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mikej
Apr 21, 2006, 5:27 PM
Post #1 of 7
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Registered: Feb 7, 2006
Posts: 210
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J Tree
Both of us took off Friday to attempt to get a campground in hidden valley or Ryan campground in Joshua tree. We get to the j tree southern entrance before noon and in high hopes of getting a good campsite. To our dismay, there are only 3 left, we’re told and they’re in cottonwood (about an hour from most of the climbing). We decide to reserve our spot and go looking for empty spaces, checking every campground with no avail. Since it was raining of and on, we figured climbing was out for a bit and went into town. After a stop for firewood and a small spree at the climbing shop, we headed back to try and climb before dark.
It was probably about 3:30 when we got back to the lost horse area and we wanted to check out some climbs. We also found some good boulders on the west side to play around on. After that, using our weather predicting abilities, decided we had enough time to get on a climb before the next storm hits (still windy as usual, but no rain currently). We head up and Dave racks up for the lead on white lightning (5.7).
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1ci06.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1cjuo.jpg
I forgot to mention, neither of us are really crack climbers. I’ve followed one trad climb with about 2 or 3 crack moves and it was about 2 years ago. He led up the first section and started having trouble at the crux, which if you slipped, could get a nice stone enema from a rock below. A couple joins us and we offer him a shot since I wasn’t about to think of leading trad yet. I've been doing sport and bouldering for about 6 years, but no trad yet. He baby steps it through the crux, but pulls it off and continues up the tall face. We watch the midpoint of the 60m rope pass when he was about 2/3rds up the route. He finishes off the route and anchors in. I struggle getting two pieces out, take a short fall and leave them to pull later and keep going. About half the way up I realize I’m struggling up a 5.7 and completely exhausted. I don’t care about the numbers, it just hasn’t happened since my first sport climb. I thought to myself, “That’s it! I’m not using my hands anymore!” It was kind of sarcastic, but was reminding myself to keep my arms unflexed as I climb and to think more. I move up the rest of the route and continue to the anchors where I’m welcomed by my belayer. I clip to the anchors and take a view. It was gorgeous. Despite the strong wind making it pretty chilly, I was again reminded of one of the many reasons I love this sport. I belay Dave up, while Dave 2, the guy who led up the route, is getting my rope and his rope that I hauled up on my harness ready for the double rope rappel. Dave moves up clean and the Daves proceed to toss the ropes down after equalizing them and running them through the anchors. I let them both rappel first. This was my selfish way of absorbing as much of the view as possible, but shhhh! Don’t tell the Daves! We rap down and they invite us to share their site in jumbo rocks, since they were sleeping in their truck. This is great, because the campsite is at least 45 minutes closer to the climbing. We thank them and fly low from lost horse to cottonwood back to jumbo to pick up our voucher, since they were leaving in the morning. We set up camp, try for several hours to keep our tent from blowing away with us in it by adding more stakes and setting rocks on the stakes. At one point, the wind knocks over our cooler we had put in a corner hoping it would keep the dang tent in place. After cleaning up the water it had spilled, He says a short prayer, wind stops, sleeping ensues.
The next morning we eat, see our friends off and break for the dairy queen wall. As we set up at the base of frosty cone (5.7), http://i3.tinypic.com/w1clc7.jpg This is from the top of the 5.9 to the right of frosty. My car is the blue one. :D we meet a couple and 3 girls join us at the base of the climbs. While exchanging the common “howdy do’s” and fun banter, we see a helicopter head for intersection rock. They tell us someone had taken a nasty fall on lead. We stop for a minute or two and then continue getting ready and hope that the unlucky Joe is ok. They jump on the route to our left about the same time Dave leads up frosty. Both of the leaders are looking really solid and send the climbs easily. I follow up and remove the well placed pro and follow clean. We pull off the top and run top rope on the 5.9 just to the right since one of the girls wanted to lead frosty as well. We decided against the lead on the 9, because there’s a section where the crack disappears and no way to protect the climb for about 20 feet and could almost deck if you slipped at the top. I rap first and he gives me a top belay after I descend. I move up the route and get to a rock that shifts a bit. In my mind I imagine the 4 foot spike cracking and falling to the ground as I slip…but thankfully for the people below, nothing happens. The route starts with a crack on an arête, but with some mixed face climbing. For a section the route moves to all face while the crack disappears, then cuts back to the right where a thin crack tops out. I’d moved too far to the left and wasn’t going to be able to finish going straight up, because all holds had disappeared. I stop to think for a few seconds, realize I am a gangly man, lean and reach about 4 feet or more right for the crack and top out a couple moves later. Dave raps down and I belay him up and he does it clean, despite moving left at the end like I did. The women had finished their route at this time and we agree to let them rappel down on our rope. Both of us agreed that the climbs today were more our style, meaning more face holds. Hand jams feel somewhat sketchy to me, but crimps feel great, though at this point, I’m feeling more confident on cracks. We pack up and head to the car for some ham sammies and to hidden valley for some bouldering. Oh, and we gassed up before because of the extra trip to go get our campground voucher from the night before. On our way to town, we stopped to see something that looked out of place. http://i3.tinypic.com/w1ctbm.jpg It was a nice snow capped mountain beyond the desert landscape.
As we pull in to the parking lot, we see a number of people gathered around and eyes glued high on intersection rock, the left ski track (5.11a). There was a guy free soloing that had started up the crack and about half way up starts going straight up the face. He moves rather quickly and sends the climb. At the top, he stops to talk with another climber for a minute and descends by down climbing the right ski track.
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1d9tx.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1da1e.jpg
Dave been to j tree years ago, but had never experienced the amazing bouldering that it has, so we go to the asteroid belt to warm up. We both do a v0 and a v2ish problem and move on to gaze at the beauty of Stem Gem and make the hike over to White Rastafarian. We take the longer way around from the north, then wrap back around southeast toward the climb. I could smell her. I’ve been kicked off the top out twice due to pure fear twice on that 25 foot she beauty. Three other boulderers join us. Their crash pads are welcomed. Thinking about my last attempt, I could remember crashing to the pad below after releasing from the final holds. I figured it would be better than falling in the lie back position, but it still hurt pretty good. One guy runs up it his first try, obviously had the thing wired. Another guy makes an attempt and after about 10 feet, freaks due to the height and drops. I take a look at her one more time and start the lie back crack. I get right before the crux and consider bailing because my body doesn’t feel in prime position, but I decide to go for the crux anyway. I hit it the crux move about 20 feet up and cross my right hand through. I realized it wasn’t strength, but fear that would hold me back, so I refused to make any thoughts or allow any self talk. Determined, I cross hand over hand and work my way up the final holds smearing my feet on the smooth slightly overhanging face. I pull myself up to a mantle and overlook the big, lower right foot. I look up at the face searching for holds to see the rock sloping upwards on the “in your face” mantle. There was nothing, except some good for nothing slopey nubs. I hear shouts from below, “finish it!” and, “use the right foot!” but it was already too late for the latter. I hand/foot match my left in the mantling position a bit off balance because my right foot wasn't really planted and slowly stand up to top it out. It’s not my hardest send, but my tallest highball. I had an adrenaline surge going for about 30 min after the send. http://i3.tinypic.com/w1dvya.jpg This pic is from a previous, non sending attempt of me hitting the crux move.
Just after passing the rock to go back to the car, we come across a group of climbers; most in their 30’s 40’s. A woman turns and asks me if I knew what kind of shoes her friend had. I turn to look at the shoes to see a pair of old, suede ankle high climbing shoes, well aged and label faded away. They looked like a pair of the converse all stars, but in leather with climbing rubber. I had a brain fart, but recognized them, and Dave says, “Yeah, they’re EB’s”. The lady says, “No fair, I was asking him!” I turned to say, “I knew, just couldn’t spit it out, I’ve seen them before. I snicker every time I see climbing shoes that go above the ankle.” We exchange a few more words and keep going. He turns to me and says, “I think that chick was Lynn Hill.” Me, “Really? Na, I don’t think it was her.” Dave, “No, seriously, I think it was Lynn Hill” Me, “Huh, who knows, I’ll google her when I get home.” So who ended up being the winner of this one?...........Dave! Ya, we hung out with Lynn Hill, she talked to us and invited us to hang out with them for some brews and climbed with them for the rest of the weekend. She and her buds gave us their numbers and we’ve been good friends ever since. Well, most of that happened, right up until I said, “Ya, we hung out with Lynn Hill”. We head back to the camp and reminisce over the day over a campfire and a cold corona. We stuff ourselves with some chili, discuss how disturbing it is that the outhouse is like a sauna in the slightly chilly night, and turn in early.
We wake this morning to listening to two of the boys in the campsite next to us bicker. The younger one, maybe 10 was telling the older one, maybe 12, about this religion he had made up following “Jebus”and the older kept insisting that he was "retarded". The episode of the Simpson’s where homer became a missionary rang to mind. Apparently one of the kids earlier called the other one girly and the mom proceeded to explain to him that being girly was a compliment. Poor kids, never even had a chance. Partly funny, partly sad. Back to climbing….
We head out to lost horse again to do a classic route, Double Dog Leg (5.7). In the book, it describes the approach as a scramble over a boulder field. It seems to be less than a mile to the climb, but the book says, “Please allow 30 min for approach”. It was fun. It involved lots of jumping and climbing over large boulders. Thanks to our 5.10 approach shoes, (funny cause I just bought a pair, and Dave has a pair of old tennis shoes he resoled with 5.10 rubber [great] that his wife keeps asking him to throw away) we made short work of it. There are lots of huge gaps in the rocks that make deep crevasses and small caves. It makes for an interesting approach. I had forgotten my sunglasses and would have been staring at the sun if Dave hadn’t seen a grass visor hanging from a tree. I grab the hideous thing and put it on to keep from being blinded as I belay Dave up the route. He starts up placing a couple pieces and gets about 15 feet from his last piece. Section looks easy, but I still say, “Don’t get too far ahead of your pro”. He responds, “I know”. When I did the section, I realized it was a huge shelf. I remembered thinking I wouldn’t have protected that section either, and I’m a trad nOOb. He continues up route in style, finishes and makes the anchor. I leave the sweet hat behind and get shod. I run up it, grab the gear, take a minute to look around and we take some pics, then we both rap down and hike out the boulder field. The area was now pretty crowded with people. As we were packing up before the hike, we stop to watch a guy climb. He’s moving pretty quickly, but stops about 25 feet up. With some, “oh crap” like comment he realizes he forgot his cams at the base and down climbs. Funny. I look back to double dog leg and see a few people gearing up and see one guy with the same grass visor trying to resize it with climbing tape. The movie “Pay it forward” came to mind. Pass it on man, pass it on.
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1e2cp.jpg about halfway up the boulder field.
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1e2qx.jpg Dave leading up Double Dog Leg
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1e4nb.jpg Him
http://i3.tinypic.com/w1e5c5.jpg Me
We decide we’ll move to one more area before heading back for the weekend and that was to the Ryan campground headstone. There are 2 routes we had in mind, one the southeast face (5.7 or 5.6), the other, cryptic, a 5.9 with run out top. It’s getting pretty windy by now, but we do the scramble up anyway, still itching for some more climbing. We see someone on top rope at the base as we hike up and figure he’d be done by the time we got up, so we could get a shot at the route. No such luck. The poor gumby was still struggling at the bottom with a party of about 10 people shouting encouragement and useless beta, like “keep going” and “grab higher”. The bulk of the group was fairly new climbers with a few well seasoned people in the mix. Even so, they couldn’t agree which the climbs were, or on the difficulty or manage to give some helpful tips. Dave shouts something specific and useful to the guy, but to no avail because of the many useless shouts, the climber had seemed to be tuning everyone out but the fear monkeys screaming on his shoulder. Finally Dave shouts until the climber responds tells him to look at this foothold between his knees and to step up on it. He does and after a couple tries, it works. After another guy makes an attempt, they pull their rope to drop on cryptic. We agree to clean their draws, right after we lead. I place 1 small cam in the beginning before reaching 1st bolts (beginning is pretty easy, but a slip off the edge would be a doosy) and get up to the crux. I can see why he was struggling. The move wasn’t difficult, but when I started climbing, I always used my arms like crazy and relied on strength. This climb wasn’t hard, but foot intensive. You could have done it without your hands if you really wanted. The wind was blowing pretty hard on the headstone, but that didn’t slow us down much. I send and Dave soon meets me up top. After discussing the large group at the bottom, we decide not to wait to climb cryptic. We throw our gear together and head back to the car. Thoughts of the trip keep rolling around in my head, making the work week go by much faster. In retrospect, neither of us really pushed ourselves physically, but more mentally and altogether, I don’t think we could have had a better trip. http://i3.tinypic.com/w1e69v.jpg the ryan headstone.
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epoch
Moderator
Apr 21, 2006, 5:43 PM
Post #2 of 7
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Registered: Apr 28, 2005
Posts: 32163
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Nice TR. The photos are a little big making it difficult to read as I had to scroll back and forth to read...
J-Tree definately fun.
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cowpoke
Apr 21, 2006, 5:44 PM
Post #3 of 7
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Registered: Aug 3, 2005
Posts: 142
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Thanks for the tr...I love the shots of the soloist with gawkers.
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mikej
Apr 21, 2006, 7:26 PM
Post #4 of 7
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Registered: Feb 7, 2006
Posts: 210
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thanks guys. The scroll was driving me nuts, but didn't think to resize. I'll keep that in mind next time. I felt like a Japanese tourist in Yosemite when we were watching the guy solo. (at least thats what I imagine Japanese tourists in Yosemite feel like)
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gandolf
Apr 21, 2006, 9:19 PM
Post #5 of 7
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Registered: Jun 4, 2005
Posts: 119
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Nice TR. Thanks for putting in the time to document a great weekend. Looking forward to the next trip, and stepping it up a little.
David
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victor999
Sep 16, 2006, 5:13 PM
Post #6 of 7
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Registered: Aug 11, 2004
Posts: 195
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nice TR. my buddy and i were there the same week as you. we also saw the "solo" guy....it was in the Echo Cove area. in fact, we talked to him for awhile and he gave us some great beta. a really nice guy. i'm now 99% sure it was John Bachar. i have a few pics of him on my photo page.
cheers,
victor
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mikej
Sep 17, 2006, 5:45 AM
Post #7 of 7
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Registered: Feb 7, 2006
Posts: 210
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thanks. A little delayed, but it'll do. I thought it might have been reardon, but i didn't get a good look at him. Bachar would be a good candidate for that too. It was a great weekend. Perfect j tree weather. windy as usual, but pretty warm and nice for that time of year. There were a crap load of climbers there and people in general. Fun times. I've got a little daughter now, so not as easy to get out. Soon enough though we'll be draggin her squirrelly butt to crags.
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