Jan 22-26: Joshua Tree

I was bummed that D&S had to go back home to Chicago, but that didn't stop the climbing. On Tuesday, I met up with a couple of people and we made the long hike out to the East Siberia wall, where long, well-bolted sport climbs awaited. Most of the hike was on a trail, but the last bit of scrambling was challenging. (We discovered an easier path on the way out. Going to remember that for next time.) We started on A Bull with Gas, then climbed the first pitch of Love Gas (5.10a) which shared the same anchors. Good routes, but man, are they long! Bring a 70m rope if you want a comfort zone on the rappel, because 60m just makes it, and by just, I mean you end up on a ramp you still need to negotiate to get to flat ground. Not bad, but a little more thinking involved. Two long climbs after climbing three of the past four days meant my dogs were barking, and given that we still had a 2.5 mile hike with scrambling to get back to the car, I decided to take the next two climbs off while my left toe, which was barking the loudest, recovered. The guys climbed Dos Chi Chi's and Yasmine Bleeth, which both looked like a lot of fun. Next time. The scramble out was much better, having found an easier path, and eventually the path led us back to the car.

Wednesday was a non-climbing day, spent hanging out at the campground (overcast, but warm), reading and running six miles. It rained a but overnight, but my tent was dry by the time I woke up. Unfortunately, I lollygagged in the tent and it started raining again, so I missed my opportunity to put away a dry tent. The forecast was not great, but I headed over to the park anyway. I met up with one of the guys from Tuesday and a couple of other younger climbers, hoping the weather would hold out. We played it safe by sticking to climbs close to the car, starting at Roadside Rock in the morning, and got on Just Another Roadside Attraction (5.9), that probably would have been easier if I had any crack climbing technique, and then tried Cheap Thrills (5.11a), which only one of us got up. The skies looked clearer, so we headed over to Illusion Dweller, a 5.10b crack that one of the guys wanted to lead(it was one of his goals for the trip) and he got it. The other young guy decided he wanted to lead it, too, and he did; this was among his first leads! He was really strong physically and mentally. I decided a 5.10b was well above my pay grade and just worked on my scrambling and created problems on a very low boulder in the area. The rain stayed away and it was good to grab a little climbing, because the forecast for the next two days was even worse.

I figured if I booked a couple of nights at a hotel, the rain would stay away, but that turned out not to be the case. I was glad to be indoors for a couple of nights. I went to the park to run 6 miles in the drizzle on Friday afternoon, glad I could take a long hot shower after being out in the rain. The rain stayed away for the most part on Saturday, but as the rock was still wet, I decided to do my 9 mile run instead; it wasn't pretty, but it got done. I set up camp again, then headed over to 29 Palms for dinner at The Rib Co (perhaps this will be my Saturday night thing while I am in J-Tree), followed by grocery shopping. Looking forward to another fun week on the road.