Join Professor Srivastava on this SPECIAL EDITION Peaks & Professors trip to Holcomb Pinnacles, one of the most popular outdoor climbing crags in Southern California. Why is this trip SPECIAL EDITION, you might ask? Instead of traversing horizontally like on a hike, this trip features almost exclusively vertical movement in the form of ROCK CLIMBING. This is also Peaks & Professor’s first collaborative event with SC Climbing, USC’s climbing team!
Near Big Bear, Holcomb Valley Pinnacles lies in San Bernardino National Forest and features all-around great climbing. All of the climbs on this trip will be 5.9 or below, as we want everyone to have the opportunity to climb regardless of their level of experience. No climbing experience is necessary to go on this trip! Personal climbing gear (shoes, harness, and helmet) will be provided if you do not have your own!
PACKING LIST:
Water
WAIVERS
Climbing shoes and harness, if you have it (gear will be provided if you don’t)
Food: breakfast, lunch, snacks
Layers
WE WILL PROVIDE
Group climbing gear
Personal climbing gear to borrow if you need it
Vibes
PROFESSOR: Ajitesh Srivastava
DEPARTMENT: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor Srivastava received his Master’s in Intelligent Robotics and PhD in Computer Science from USC, and his current research focuses on epidemic forecasting and deep graphical neural networks on large graphs. Professor Srivastava was a founding member of USC’s competitive climbing team back when he was a student at USC, and he is also a stand up comedian!
PEAK: Holcomb Pinnacles
DIFFICULTY: 2/5
Near Big Bear, the Pinnacles are heavily-featured granite, providing a wide variety of climbs for all levels of experience.
FUN FACT: Holcomb Valley was one of the first sites discovered in the California Gold Rush.
TRIP LEAD: Taliyah Emory-Muhammad
Current obsession: “Homemade Dynamite” by Lorde
Contact Taliyah: emorymuh@usc.edu
Read Taliyah’s bio here.
SC Climbing Trip Lead: Andy Ryu
Andy is one of the climbing trip leads on the USC Climbing team, and he is super stoked (!!!) to be jointly leading this Peaks and Professors Trip. Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, he decided that Texas was a little bit too flat and made his way out to Los Angeles, where things are a little bit more his speed. Currently, Andy can mostly be found researching in a lab studying chemical biology, where he explores the significance of cell surface sugars and synthesizes sugar modified proteins. In his free time, Andy can be found wrestling pebbles in the great outdoors, arguing with himself in his head about philosophical topics, and zooming around Los Angeles on his road bike. Talk to him about anything related (or unrelated) to indie music, neo-noir films, or that sick boulder problem you just tried at the gym.