Echo Cliffs (Malibu)
Santa Monica Mountains (near Malibu) · near Malibu / Agoura Hills · Los Angeles / SoCal
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Grade range
- 5.9 to 5.13 · Steep sport and top-rope
- Best season
- Fall through spring · Summer bakes in the Santa Monicas · Don't climb wet sandstone
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Santa Monica Mountains NRA / local access — no formal permit, but a hike-in approach. Fragile sandstone (wait after rain). Check current parking and access rules.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Nickname
- The Steep Sandstone Sport Wall
- Climb types
- sport · top-rope
- Rock type
- Sandstone (steep, pocketed)
- Route count
- Dozens of sport routes on a hike-in sandstone wall
- Signature routes
- The steep sport lines
- First timer note
- Echo Cliffs is a steeper, more advanced sandstone sport wall in the Santa Monica Mountains — the hike-in keeps it quieter than Stoney Point or Point Dume. Best for intermediate-to-advanced sport climbers; not a beginner venue. Beautiful, uncrowded LA-area climbing.
- Intl tip
- Echo Cliffs is in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu Creek State Park (its own entry) and the Backbone Trail. Combine with a Malibu beach day or the Point Dume ocean top-roping. The hike-in approach makes it feel wilder than most LA-area crags.
The guide
Echo Cliffs, tucked into the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, is Los Angeles's steep sandstone sport secret — a hike-in wall…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Echo Cliffs (Malibu) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.109, -118.856