SPORT REPORT : Rocky Rogues

The climber brings his knee up to his chest and just manages to smear the edge of his right shoe onto a minuscule ledge. He pauses for a moment, tenses, then thrusts himself upward, fingertips digging into a thin edge. He pulls himself up to a comfortable position, oblivious to the height, focusing totally on his next move, when a horn blast cuts through his concentration. He looks over with irritation at the nearby off-ramp; he’d forgotten that passing motorists could see him on this part of the freeway pillar. Collecting himself once again, he climbs smoothly to the top. His fingers brush the underside of the freeway, the symbolic end to his venture into Southern California’s climbing underground.

In dozens of locations around Los Angeles, rogue rock jocks have established clandestine climbing sites--most of them illegal--on freeway pillars, sewer walls and train tunnels. If you know where to look, you can spot them maneuvering over the small rocks and climbing holds they’ve epoxied there, practicing their moves between excursions to Yosemite and Joshua Tree.

They’ve been building these hidden sites for more than 15 years, their locations spread by word of mouth among the hundreds of athletes who make up this secret society.

But, like any renegade venture, this one has its drawbacks: Arrests are possible, though rare, and climbers often find that a favorite site has simply disappeared, the climbing holds removed by Caltrans and railroad workers. The routes are usually reestablished quickly, but if that’s not possible, climbers will scout other locations, building new ones.

For them, climbing gyms have little appeal: They want more than practice; scaling these walls and tunnels and skirting the law has an irresistible outlaw appeal. “Even though I’d rather be up in the mountains,” says one climber, “this is the ultimate L.A. underground scene.”