Golden Gate Wall

The more I think about this wall, the more I like it. It’s in a boring, out of the way place, as a retaining wall under a freeway, on a route that few people would choose.
And yet, some engineer or architect choose a fanciful rock pattern, that’s actually quite pretty, instead of plain grey concrete.
Drive by it sometime, you might like it.

You might find it odd that there is a listing for a retaining wall under a freeway. This wall however is used by quite a few people not for it intended purpose. The wall is finished in artificial rock and plaster. Local rock climbing enthusiasts like to use this wall to practice their climbing skills and get a rock climbing workout, Similar to «buildering» as an off shoot of «bouldering» meaning climbing around on boulders and rocks in anticipation of doing real climbs like Half Dome of El Cap. Buildering entails climbing on actual buildings using the structure the same way as one would use a rock face. Climbers will find hand holds and cracks to maneuver their way up the side of buildings. This is quite the case on the UC Berkeley campus. See all those chalk marks up the side of that building? That’s the climbers using chalk on their hands. You’ll see the same chalk marks all over this wall under the freeway. I was in high school when I started doing the climbing thing, using those funny shoes with no tread to climb around on and having a little bag of chalk powder hooked to a carabeaner on my jeans. Heck everything was hooked to carabeaners, those metal loop thingy’s you hook and loop climbing stuff to. This wall is a good local place to get in some practice without going to a climbing gym. Do climb ay your own risk, as a good friend of mine fell only 2 feet to the sidewalk below, but broke her ankle in the process.

Great dry tooling area

Golden Gate Wall is a retaining wall on Golden Gate Ave where it crosses under Hwy 24. The ~200 ft long wall is inlaid with natural rock and although it’s not the most exciting bouldering area, the traverse serves as a great endurance workout. The wall heads uphill in the southerly direction, which adds to the challenge. The lower you stay on the wall, the harder the traverse. There are also some topropeable cracks, although I haven’t checked them out.