Mount Woodson Mega Thread

I have a half a day. I'm headed that way for work. What should I get on? What's the first time at Woodson agenda? Top rope or boulder? 

I was thinking that Robbins crack looks like a good place to start. Robbins wouldn't put his name on it unless it was awesome. It looks awesome.

Woods goes to Woodie, haha. Welcome Tom!

For a half day first time visit you'll get more mileage climbing boulders in plain sight on the road. Rather than tromping through the bush.

I'd say bring a shortie rope and have some fun on some combo of crucible/the cave/digits delight/ maybe a quick boulder up big grunt (at least try the entry moves) and finish with a victory lap on robbins. You could also consider staying lower on the hill and trying big grunt, then just bop over to jaws and baby robbins before hitting regular robbins. Hope that word salad makes sense   

The day has a good flow when you hike to the top first then climb down the hill.

Had a nice lap up big grunt yesterday with the homies. It never gets old!

Yeah I'd say for the first time and a half day, stay on the main road and climb Robbins, Big Grunt and the Crucible. If it's a weekend, on your way up definitely check if Robbins has people on it and if it doesn't climb it right then. Otherwise, walking to the summit and then working your way down is pleasant.

Then if you have extra time you can hit up any of Out Of Sight, Jaws, Rockwork Orange, Mother Superior, Hard As Nails, depending on your style/difficulty preferences. If you like sharp/thin crimps, Uncertainty Principle is awesome but kinda involved to set up. If you want to climb something very unique, The Learning Cave Chimney is a full body bridge stemming chimney (but it is a bit out of the way from the main road, and this is also just me promoting my own climb, so take with a grain of salt haha). 

Other excellent climbs are Victory at Sea, Cat Crack and Hillary Step, but they are in different areas than the main road, so I wouldn't really recommend them for a first-time Woodson session unless one of them reaaally catches your eye.

Oh and also consult this map for the location of most of the more popular climbs (and many obscurities, many of which aren't on MP):
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1XhAJwMQ7dB3ITxPJQumZfRp7OZjuz1E&usp=sharing

 You should be able to load in the mobile google maps app

for a first timer on a solo outing, is it pretty easy to find stuff to top rope solo? any recommendations? thanks!

David Lewrote:

for a first timer on a solo outing, is it pretty easy to find stuff to top rope solo? any recommendations? thanks!

Took my first trip to Woodson about a month ago and found many routes easy to set up a tr solo. I spent the day on the north side on the Fry Koegel Trail and had a blast. Some highlights: 

Wide Robbins, everything at the Lighthouse, Chomp on This, 21st Century Schizoid Man 

David Lewrote:

for a first timer on a solo outing, is it pretty easy to find stuff to top rope solo? any recommendations? thanks!

Most routes at Woodson have walk-offs that you can use to get to the anchors and set a TR. The majority of the ones I mentioned in my post above would work for a TR solo, with the exception of 

• Robbins Crack (need to lead it)
• Uncertainty Principle (need to lead a 5.8 on the back to set up the TR)
• Big Grunt (this one is a squeeze chimney which you need to solo, but it is a quite secure solo)
  
  However, some of the "walk-offs" can be a bit of a heads-up. (For example the one for Hard as Nails is essentially a short 5.7 solo...)

I could also see The Cave being nice for a TR solo setup. 

Thanks for the advice! I let you know how it goes. Woodson has always looked good to me.

Gonna go climb Greg’s crack today.  RIP to the greatest Woodson legend!

Karl Bensonwrote:

Gonna go climb Greg’s crack today.  RIP to the greatest Woodson legend!

Had to look up this sad news... Thanks for sharing. A trip to Greg's Crack should be in order for many. 

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/202440086/greg-cameron

https://gripped.com/news/greg-cameron-master-of-free-solos-and-offwidths-dies/

Tough one. My condolences to his friends and family.

Hanging out on the hill you still hear stories about him! I was floored when an old timer told me Greg arm-barred Mother Superior. We don't need no stinkin stacks round 'ere!

Really cool that this little mountain with large boulders in San Diego has had so many connections to old skool bad ass locals and traveling legends passing through.

Will have to get my ass kicking on Greg's crack next time I'm up there. Hope your family is filled with many joyful memories in this time.

I went up this Sunday and climbed Greg's Crack. If you're "softer" than he was (I definitely am, and probably so are you), consider taping up your shoulder blades and bringing a pad and/or spotter...
I can't even imagine arm-barring Mother Superior. What an inspiration. 

I see that the new 5$ parking lots open on Wednesday. Gated with hours being sunrise to sunset. The notice also says they will install no parking signs along highway 67. Does anybody know how this will effect rexrodes or south woodson parking? Or those of us who like to climb into the night? 

Hi Nick. See the map of existing or new no-parking signs. You should still be able to park on the side of the road just south of the trailhead. There seems to have been some tension between the city and the county, as well as some backchanneling with some interested parties ...and it looks like this is what we got.

It seems silly to restrict parking lot hours to sunrise to sunset and now "patching" the obvious issue of hikers and climbers showing up before sunrise and after sunset when it's hot by still allowing some parking on the side of the road. I mean, the initial goal of the parking lot was to address the hazard of pedestrians on the side of the busy highway. It is definitely annoying, but the best approach to this may be to just wait for now and hope that they realize that restricting parking lot hours likely creates more hazards that it eliminates. Probably don't want to be all too vocal about the current parking plan as to not give anyone stupid ideas to put up even more no-parking signs...

Rexodes parking in still possible on the wide shoulder south of the trailhead and then (carefully) crossing the road. This may not be super official, but I haven't had any problems parking there and haven't heard of anyone else having problems with it. You can also park at Warren Canyon trailhead and walk along the shoulder of the road. Just don't take the Warren Canyon trail from the parking lot -- it hasn't been maintained and goes through a pretty thick poison oak grove.

Does the new parking lot connect to the approach trail for the north side or would you have to backtrack to the highway to get to it?

I think a desire path is in order there... I will try to go investigate soon. 

Nickwrote:

I see that the new 5$ parking lots open on Wednesday. Gated with hours being sunrise to sunset. The notice also says they will install no parking signs along highway 67. Does anybody know how this will effect rexrodes or south woodson parking? Or those of us who like to climb into the night? 

I parked in the new lot on Friday 4/3 and didn't leave until 7:45pm (~30min after sunset). The exit gate automatically opened when I left, no issues. That being said I did see a white truck that may have been a county employee - not sure if they were intentionally giving us a grace period and were planning on locking up later in the evening.

On this concept map, item 13 is the new trailhead from Lot A.   https://www.sdparks.org/content/dam/sdparks/en/pdf/BrochuresMiscellaneous/park-pages/mt_woodson_gateway/Mt.-Woodson-Final-Concept-Plan.pdf