Favorite Climbs

A post on STR of a guy's first successful tough climb inspired me to create this log of some of my favorite climbs. I decided to break them up by distance. I'll explain why I picked the #1 entries in each category. The steep climb on the Fullerton Loop is my favorite, because it is where I hit my all-time high heart rate one day when it was muddy. Always tough.
The #1 medium/lungbuster is Meadow. It's got a few very technical switchbacks that make it tough to clean. The top 1/3 is relentless and its about 700 feet in a mile. That whole Aliso Wood park is full of those kind of climbs...


My favorite long climb is Holy Jim. It is sweet, smooth (relatively) singletrack and the springtime flowers are incredible. Plus it leads to either a great return trip down or over to Trabuco trail which is a great downhill, too.

Short strength/technique testers:
This is any little "wall" section of 1 minute or less
5. Steep climb on Anaheim Hills Trail between Weir Cyn and Santiago Oaks
4. "Wall" section on 7th St loop (Turnbull Cyn)
3. Dripping Cave Trail (Aliso Wood)
2. Ridge Climb (Peter's Cyn)
1. Steep climb near Parks Rd when going backwards on Fullerton Loop

Medium lungbusters (1-30 minutes)
5. 3 Bs (Santiago Oaks)
4. 3 Bs (Turnbull)
3. Big Red-Ridge (Peter's Cyn)
2. Potato Mountain (Claremont Wilderness)
1. Meadow Trail (Aliso Wood)



Long/grinders (>30 minutes)
5. Cheney Trail/Mt Lowe (San Gabriel Mts)
4. Harding TT- Main Divide TT to Santiago Peak (Santa Ana Mts)
3. Mt Pinos (Sespe Mts)
2. Indian Creek (Laguna Mts)
1. Holy Jim (Santa Ana Mts)