In reply to Mark Glaister - Assistant Editor:
Well, I spent yesterday aftenoon avoiding most of the 4th July madness on Mt Woodson and I thought it was splendid. In terms of sensible height bouldering at achievable grades (especially on your own, sans pad) it was at least as good as J Tree, and much more concentrated.
There's a fairly recent guide to Southern California that lists 838 problems and routes with reasonable diagrams (although meeting a local certainly helped). There's everything from 10 ft high 5.6s to 40ft toproped or bolted 5.12+.
There are photos of Hamburger Crack and Baby Robbins in the guide, so I did those because I was certain where I was!. The grades don't seem very consistent (HC is 10b but felt easy (perhaps V0+, 5b) BC is 5.9 and was slightly trickier (finger jams), Fisticuffs is supposedly 5.8 but is a really awkward width for my small fists anyway).
Looked like a lifetime's worth of stuff to do. I don't know whether the Wideboyz have been but there are lots of hideous-looking cracks from really thin fingers (Jaws 11a, Lie Detector 12b) to really wide. I had a brief look at Mother Superior (11d offwidth) and it's gruesome, as you might expect.
Joshua Tree is great but I really missed having a rope. Onsight soloing is OK but the big question is can you get down again? I had a no guidebook adventure (deliberately) getting up and down Cap Rock (easy when you know how but exciting if you aren't sure), but a lot of the bouldering is hard to find from the guide I had.
I did find Gunsmoke (11+) which is excellent (and strangely familiar). I didn't manage it in one push but did all the moves and it's definitely achievable if you are fitter than I currently am.