The 'Mason Research Machine' has done us proud again, by discovering the little known Californian climbing gem that is Black Wall in Sespe Gorge. One hundred meters of near vertical sandstone trad climbing. With a walk in time of less than one minute! Fabulous stuff!
To get there, we started with a scenic drive along the coast on Highway 101, past Santa Barbara. At times the road went right down to the waters edge and seeing a few spots with friendly looking waves almost caused us to change the plan and try and find a surfboard hire shop!
We continued onwards and upwards into the mountains on the wiggly-windy Highway 33, until we reached the gorge.
As we rounded bend after bend, we started to think that we might be on a wild goose chase, and all we could see were rounded hills and soft sandy road cuttings - not exactly rock climbing terrain. Then just as we were about to give up, we came across this big slab at the side of the road.
Clare had found a topo online, and we easily identified the crag's classic route - a straight up crack line called 'Ending Crack' (5.7). This was to be our last climb of the trip, so how appropriately named!! Without further ado, we geared up, walked the sixty second hike to the base of the wall and set off up it.
The sun was on the wall when we started, but as I took over the lead on the second pitch the wind picked up and shadows drew across the wall. The climbing was great. Good rock and loads of protection. We climbed the route in three pitches - you could have done it in two, but it was more enjoyable (less rope drag) as three.
When we got to the top, we were actually quite cold and the wind nearly blew my sunglasses off! As you can see from this photo, it wasn't a terribly demanding walk in.
We didn't hang around at the top as we were both keen to get back in the sunshine. There were bolted abseil stations that got us back to the ground pretty quickly and the sun warmed us up in an instant.
We ate a late lunch in the gorge then drove back down the switchbacks to Ventura. It's a cool little town with a Main Street full of independent shops. There are loads of restaurants of every conceivable type, but try as we might, we couldn't find the kind of coffee shop we fancied. After consulting the tourist office about where to camp, we drove out of town.
We arrived at the campground to find that it had been closed for the last two years! Bad beta or what! With it being a combination of Saturday night and Easter weekend, we had no luck in finding somewhere to pitch our tent. We did however find a park to stop in where we could cook dinner. After a wholesome dinner of fresh veggies and cous cous, I sadly had to come to terms with the fact that my NZ sun hat may have had its day.
Something less to try and pack though...
After a short walk down to the beach to discuss our (by now very limited) accommodation options, we thankfully found a really nice room at a nearby hotel. Having not been able to camp the last few days as planned, we've endured a couple of grim Motel nights. Tonight seems like the lap of luxury and well worth the extra money. As is often the case, there are no such things as problems - only expenses...
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