The classic badass Mosquito Pump.  Led by Don Garrett in 1976 or 77 with hexentrics.  The must do route here.  Goes from fingers to hands to fist to small off-width in forty feet.

Twist and Shout

Scratchin' for Gold

Hanging Garden

Boot Licker

Ant Line

Hangtown

Antline Boulder Problem

bouldering circuit

Mr. Mustard

White Water Traverse

Straight Lines

Hermit Crack

Sluice Box

Octopus' Gardens

Susan Forever

Fly the Friendly Skies

Both cracks 10a/b, just the right crack 5.10c/d.

Boulder the overhang (the crux) and arrive on a slab. Move right into a right-facing layback crack (first opportunity for pro). Move up the crack and mantle onto another slab. From here, either follow the left-hand crack system to the top (often dirty, but good options for pro), or choose the no-pro slab to the right. This is a good first 5.11, as the crux occurs in the first two moves.

The easiest route at Mosquito Coast. Dirty crack with secure hand jams. Watch out for the forest of poison oak above the anchors.

Bouldery start keeps the pressure on until the "toe" of the Boot Flake is attained. From the toe of the flake, continue up and left on 5.9+ terrain.

A classic finger jamming exercise.  Very fun with an interesting ending.

Big pulls on overhanging terrain into slippery slab for the last 2/3 of the route.

Don't be fooled by the easy opening move off of a big jug...The rest of the route is sustained quarter to half-pad crimps on a slightly overhung face. A tricky top-out keeps things interesting to the very end.

If you're ever there with an hour or so to kill, this little bouldering circuit is pretty decent.  This isn't well covered in Cottrell's guide so I'll run through what I like.  These problems were worked out in the 70s/80s by a group of Placerville climbers: Bob Branscomb, Don Garrett (by far THE MAN here), Kim Treadaway, and Ron Vardanega.

See Will Cottrell's Rock Climbs of Placerville guide for over all picture.

Start in Octopus' Gardens area, do the V0 traverse both ways from Octos Gardens to Golden Road a few times.  Then the start to Her Cheeks, V0 to the chockstone.  Boulder the 5.10+ start to Reluctant Elevation, drop off with care.  Go to Susan Forever, do the V2 stemming grunt(sit start)to the chockstone on the lip, drop off with care (fall into river potential here).  Do the V1 traverse (sit start)from Susan Forever to Straight Lines.  Attempt the V2 run from Susan Forever to Sickle Ledge (sit start), drop off with care. Sickle Ledge is an inobvious crimp above the Susan Forever Cave, right of that crack. Boulder the start of Bush Whack (sit start) to the jug on the right, drop off.  Do the right to left traverse from the boulder below Mr. Mustard to Bush Whack (V1 to V3 depending on low or high through cave), and continue either to Straight Lines (V2) or up Bush Whack to jug.  Do Talk is Cheap (V1 or V2) to the Bush Whack jug, drop.  There's a short no hands slab (9) on the south side of the boulder below Mr. Mustard.  Boulder the 5.9 mantel problem on the right side of a boulder under the trees half way bewteen Mr. Mustard and Antline.  Do the three 5.9-5.10a face problems to the right of Antline.

Something to do here besides jamming yourself to death.

Just as you should never judge a book by its cover, you should also never judge a climb by the amount of moss growing next to it.

Sustained liebacking persists until gaining the ledge. From here, climb a short thin-hands crack to the chains. Despite the amount of moss that often grows next to this climb, the crack itself is usually clean. A great climb.

Distinct crux sections on this traverse are encountered going into and coming out of both the central and west alcoves. Each alcove provides options to either remain low and underneath a roof, or reach out of the roof and climb the lip/roof edge. All options end high and work back down on 5.10+ terrain. It is possible to traverse from left to right, but the standard traverse starts upstream and traverses to the left. For a true endurance test, try the out-and-back.

Start in the pea pod and finger jam, thin and flared, over the roof.  Proceed up into a corner and on to the top.  Very smooth stone and slippery jams.

Handjams and liebacking with glassy feet lead to an alcove. From here, jam the left-hand crack to the top of the formation.

From the top of the big boulder on the right side of Coral Cove, grab the rail and mantle onto the slab (5.10a). Move up the slab into a rotten, dirty, vegetation-filled off-fist crack (the crux). Climb the crack to the boulder at the top and exit right.

Two ways to start: can sit start in the cave and V2 it out to the chockstone (big stemming), or work the feet up the crack just left of the bottom of the cave till you can reach onto the chockstone and pull into it.  Then, brutal jamming to a cave, then over the roof to the top.

A bouldery, overhung start leads to steep edges on a clean headwall. Climb to the left of a thin seam that opens up and becomes flared at the anchor.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Mosquito Coast