Seasoned rock climber loves scaling his local Santa Monica Mountains
By Joann Groff joann@theacorn.com

GREAT HEIGHTS- David Katz has ascended many cliffs during his years of rock climbing. The local real estate agent began climbing as a kid living in the Westlake Village area. Katz considers it a personal challenge to find new climbing spots in the nearby mountains.

As a youngster, David Katz and his friends used to play mountain climber with garden hoses or boating ropes and hike around the Lake Sherwood area.

At 47, he isn't playing anymore.

Katz, a native of Westlake Village, spent his whole life climbing the terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains. He's traveled to climb in Alaska, Canada and much of Europe.

The avid climber takes credit for finding many of the top climbing spots in the Santa Monica Mountains.

"I've put up more than any other person," Katz said. "I just go out looking for new rocks. It's the nature of the hills around here that sometimes you have to climb through brush looking. Now there's a lot of climbing areas around here, and people are coming to L.A. from all over the U.S."

Katz watched the sport's popularity grow tremendously since childhood.

"There was a big surge in 1985," Katz said. "If you were a climber before the mid-'80s, no one even considered you an athlete. Through the '70s, if you tried to tell someone what you did on the weekends, people looked at you like you were kind of crazy."

But Katz and his friends stuck with it. They joined the rock climbing section of the Sierra Club (now defunct) as young teenagers and learned about safety and climbing.

"We were the only kids in the group," Katz said. "It was like my Boy Scouts, except more fun. We got to get rides with the older people and go out and climb."

Katz and the same group of guys from his high school still climb together. Together they've discovered some of the area's most popular spots, mainly in Malibu Creek State Park. In Malibu Canyon by the creek head there is very good "bouldering," Katz said. Although the rocks are no more than 30 feet high, it's good quality climbing.

A couple hundred yards from the tunnel, right off the road, is a slab at a 70-degree angle.

"It's really good for feet work," Katz said. "There are 10 different routes you can go on the one slab."

Katz' newest discovery, named Piuma Pinnacle, is a rock climb off the well-known Backbone hiking trail. The rock's unique 80-foot overhanging crack varies from finger-size to hand-size to off-width, an awkward width where climbers can get their whole arm or a foot and part of the leg in but can't squeeze in their whole body.

"It's very awkward," Katz said. "Most climbers dread it. I've always had a thing where I liked it. When I was younger, I was scared of it, so I did it a lot and got used to it."

The Pinnacle offers nine different routes and overlooks Malibu Canyon. Katz said he can see the ocean while climbing.

"Most of the local areas around here you're climbing on sandstone rock on pockets, holes, edges, knobs that stick out," Katz said. "We have very few crack climbs. This was a really significant find."

Katz loves all aspects of his sport: climbing ice, snow, rocks and big mountains. His favorite type of climbing is tackling frozen waterfalls, despite a very close call. While climbing up a waterfall in Valdez, Alaska, an avalanche came down the side of Katz.

"We were halfway up a 750foot vertical frozen waterfall," Katz said. "I was on a detached piece of ice when it hit, and the piece was vibrating. It was a pretty scary moment."

And Katz can vividly remember his share of scary moments over the years. In 1981, he was halfway up El Capitan in Yosemite Valley when a big earthquake hit.

"I think 27 people died, hikers killed by avalanches on the Yosemite Falls trail," Katz said. "We were fine, but I was waiting for that to be the end of us. I was watching rocks fall everywhere."

With the many risks involved in climbing, the local resident and real estate agent says it's key to learn safety measures.

"It's a dangerous sport, but it can be done if you build the right skills," Katz said. "It's as dangerous as someone makes it."