We spent 2 days climbing here for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the first I’ve been here. On our first day, we climbed at the All You Can Eat wall, which had a challenging approach. To get to the climbing area, you’re going down, down, down into a canyon. Now, keep in mind that in order to get back to the car, you have to go up, up, and up, which was quite a workout. Anyway, back to the wall. There are climbs of various levels here. I started on a 5.8 climb(can’t remember the name of it) that totally kicked my butt! It was clearly not a warm up climb for me. I was on top rope and managed to slip once. Once I was«warmed up», I decided to go for a supposedly easier climb, which was only a 5.6. Yes, this climb was also difficult for me, but not as bad as the 5.8. After that, I did 2 climbs that were rated higher, but somehow seemed easier to me. Go figure! We didn’t stay too long as the heat was soon unbearable, so… we headed back to our car, which was sooo far away. The hike back to the car took probably a good 45 minutes of uphill without a trail. We were basically walking up rock after rock after rock. By the time we got to the top, we were huffing and puffing and catching or breath. Of course, the heat didn’t help any. The second day found us at The Great Wall of China, which had an easier approach as part of it was on trail. The climbs here weren’t any easier than the other wall. At least it was less crowded. All You Can Eat wall was very busy as there were a lot of climbers and we had to wait for some climbs. We had The Great Wall of China mostly to ourselves, which was rather nice. The climbs on this wall are pretty pumpy as well, and my upper body is pretty strong! We did a few climbs here and then proceeded to walk down the canyon to another area to do one last climb. Now, this was the best climb of the two days. It was a long, exposed 5.9 climb that scared me at the beginning, but once I got the fear out of my system, it was one heck of a fun climb! All in all, I highly recommend Owens River Gorge for some sport climbing. The routes are more pumpy then I would like, but at least I get to work on my upper body. There is a bit of an approach to get to the climbs, so be prepared to do some hiking. And, I recommend that you bring lots of water and sunblock as it does get hot seeing that it’s mostly exposed.
