It’s not often I get to play guest in my own town but this past Tuesday I found myself with a bit of time in the afternoon. I left my office at 2:00 p.m. to meet up with friends for a quick hike and climb at Castle Rock.

Starting off from the road, we quickly ascended the trail – gaining 600 feet of elevation in less than a mile. At the base of Castle Rock’s southeast face we caught up with our friends Joanna and Tyler. Joanna was working out the moves on Round Table, a 5.6 crack climb. We took a break to enjoy the mountain breeze and found shade under the cover of a stand of towering Jeffrey Pines.

Castle Rock is the visible and prominent landmark located high on the south side of Big Bear Lake just west of the dam. A popular day hike area, it also attracts legions of climbers because it offers good quality rock in an intermediate range. The southeast face in particular sports 100-feet of vertical – making it one of the tallest crags in the area. Training for multi-pitch ascent in the Eastern Sierra, we decided on this face because we could make it to the summit in two short pitches - giving us the opportunity to work out our system and technical know-how.

We climbed Chainmail a vertical, off-width crack that goes at 5.6 but felt more like 5.7+ at the crux. Tyler led, followed Joanna, then my partner Scott led as I cleaned the route. Our first pitch ended at a spacious and lofty ledge – we had plenty of room to sort the gear I had cleaned. Looking out towards Sugarloaf peak, I voiced how lucky we were to live in a place with such quality training opportunities. From the broad ledge we continued in order, climbing another 30 feet to the top of Castle Rock and awesome views of the entire lake.

Descending the trail back to the road we all agreed it was far too nice to call it a night and decided to leverage our luck and find grub in the Village. We took advantage of happy hour dinner specials at Stillwell’s Restaurant in the Northwoods Resort before wandering over to Pine Knot Avenue for shopping and entertainment – it was Vinyl Revival night at The Pub.

We were home before dark and content in the knowledge that we were pretty lucky to call Big Bear home.

Gladly,
Glade Girl