rack was in a paper bag.

edit: Post up if you make the trip. 

Running out after car breaks down .... haha .... yes that IS dedication!

I envisioned the whole area coated in snow, so good to know it's actually quite dry on the lower road. In some ways it would be nicer to ski approach, since you can glide so easily. Maybe it's more a mountain bike affair.

Either way I get a kick out of doing stuff out-of-peak-season and Voodoo with some extra walking/riding sounds like a good candidate. I remember you could see really far into the Sierra from the needles ridgeline ... probably get a prime view of the snowy range!

Jeremy R wrote: Fess up, Guy!

Don't make me start the "Anyone Run Out After a Failed Car On The Voodoo Dome Approach? Just Curious" Thread

OK After climbing for a few days at Voodoo in the late fall, Kris, Erik, Jason and I returned to the car at the last light. Kris mumbles something like “F me!” So I ask “what?”.... he points to the extremely dim dome light in his company’s provided car and says “that was supposed to be fixed”! It seems like the car was in the habit of turning on all the lights - for no reason. So no worries, he had jumper cables after all and we can flag down a car coming out from up the road from forks of the Kern. So we pushed it to the street and waited. Nobody came down the road and after an hour or so I needed to do something. I had a extremely important sales meeting the next day at 10a with some folks who I had been after for years. Remember this was before cell phones. Knowing that the BSA camp Whitsett was about 10 miles down the road I figured they would have a phone and maybe could come and jump us or I could call AAA. So I dug out my running shoes and without a word except “I’ll die if I don’t make that meeting- I’m going for help” so I took off running! After about 4 miles I stopped to catch my breath and walk some. That’s when I realized in my haste I forgot to grab any sort of jacket- to ward off the late fall sub freezing temps! So I continued running- in the pitch black night- after a few more miles when I was in the thick trees and It was like having my eyes closed. Then I ran into a Bear that was going down the middle of the road! It roared, I screamed! Lucky for me the beast ran off down towards the river. By now I was down by peppermint creek campground, cold and wondering if I had made a good choice. The campground was deserted! Pressing on I made the next campground and was encouraged to see a faint glow from a campfire! Jogging over to it I found 4 drunks passed out in camp chairs! These fellas looked pretty “scruffy” with cowboy hats pulled down low. So I figured I had to go for it and made some noise and roused one of them out of their slumber! He stood up and asked “what the F is going on?” That’s when I noticed he was packing a huge hand cannon on his hip- full size 44 Magnum! So I explained the situation and they all said “OK let’s go”. They had a big ass diesel pickup, but no room inside, so they tossed me in the back. After driving for 10 minutes or so I pounded on the roof of the truck to let them know I was going to die. They stopped and dig up a big jacket, told me I could help myself to beer in the ice chest and then they all unloaded their side arms into the blackness! Big balls of Fire into the Forrest! I was thirsty so I opened up the ice chest and it was full of the best imports you can buy. We continue driving and they stopped again got out to pee, get more beers and they gave me a pull off of the bottle of scotch they had. I was able to ask them what’s with the cowboy outfits, guns and camping up in this deserted spot. The told me they were all accountants from Santa Monica doing their annual 2 week “get away from the wives camp out” and they again unloaded the guns into the forest! when we pulled up to the car the boys had settled in for the night and they were surprised that I had found help. It was probably 2:30am and these guys were in no hurry- I mean they had a nap! They gave Kris’ POS a jump but they wanted to “party” more! So brews were passed around. Kris figured this was going to be some sort of a deliverance moment as they were getting ready to fire the pistols some more! Anyway we finally get going and I sacked out in the back- exhausted from my long day and training run. Down in the Kern Canyon we stopped to throw away the trash at a handy dumpster and continued on our way. We arrived at Kris’ home about 6:15am and after unloading the car EE asked “where the heck is my rack, it was back here in a paper bag”....

For the record it was a company car. A brand new Chrysler Concord as I recall. Probably had 1500 miles on it. The vanity mirror killed the battery. It had an array of bulbs bright enough that a half blind grandmother could see to touch up her make-up.

Finally Jason admitted to using it that morning. He must have felt a need to preen himself for a day of climbing. We agreed to spare his life so he could help push. We were like an Olympic bobsled team. Push, push, everybody in. We careened down the road with no power steering or brakes until we came to an uphill section that no amount of momentum could carry us over.

I was having a Deliverance moment. Especially when one of those guys offered me a beer but pulled a damn fighting knife out of the cooler instead.

I started back pedaling, then Guy yell'd at him.

"Hey, where'd you get that, Bundy Drive?" The dude laughed, put away the blade, and passed me a beer.

All in, it as quite a night. What you've got here from Guy and me is the tip of the iceberg.

And why the f+ck did Eriksson stash his rack in one of the brown paper bags we were using for trash??

Jeremy..... of course! A hot shower, coffee and a bagel got me going again.
Remarkable what ya can do when you’re young! 

Jeremy R wrote: Awesome, thanks for sharing it, I was loling

Almost as much fun as a “Morning in North Fork” !! 

I’ve been following this thread cause someday I’d like to get some Voodoo. I gotta say that I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. Makes lurking on MP worth enduring all of the crap. So Guy and Kris:  Keep on keepin on!

Great story Guy!

On one occasion I was hanging out there where Needlerock Creek goes under the road. This is directly below Voodoo Dome. I had some friends coming up later, but for the time being I was alone. I was standing in the middle of the road looking up at the Needles when A Tulare County Sheriff's car rolled up to a stop in front of me. WTF? The only other time I've seen cops up there was when some Earth First types monkey wrenched a bunch of bulldozers and other logging equipment. This was on the dirt road that goes to the Needles trail from above. They punched holes in the engine blocks, leaving big pools of oil and antifreeze on the ground. It was a toxic waste site; large mounds of dirt were piled on top of the area and remain there to this day. There were some LEO’s poking around for a while then, but that was about ten years earlier.

So they got out of the car and looked me over. I had a tall bottle of Pilsner Urquell in one hand and my car keys in the other. My car was sitting there with the driver’s side door open. This didn’t look good, so I pointed out my tent in the trees and said I was camping here. They relaxed a little.

They asked me what I was doing there. I told them I was here to rock climb, and pointed up at the Needles. The passenger, the boss I think, wasn’t impressed, but the driver was gassed. It was like he hadn’t noticed the rock until that moment.

“Show me where you go up!”

So I carefully led his eyes up the South Face Route. I got him oriented in the big gulley and found the start.

“If you look closely, you'll see some cracks starting up by the biggest tree there. Got it? Okay, so follow those cracks up. They end at a ledge about hallway to the top. See where I mean?” That sort of thing.

When we got to the top he looked like he actually done the climb. He wobbled on his feet and rubbed his sweaty palms together. Then he took a look at me and said “You climbers are truly hard core.”

The boss wasn’t impressed. Why was his partner giving cred to a roadside camping, beer drinking dirt bag.

They turned the car around and left. It feels weird to laugh when your alone, but I couldn’t help myself.

More Voodoo...... I had been climbing for a little over a year. I had climbed in the Valley 2 times, Josh maybe 4 times and T&S maybe 3 times and a whole lot at Stoney Point. My young friend Mike Pope suggested that we take a trip to “The Needles” specifically Voodoo Dome. Greg Bender, Gary Vallie and some of the older boys had a black and white 8x10 photo of Voodoo Dome with some of the few established roots marked on it. One of these climbs was “Pea Soup” a grade 5 that was 5.8 A3 established recently- 70- by Fred Becky. This was 1974, early spring. So we halled ass up their in my parents 67 Pontiac station wagon. We hiked up midday “just to take a look”. We were pretty excited and Pope starts leading the first long A2 pitch- 110 feet of beautiful 1-2 inch crack. I cleaned the pitch (no jumars) and the next pitch Of A3 looked to be fairly short and because it seemed to be mid afternoon I racked up and started up. Really fun blade stacking and tied off KB’s took all of my attention for the next 3 hours. By now the sun was getting a little low in the sky Pope followed and he joined me at the belay in the chimney- at a little tree- as the sun was setting. We knew that a pitch of 5.8 was above us and a huge ledge was waiting. Only by now it was well and truly dark and Mike was unable to find the bolt and get us to the ledge. So we spent the chilly spring night in shorts and t-shirts hanging- in swami belts- from the tree and to top it off we somehow managed to drop the water! Welcome to real climbing Guy! We started out as soon as we could see and Pope freed the last A2 pitch at 5.10! We were back at the car by 10a, as more experienced climbers.

But that’s not the whole story..... skip forward 25 years later... Kris and I were up at Voodoo and some Young dudes had a TR hanging on Pitch #1, now known as “The Emperor”... 5.11+ FA by Tony Yaniro. This might be the best crack pitch in the place. The young dudes were trying hard but they couldn’t get past the crux.... they offered Kris a shot at it but he declined due to already being tired. I piped up and said “can I try it?” At this question both dudes snickering and laughing at me, they tossed me the rope and said “Go For it”...
I must admit that I was coming off of a knee surgery that laid me up for a year and I was 30 pounds overweight but heck I do have a PHD in crack climbing after all. So I proceed to float the thing and at the anchor I’m like “OK Kris lower me!” All the while sporting a big old shit eating grin. 

Voodoo Dome and I go way back and it’s a crying shame we don’t get to climb their in its prime season. March to May. Time to write your Congress person.

These stories lead me to give my vote for "Thread of the Year" award!

Brandt Allen wrote: These stories lead me to give my vote for "Thread of the Year" award!

Hi Brandt!!!!!  Don’t you have a story? IIRC.