This long weekend marks my second Joshua Tree trip. I am hesitant to call this Joshua Tree 2014 because there are a few routes that I need to come back to soon, definitely within a year.
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| Short wall |
Friday morning we drove in and got into town around 11am. I dogeared some routes on Short Wall in Indian Cove so we headed there first.We ended up doing several easy routes from 5.2 to 5.7. We met a canadian couple who shared ropes with us and I set up a pretty solid trad climb if I do say so myself.
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We couldn't get a camping spot reserved in Indian Cove
but we didn't let that deter us! Scott and I drove in hoping to get a
first come first serve spot, but we weren't so lucky. We ended up
staying in The Pit which was great in a lot of ways. The only problem
with it was the lingering fear that I would have to use the bathroom in
someone's back yard. Luckily nothing so visceral occurred.
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| This is what the Pit looks like |
We went to dinner at Crossroads which was pretty neat.
The next morning we headed into the park early and had breakfast in the Hidden Valley day use area. We then walked to turtle rock and climbed a 5.5 which was I was surprisingly quite jittery on.
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| Hidden Valley Day Use Area |
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| View from the Top |
Then we went over to Echo Cove. We hit a lot of spots that day!
I defeated myself on a 5.9 then we bailed out on one. I didn't have a ton of fun in this location. It was clear at this point in the trip that my training didn't really pay off.
I was starting to feel kind of down so Scott took me to the immensely popular Cap Rock where we saw a lady finish off Event Horizon with ease. I led my first trad route on the 5.5 Nutcracker with a top rope simulation. It was nice to get some serious experience if even my strength was lacking too much to accomplish a lot.
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| Event Horizon |
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| The group before me doing the chimney portion of the 5.5 |
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| Me at the Top |
| That night we went to The Red Lotus Cafe where I had delicious amazing thai food. I haven't experienced everything in 29 Palms, but this is worth stopping for me. | | |
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The next morning was super duper windy. We didn't even try to put the tent away correctly. The sleeping bag almost got away from us even. I even made an animated gif of how rowdy that tent was being.
While I so ridiculously spent precious moments taking several photos, Scotts sleeping bag completely got away from us and rolled across the countryside. I got a photo of Scott retrieving it from far and away.
We left the pit, swaddled in our parkas, to have breakfast in the park.
We decided to try the Great Chasm Hike located in Hidden Valley Loop parking area. I thought that we should do it because it was written about in my book, but it turned out to have hairy scrambling that I perhaps just was not used to and prepared for. Also, we didn't want to be lowering ourselves into chasms when we weren't entirely sure we were in the right place. I decided we should left that route unfinished and deem it "The Great We Couldn't find it". I got a lot better at scrambling in the meantime though.
Also, today, we scouted some other routes that we might want to check out next time. I scrambled up to Fisticuffs (5.10b), the most beautiful outdoor crack I've ever seen. The
5.10b Crucible couldn't hold a candle to it. We didn't have our gear because we were exhausted already and I found that to be a great shame. I stuck my hands in it and felt that warm secure feeling I will never get in a face climb. I could have climbed it in my approach shoes if it weren't my fear of concussion or worse. What was nice about scouting the route for next time is that we know now that the climb will be worth the hike carrying trad gear and that we know for sure that we can set it up for top rope. I am sure it will be glorious when I get to it next time.
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| scouting fisticuffs |
Also, today, we scouted some other routes that we might want to check out next time. I scrambled up to Fisticuffs (5.10b), the most beautiful outdoor crack I've ever seen. The 5.10b Crucible couldn't hold a candle to it. We didn't have our gear because we were exhausted already and I found that to be a great shame. I stuck my hands in it and felt that warm secure feeling I will never get in a face climb. I could have climbed it in my approach shoes if it weren't my fear of concussion or worse. What was nice about scouting the route for next time is that we know now that the climb will be worth the hike carrying trad gear and that we know for sure that we can set it up for top rope. I am sure it will be glorious when I get to it next time.