Pine Mountain Pulldown 2009

The Pine Mountain Pull Down: California's Newest Outdoor Competition

Coverage by Anthony Lapomardo

Possibly a precursor to a west coast Triple Crown Series this event showcases California's finest climbers pulling down on the orange-sandstone boulders of Ojai, California.  Celebrating its second year this competition drew a large amount of climbers to the quiet Pine Mountain Inn all ready to try out the areas finest.

This weekend The Pine Mountain Pull Down (PMPD) held its 2^nd annual competition in the serene hills of Ojai, Ca.  The event encompasses three days.  The brain child of Yishai Horowitz and his company All Out Events, a local San Luis based group of climbers, it is quite possibly California's step toward building a Triple Crown competition. This year it brought together new sponsors and hungry climbers to enjoy the three day event.

The first night started out with a warm desert welcome with sponsor booths, a slack line, and the premier of the Reel Rock Tours latest.  Climbers trickled into the event from the mid-afternoon and late into the night, everyone psyched to enjoy their time with a great community of people.  The beer ran all night while climbers pulled up their crash pads, filled their pint glasses to watch BigUp Productions Progression and Peter Mortimer's insight about the mental aspect of soloing.

The morning of the second day of the event saw over 50 crash pads, and 150+ climbers bused up a 6 mile pot-holed filled road to the awaiting sandstone boulders that were nestled comfortably at 7,500ft.  Once the buses reached their destination, everyone filed out to take a crack at the areas classics.  From the basic warm ups, to the 5 star guide book recommendations the landing of each problem was padded and enthusiastically worked by the patrons of the PMPD. Even recent FA's saw quick repeats.

 The area offers problems that power out roofs, ease up slab, and slap up blunt arêtes on crystal textured slopers and bullet crimps.  The large bouldering session lasted from 9am-4pm before the bullhorn was blown and climbers piled back into the buses to enjoy another night of frivolity, which included a catered dinner, the announcement of the winners, a massive raffle, and a fun dyno competition.

The last day of the three day event saw the community with the help of the forest service clean up the boulders of Pine Mountain by picking up trash and trail maintenance.  All of this occurred after an early pancake breakfast, which culminated the end of an amazing three day event which with its growth looks to see an even larger event next year.