The Citadel

The Citadel- Costanoan
Rock Climbing – Pinnacles National Park
Total Time: 6:00
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1000′
Crux: 5.4
Pitches: 4
Protection: About 10 draws with slings, anchor material
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Chaparral trailhead, Pinnacles West Side

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Pinnacles National Park is named for a series of namesake pinnacles and spires created by the eroded Neenach volcano, having erupted 23 million years ago. The rock, although a bit chossy, has proven to be a playground for rock climbers, with many of the routes protected by bolted sport climbing with a smattering of trad climbing around the cracks and chimneys where available. I had only visited the park once before about 6 years prior, not long after it had changed from a National Monument into a National Park under the Obama administration. At the time I was not a rock climber, and had searched in vain for nontechnical routes to the higher spires throughout the park. I was excited to return to the park with the skill set to actually climb some of the features, and decided to ease into Pinnacles climbing by tackling Costanoan, a 4 pitch 5.4 that was highly rated and would give me an idea of the rock quality. The park is split into an east and west side connected by only trails, with Costanoan climbing the northwest arete of the Citadel on the west side of the park. There had been some rain the night before, and we left home around 7 AM despite the long drive to give the rock a chance to dry. The lower lot was full by the time we arrived on the west side of the park, and swung around to the upper lot, hitting the trail at around 10:30.

We followed the main trail towards the Balconies area only briefly, and turned right onto a well signed climbers trail featuring a carabiner. The sign was even labeled “Citadel” and was extremely easy to follow, one of the most climber friendly parks I had been to.

The use trail climbed up into a canyon with the Citadel serving as the headwall looking perfectly unclimbable, and certainly not by a 5.4 route. As we climbed higher, the humidity from the rain the night before left us dripping sweat despite being in the low 60s.

The use trail dropped across the wash losing about 100′ of elevation before skirting the northwest base of the Citadel, a few climbers on the rock above. The route was entirely sport, the longest multipitch climb of purely sport that I could remember having done, with the overwhelming majority of my climbing revolving around trad. Still, it was hard to leave the ground with only quickdraws, and I threw a few cams on my harness for luck.

The start of the route is the crux, and I moved out left to utilize some larger knobs before cutting right and clipping the first bolt. I had read that there was some run out between the first and second bolt, but as I looked up, I was quite surprised at just how much, easily 30′. I climbed up to a knob that I thought I might be able to sling, but found it too sloping to get any real purchase to tie off. Holly was growing anxious as I climbed higher, now back into decking territory about 50′ up. Granted, the climbing was easy, but a fall would have been catastrophic. I was quite happy when I reached the second bolt and extended it with a sling as others suggested on Mountainproject, although I can’t say precisely why as the drag on the route was nothing compared to a trad route in the Sierras. The third bolt was almost comically close after the run out I had just climbed up, and I moved past several more to reach the two bolt anchor at the lip of a grassy ledge with a small tree in the back. A party was rappelling down pitch two as I topped out, and I search for a different two bolt anchor deeper on the ledge to free up the rappel anchor for them. It took me longer than it should have (it was on the rocks to the left, not the main wall) and I built a quick anchor to bring up Holly.

The second pitch starts up a groove to the right, then slowly trends to the left to another two bolt anchor and hanging belay. The climbing was a bit easier on this pitch with plenty of knobs and positive feet, and it reminded me a bit of the Praying Monk on Camelback. I had used less than half of my rope length when I reached the hanging belay and continued past, the third pitch having similar climbing but trending slightly to the right to reach another great belay ledge with a small tree.

Another group was rappelling the fourth pitch (the last group on the rock that day) and we cozied up at the anchor (masks on COVID-friendly style) as I brought up Holly and his partner rappeled down to ledge, thankfully large enough for four. I wasted little time starting up the final pitch with a slight bulge to start, a second bolt high and to the left.

A final pair of bolts led me to the summit anchor. Unfortunately the anchor was about 10′ shy of the true high point, and I clipped in to the anchor to bring up Holly to join me at the summit. As she topped out, we both agreed it was a very fun and fairly mellow climb.

The three pitches of climbing (technically four with 2 and 3 run together) had taken us under 1.5 hours, and we enjoyed our late lunch watching the huge condors circle overhead. In order to tag the high point, we belayed one another up the short scramble to the summit block.

It seemed as if we would be the last group to climb the route for the day, so there wasn’t much pressure to start our descent. But with a lot of potential knobs to catch, there was definitely opportunity for things to go wrong. So we started down, rapping each pitch with my 70 meter rope, including from the hanging belay.

The final rappel is the longest, too long for a single 60 meter rope but just long enough for a single 70, and we dropped back to our packs and shed our harnesses.

It was only a bit after 3 and Holly was interested in doing a bit more climbing. The challenge was the fact that I did not own a copy of the out of print guide book for Pinnacles, and the climbing information I had access to on Mountainproject was variable in quality. We hiked back to the trail, and decided to look for routes further up canyon towards the Balconies Caves, aiming for Chokestone Rock (not included in the above map or stats). There were people cragging along the walls of Machete Ridge, but I had no idea which route was which, and we continued past, scrambling up to the start of the Chokestone routes.

Although the climbs looked interesting, neither of us were excited about the prospect of a 30+’ deck before the first bolt, not to mention that I would likely pull Holly off the belay ledge into the abyss below without a ground anchor. It hardly seemed worth it for some random 5.6s, so we cut out losses and headed back to the car, reaching it just before sunset and enjoying a beer in the fading light of western Pinnacles.