No. 132 - Stoney Point Outcroppings

Stoney Point Outcroppings
Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Santa Susana Pass Road, Chatsworth – map
Declared: 11/20/74

When taking pictures at Stoney Point in Chatsworth, I ran into a man who first scaled this prehistoric rock formation forty years ago. Since then, he told me, he’s climbed all over the world, and he’d bet that more rock climbers learned how to climb at Stoney Point than anywhere else on earth.

The Stoney Point page at Mountain Project says that many great climbers trained and practiced at the Los Angeles landmark early in their careers, climbers including Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Bob Kamps, Ron Kauk, John Long, and John Bachar. The website also lists about thirty different Stoney Point climbing routes, including Beethoven’s Wall, Turlock, and Nabisco Canyon.

See a series of Stoney Point climbing videos on Jon McCartie’s Vimeo site.

If you’re ever in the area, even if you’re not a climber, you should still stop by Stoney Point, today a 76-acre Los Angeles city park. Even at its base, you can make out all sorts of caves, potholes, and dens throughout the formation, perfect for 19th-century bandit-hiding. When there, I saw not only boulderers but also strollers, taking in the site. Sadly, patches of graffiti were unavoidable.

I stopped by Stoney Point last Sunday afternoon. On any other day, I would’ve been following in the footsteps of Robbins, et al, scrambling up the cliffs and crags, but, unfortunately, I left my biners and grigri back in the car. In addition, it looked like a significant amount of work.

Up next: Minnie Hill Palmer Residence and Dynamite Shack