EISPIRATEN

On Friday, I climbed Sugarloaf via Falling Rock Canyon and have no beta to add that hasn't been covered in depth. However, two weeks earlier, a couple of my friends came with me and we mistakenly started up the ridge just right of the canyon. We figured it out after a couple of hundred feet, but compounded our mistake by deciding to continue up the ridge. It didn't look worse than class 3.

The ridge is a lot steeper than the canyon. The dirt sections could be tricky and the rock was mostly rotten. We didn't have helmets and we kept knocking rocks on top of each other. Each small rock slide would continue for at least 100 feet, and some of the rocks we dislodged were 20+ pounds. Sometimes we pulled big sections of rock off what appeared to be solid slabs. At around 6300', half way up the ridge, we started approaching what looked like sections of class 4 and combined with the rotten rock, convinced us to descend.

The down climb was slow and we had to space out a lot, making sure each person below was in a safe location before the next one descended creating the inevitable slide. At one point, my Garmin etrex GPS was knocked loose and it tumbled like a rock more than 100' before disappearing over a 20' cliff. I found it later scratched but working perfectly. Go Garmin! We all had fun, but all left blood on the ridge. More advanced climbers might make it all the way, but beware the rotten rock.


Starting out


Hey, we're not in the canyon


This doesn't look so bad


On we go


Traversing to stay next to the canyon


Loose stuff


Looking back


The rock looks good, but can't be trusted


Where we turned back


My souvenir


My friends souvenir

Ouch! That second wound looks like it could use stitches.

That's what I thought, too. He didn't go to the doctor, just put Neosporin on it. It was wide, which made it bleed a lot. It's healing up fine, but will leave a nice scar.

Yeah, that looks pretty hairy, glad you made it out OK, I haven't check my maps yet, but was there any point where you could traverse back to Falling Rock Cyn or were you too far away.

Phil

PS. Go Neosporin, never leave home without it.

There were a couple places early where we could have gotten back into the canyon. For example, just past the 1st dry waterfall. After that, it is cliffed out in most places and we weren't really looking for ways in, just up. It was just a poor group decision to stay on the ridge. On the way down, we were just trying to be safe.

Howdy

Ouch! I feel your pain. Had a similar experience:
http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=4120

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

Hey Ellen!

You had quite a thrill outside the FRC proper. Apparently, the left and right ridges above the canyon are similar terrain with loose dirt and bad rock. Glad you ladies made it out safely, but I see it took a blood sacrifice from both of us.