Time & Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)
Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.
Southern Yosemite, located in the Sierra National Forest, has always been overshadowed by Yosemite Valley. Twenty-five years ago, Doug Robinson brought Mike Arechiga to climb in the Southern Yosemite area and he has been hooked ever since. The history of Southern Yosemite is a bit cloudy at best as early climbing pioneers kept no records of climbs or climbing areas. In the early 1970’s, Fred Beckey was the first to climb on several of the prominent domes in the area. A couple years later, Royal Robbins brought his Rock Craft School to the area to climb many fine routes but they did not keep documents on any of the first ascents they did. Over the next four decades, many notable climbers arrived to the area and established many good and sometimes bold routes.
Southern Yosemite is still wild and entices climbers to search out places like Fresno Dome, Shuteye Ridge and The Balls. Mike, along with his family and friends, established a handful of routes in the 1990’s and then started to document routes and climbing areas to add to the climbs that were included Mark and Shirley Spencer’s Climber’s Guide to Southern Yosemite. In 2009, Mike made self-produced climbing guides to Shuteye Ridge and Fresno Dome. Even with Grahm Doe’s release of A Rock Climber’s Guide to California’s Shuteye Ridge in 2013, Southern Yosemite still feels remote and wild.
Mike Arechiga currently lives in Oakhurst, CA but has been an integral part of the San Francisco Bay Area climbing community at Castle Rock State Park and beyond. He has been involved with Planet Granite climbing gyms for the past 14 years as a route-setter, climbing instructor and construction builder. He is always willing to share climbing beta and loves to meet and climb with people who share the same passion in climbing.
