McCain Valley Cracks

Yujia and I made a quick trip to McCain Valley, about an hour and a half SE of San Diego. It looked like there were some interesting cracks out there worth checking out. And boy were they worth it.

We started the day on Green Book (T 5.9), which is a finger crack dihedral. It was a fantastic climb, utilizing stemming, finger jamming, and laybacking. My only complaint is that this incredible climb isn’t long enough! If it was double the length, I’d bet it’d be considered a classic in the count.

After Green Book, we hopped on a route simply called Crack (T 5.10b). It’s mind-boggling that such a high quality route doesn’t have a more interesting name. Perhaps because it is hidden away off to the side of a relatively unknown crag. It’s 50 feet of thin finger crack, with occasional thin hands pods. It feels a bit like the lower half of Digits Delight or Jaws at Mt Woodson, if either of those routes were lower angle. The difficulty is sustained throughout the route, and it forces you to really look for good ring locks and jams. The first few moves required feet out and to the right, twisting your body diagonally. Gear mostly .2 to .5. I think I used a .75 near the top?