Jamming near Berkeley

I'm new to trad climbing, and want to practice crack jams in an environment that isn't otherwise too challenging. There's a local gym that has several, but I would prefer working on placement selection and a variety of finger, hand, fist and larger holds. I'd also rather not spend too much time driving, if that's possible. I'm rather spoiled in that I live walking distance from Indian Rock, which although a great boulder, has no vertical cracks to speak of. Any suggestions?

The movement gyms (formerly planet granite) have an amazing set of cracks (>50 cracks from 5.4-5.14, finger->chimney). The best selection is at Sunnyvale, followed by San Francisco (Presidio), and Belmont has a few. Its really an ideal training ground & quite a luxury since the cracks are molded in a way to be quite featured/reminiscent of cracks you might find in Yosemite.

I checked out the cracks at the new Pacific Pipe gym in Oakland. They have many challenging ones (mostly finger or OW) but they are all unfeatured, perfectly straight cracks made between the boards of the wall. The texture is quite rough/hard on the skin actually. I'm sure if I lived closer I'd go there and my technique would improve ... but the movement-gym selection is definitely more diverse/enjoyable. You should definitely make the drive down to Sunnyvale at least once to check it out. 

2nd the Plante Granite gyms, they have tons of good stuff. If you want real rock, go to the Grotto

Thanks, guys. I'm going to check out the Presidio movement and Beaver St. as well as the other local rocks. I agree with the Pacific Pipe cracks observations, which is also true for the solo crack at Ironworks, which is not surprising in that it's the same company. Taylor- did you mean the Grotto in Berkeley, or the one in the Sonora Pass? The latter looks awesome, but my very early model E-car doesn't have nearly the range to make it there. 

Cheers, David

Beaver St. is pretty funky and not great for free climbing crack practice, but it's good for practicing fiddly gear placements.  Your best bet for real rock is to find a partner or group with a car heading to Yosemite (or even Tahoe, etc.) and tag along.  

Not taking the bad dirt road only at the grotto only adds 15 minutes to the approach. It ain't no thang. 

If you wanna climb there some time hit me up, it's one of my home crags. 

Just don't be like me and forget your gloves at home if you're climbing at pacific pipe. Had a great time remembering why gobies suck. 

golden gate wall on the uphill side has a short thin hands crack and the wall behind the chabot baseball field has a bunch of short (hard) concrete cracks.  bitd people used to learn how to jam and aid climb there.

David Gerrardwrote:

Thanks, guys. I'm going to check out the Presidio movement and Beaver St. as well as the other local rocks. I agree with the Pacific Pipe cracks observations, which is also true for the solo crack at Ironworks, which is not surprising in that it's the same company. Taylor- did you mean the Grotto in Berkeley, or the one in the Sonora Pass? The latter looks awesome, but my very early model E-car doesn't have nearly the range to make it there. 

Cheers, David

I assume you are a Touchstone member. Have you checked out Mission Cliffs in SF? I thought the selection of cracks there is fairly decent, from easy to hard.That lead-able layback crack is great, and so is the crafted leaning finger crack. If you make regular visits there, you can get great training without paying the expensive Day Use fee elsewhere. 

That said, yes, Movement Sunnyvale and Presidio gyms really have Movement members spoiled. They are worth the occasional paid visits. Just make the most out of each visit. 

Happy jamming! 

Tour of Movement/PG cracks

I know from Berkeley it would be quite a drive, but Pacific Edge in Santa Cruz has a nice crack board of splitters at varying widths that you can adjust the steepness on (from overhang to slab). It might be a decent place to check out if you ever get out there and want to calibrate what sizes/techniques you want to work on!

Movement has a 4-day pass for $108, with a second one for free. I'd like to avoid the weekend crowds, but unfortunately everyone seems to have real jobs. Any takers?