Climbing in Alabama Hills
Alabama Hills Overview
Pros & Cons of Alabama Hills
Photo: The Shark Fin
Alabama Hills is one of California's BEST playgrounds for beginning to moderate sport climbers. With nearly identical monzogranite rock to J-tree, these crags offer a wider variety of climbs, FAR fewer sketchy run-outs and more bolted face climbing.
The park has 420+ established routes (260 sport, 155 trad, 24 top-roping) and an endless number of bouldering options.
The Pros of Alabama Hills Climbing- a wide variety and high number of established routes, easy access to most climbs, well bolted climbs with mussy hook anchors, minimal competition over quality routes, incredible scenery and great weather
The Cons - Not an ideal place for multi-pitch climbers (majority of routes are under 100 ft.), chossy rock and loose holds on less popular routes, a lot of slab climbing
Popular Crags in the Park
SummitPost and MountainProject offer great beta on the popular crags below.
Featured in This Post - The Candy Store, The Shark’s Fin, Western Wall
Already Crushed ‘Em? Then Check These Out:
Photo: The Candy Store
Our 3 Favorite Crags for Sport Climbers
The Candy Store
Summary - An excellent place for beginning/intermediate climbers and large crews. Ranging in height from a few feet to roughly 40 ft., this area is a magical grab bag of short bolted climbs and even offers some top-roping. An abundance of great bouldering options and interesting traverses add some extra variety to the day. To top it all off, views of Lone Pine Peak and Mt. Langley in the background make for ideal photography.
Type - Sport climbing (16 routes), top-roping (9 routes) and a whole bunch of bouldering
Difficulty - Beginner to intermediate (5.7 - 5.11c)
Recommended Routes - Tootsie Pop (5.5), Marzipan (5.10a), Rock Candy (5.10d)
Approach - Technically you could belay from the hood of your car.
Directions - From HWY 395 in Lone Pine, turn onto Whitney Portal Road and drive 3 mi. heading toward Alabama Hills. Turn left onto Horseshoe Meadow Road and drive less than one mile until you reach the backside of the first major grouping of rocks. Turn left onto an narrow unnamed paved road for a short distance and left again onto a dirt road. Drive another 200 yards to the Candy Store rocks.
Resources
MountainProject - The Candy Store Rock Climbing
SummitPost.org - Overview and Directions to The Candy Store
The Shark's Fin
Summary - With a prominent view of Mt. Whitney in the background, the aptly named Shark's Fin is one of the most popular and picturesque climbing features in the park. Due to its popularity, you may want to get there early to avoid competition with other climbers.
Type - Sport climbing only (6 routes)
Difficulty - Beginner to intermediate (5.6 - 5.11c)
Recommended Routes - The north and south aretes, rated 5.7 (north) and 5.10c (south)
Directions - Turn north on Movie Flat Road from Whitney Portal Road, and drive half a mile to a dirt road on your left (west). The Shark’s Fin will be clearly visible on the right side of the road just a few hundred yards away.
Approach - An easy quarter-mile walk from the parking lot.
Resources
MountainProject - The Shark's Fin Rock Climbing
SummitPost - Overview and Directions to The Shark's Fin
Western Wall
Summary - To date, the Western Wall is my favorite place to climb in Alabama Hills, and for a great reason. With some of the tallest climbs and high quality rock in the park, it's tough to plan a trip to Alabama Hills without trying something new at Western Wall.
Type - Sport and Trad (60+ routes), made up of roughly 10 separate crags
Difficulty - The full spectrum (5.6 - 5.12); the best climbs are all at the intermediate to advanced levels (5.10-5.12)
Recommended Routes - High Plains Drifter (5.10b), Hang Em' High (5.10a) - both are 4-5 star climbs, absolute Alabama Hills classics, and are located right next to each other.
Directions - From Whitney Portal Rd., turn north onto Movie Rd. and follow it through the park. The Western Wall area is located on your left-hand side just before Movie Road turns 90-degrees to the East and heads away from the mountains.
Approach - Various approaches depending on the crag, none of them more than a few hundred yards away from their respective parking areas.
Resources
MountainProject - Western Wall Area Rock Climbing
SummitPost
Hands down one of the park's top climbing destinations, the Western Wall area is a football field sized granite dreamland filled with 50-150 ft. tall crags loaded full of 3-4.5 star routes between grades of 5.7 - 5.12+.
Top crags include Tall Wall (100 ft., 3-4★, 5.7-5.8), Western Wall itself (100ft., 4★, 5.10-5.11), Hoodgie Wall and The Loaf (145 ft. 3.5-4.5★, 5.8 - 5.10)
Photo: High Plains Drifter
Bouldering
Detailed info on bouldering in this park is really tough to locate (most guide books and online reports focus primarily on sport climbing).
It does exist, but mostly through self discovery. Look for chalk marks around prominent sport climbing areas, which you can find below. The Candy Store, for example, has several great bouldering routes in the V0-V4 range.
We found this boulder (pictured here) at a pull-off on the right hand side side of the road driving north on Movie Rd.
Frequent Climbers: Snag This Book!
Guidebooks - Bishop Area Rock Climbs, by Peter Croft and Marty Lewis and A Rock Climber’s Guide to the Alabama Hills, by Michael Strassman. Copies of these books can be purchased at any of the climbing stores in Lone Pine.
Peter Croft, on a side note, is one of the Sierra Nevada’s most legendary climbers. In addition to an iconic career as a free solo and big wall climber, Peter has established many well-known bolted routes (including much of Owen’s River Gorge). He also is a close personal mentor to Alex Honnold (and many other high-level climbers) and played an important role in the documentary Free Solo.
Resources
