Machete Ridge 2000′
Rock Climbing– Pinnacles National Park
Total Time: 7:45
Distance: 4.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 2500′
Crux: 5.5
Pitches: 7
Protection: A couple quickdraws, anchor material, 60 m rope
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Pinnacles West Side Chapparal Trailhead, full services
A much needed late winter storm left the Sierras too wet and cold to do any climbing. So Holly and I headed to Pinnacles for the weekend, having a great trip climbing Costonoan and a number of spires in the High Peaks region this past fall. While we spent a good chunk of the weekend cragging, there was one multi pitch that had been high on my to-do list for the area- Old Original on Machete Ridge. More of an adventure outing than a technical rock climb, the route traverses 7 pitches over Machete Ridge, the largest rock feature in the park. The protection is minimal with lots of traversing, so up front it didn’t seem like a great route to do with Holly. But the more I read about it, the more reasonable the route sounded, sounding like an overall fun day. We stayed at a hotel in Salinas the night before, having climbed on the east side of the park the day prior. The west side Chaparral parking lot was nearly empty despite it being a warm spring Saturday morning, and we loaded our packs with a handful of quickdraws and small rack of cams (which went mostly unused) for the climb.
We headed up the trail towards the Balconies Caves, turning off onto the well sign climber’s trail to access the Machete Ridge routes. The climber’s trail was initially easy to follow, passing some single pitch cragging routes lower on the face. We followed it completely around the base of Machete Ridge, continuing up hill as the climber’s trail became less defined. As we continued up, I started to look for the start of the route, described on MP as “a notch with two pine trees.” It also says that it feels like you’ve gone too far. So when I saw a notch with some pine trees, I assumed it was too low. Plus there were some climbers on the Derringer Direct variation, which I thought started significantly lower on the mountain compared to the standard Old Original Route.
So we pressed upwards, aiming for a notch with pine trees quite a bit higher. We way overshot it. I scrambled up to the notch and was looking down on Machete Ridge about a quarter mile away.
“Shit.” Not a great start.
We backtracked and found the correct notch and put on our harnesses. I scrambled up the class 3 slabs and found the start of the actual pitch on a grassy ledge to the right, and brought up Holly to belay from a belay bolt at the start of the actual climbing.
The first moves off the ground were easy but unprotected fifth class leading to a ledge with a bush about 15′ off the ground. On the far side was a bolt, easily clipped from the ledge. I climbed up and past, finding a second bolt up and to the right, leading to a flat and narrow cat walk. A two bolt anchor at the start of the cat walk ended the first short pitch and I brought up Holly. The views were immediately better, looking across the High Peaks and the Citadel not far to the southeast.
The second pitch was more of a walk than a pitch of climbing. Leaving the belay, I walked the pathway to a notch on the right near a tree and scrambled up to the Machete Ridgeline, doubling back the way I came and crossing over the summit of Machete Ridge. I hadn’t realized it until this pitch, but the route actually does a descending traverse of the feature, crossing over the summit early on the route. I continued over the high point walking down a ramp with easy scrambling down to a two bolt belay at a notch. The pair of climbers that had taken the Derringer variation were having lunch on a grassy manzanita ledge and next belay station, with the intervening third pitch being the technical crux of the climb.
Holly scrambled down to the belay notch and I started out on the third pitch, traversing right of a bulge protected by a single bolt. The traversing move was somewhat awkward due to my height, and Holly seemed to have an easier time when it was her turn to follow. After rounding the bulge I continued down an easy ramp with a second bolt, reaching a bouldery short 8′ move to reach the belay ledge. The move was probably about 5.6 and unprotectable but with no real exposure and decent hands. I built an anchor off a large manzanita tree just as the two-some was leaving, and Holly started across to join me.
The ledge was a great one for a break, protected from the wind and unexposed, so we took a short lunch to give the pair ahead of us a chance to gain some ground. Holly has been dabbling with lead climbing, mostly sport routes and having led a route in the park the day before. Pitch 4 was considered the highlight of the route, and I thought it would be fun to give her the honors. The route scrambles up from the grassy ledge then follows the exposed arete with hundreds of feet of exposure on either side. You’re walking on the entire stretch and a single bolt protects the half way point, but it still wouldn’t be anywhere you’d want to trip and fall. Holly was game and she started up off the belay, reaching the two bolt anchor at the far end of the ridge with a few feet to spare from our 60 meter rope. Following the pitch, I took pictures as I walked along, enjoying the incredible exposure and condors circling over the High Peaks.
“Pitch” 5 is actually a rappel, either two raps with a 60 meter rope or a single long rappel with two ropes. As there was no need to bring two ropes on the climb, we did the descent in two rappels, passing the first intermediate anchor on the rappel for a second anchor a bit lower. The lower part of the second rappel is free hanging, although the majority of it could be scrambled fairly easily.
Pitch 6 was the final pitch of Old Original, climbing up and over an intermediate high point along the ridge to the rappel anchors. We walked down around the bulge at the bottom of the rappel to reach the start of the pitch at a V-notch. Some unprotected fourth class climbing brought me up to the notch where I clipped into a bolt. The downclimb of the other side, also class 4, looked a good deal looser and would make for a safer lower than a lead climb. So I anchored myself into the bolt, untying and retying through a rappel ring at the notch and had Holly slowly lower me through to a ramp at the bottom where I was able to walk and reach the final set of anchors. I thought by untying, I would save Holly from having to untie herself for the lower, the rope already being through the rappel ring as I brought her up. But as I lowered her down the loose ramp, I quickly realized the rope wasn’t long enough to pass through the bolt and make it all the way back to me. Luckily there was a nice flat and unexposed shelf at the base of the fourth class, and she untied and pulled the rope, tying herself back in and finishing the pitch to the anchor.
Although this was the end of the traditional route of Old Original, there was an optional final pitch that climbs the Middle Tower of Machete Ridge directly above us. Rated at only 5.5, it felt like a better way to finish the route than at the anticlimactic notch where we were sitting.
I had read that the opening moves of the Middle Tower could be protected with a cam for the first high bolt, and I plugged in a #3 in a vertical crack before pulling up to a ledge, making a few moves to reach the first bolt. The second bolt was high and to the right, with the final bit of climbing skipped entirely by continuing right to the summit ridgeline, scrambling up to the top. It was probably the most fun climbing of the trip and certainly the most vertical, a much better way to finish the route overall. I brought up Holly to join me at the summit of the Middle Tower, looking down on the hikers below weaving through the Balconies area. There were bird feathers strewn about the summit rocks, one of the birds of prey likely enjoying a kill at the summit sometime recently.
We rappelled off and back to the anchor at the notch to begin the formal descent of Old Original, which I had heard could be a little hairy. The first rappel was straight forward, dropping into a gully, the walls covered in moss and ferns from the recent storms. With a 60 meter rope, I could reach the first of three rappel stations in the gully, each stationed just far enough apart that you could stay on the rope and clip into to the next station.
To be honest, the gully itself was probably third class, but is fairly loose with the community consensus being to rappel in the interest of safety and lower impact. The third rappel in the gully brought us to a grassy ledge with a single dying oak tree with some webbing. This was not a rappel station, with a single 60 meter rope unable to reach the ground from the tree. Instead, the tree was to serve as an anchor for a dirty class 4 traverse to the right across a narrow brushy ledge. I removed the webbing to ensure no one made the mistake of rappelling off the ends of their ropes and Holly put me back on belay as I started the traverse. There were about 4 small trees that I could sling along the way, feeling like most of them could have probably held a fall.
At the far side of the traverse the path widened and descended into a gully, and I made a quick anchor on a tree and brought Holly across. We were able to put away the rope and take off our harnesses, then continue the descent down the gully. I was surprised to encounter a tricky fourth class downclimb in a chimney early on with some exposure that although wasn’t deadly, would have made for very bad day had one of us slipped. Once through this last bit of scrambling, we hugged the cliffs to the right, traversing through grasses and trees up and over into a much wider gully system and back down to the Balconies trail.
The last time we were in Pinnacles, the Balconies Caves were closed due to COVID, and it was unclear if they had reopened. So we turned right on the trail, quickly reaching a junction with the Balconies Cliff trail that would bring us up and over the caves back towards the trailhead. Machete Ridge was impressive in the afternoon light as the trail climbed across the canyon beneath it.
I eyed some of the lines up the Balconies cliffs which looked difficult but fun, although all were closed for raptor nesting for the spring. We made it quickly back to the trailhead and pulled our camp chairs out of the trunk, tailgating in the parking lot and enjoying the afternoon light before heading back to Salinas for the night.
