Joshua Tree

About 10 weeks ago, my friend Maria sent me a random text message asking if I'd be interested in going to Joshua Tree. She didn't expect me to say yes, but she also didn't know that I had been unsuccessfully trying to make plans of my own to get out there. We decided to link it up with a few extra days in San Diego for some sight seeing and beach time. Maria doesn't trad climb, but I figured she could follow my lead & we'd find a way to set some top rope anchors to get on some harder routes. We flew into San Diego on a Wednesday night and spent two days in the city checking out the Zoo, Bolboa Park & the beaches. On Saturday, we headed up to Palm Springs and did some shopping, hiking & relaxing at a quaint B&B in the middle of the desert - complete with a hot tub under the stars and a gourmet breakfast. I can't remember if they were duck or goose eggs, but they were amazing and accompanied by smoked salmon, paprika potatoes & the most delicious homemade bread. We stuffed ourselves, as Maria reminded me "it's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from here on out!"

We rolled into Joshua Tree on the Sunday morning of Presidents Day weekend. We had plans to camp in the park that night, but were greeted with a "camping full" sign. Apparently, the park waives it's visitor fees on this weekend and it was crazy. Huge let down, but we ended up finding a campsite about 10 minutes away from the park. After setting up camp there, we headed back to the park to check out Intersection Rock. I had read about a couple of moderate trad routes on this formation and wanted to check them out. Feeling pretty intimidated & uncertain of myself, I chose an unnamed area on the rock to scramble up and practice placing my trad gear. It was probably a 5.1 route, but I had fun just getting a feel for the rock and warming up.

Wanting to explore the park more, we decided to drive around a bit and check out one of the overlooks. The view here was incredible and so easily achieved with a car ride. Wanting a bit more of a challenge, we decided to hike up Ryan Mountain. We had just enough time to do this and make it back down to catch the sunset in the park. I ran around the base of the trailhead snapping pictures from all angles, trying to get the perfect shot. And when I say ran, I was literally leaping over plants. Maria thought I was crazy and just sat back on a rock soaking it all in. Being in the moment is great, and I definitely took a couple of minutes to soak it in myself, but I was determined to get the perfect shot. For an amateur with an iPhone camera, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to capture. We celebrated that night with pizza, beer & a campfire.

                                   

The next morning, we decided to pack up camp and try to get a spot in the park. Hidden Valley is the climbers campground and we were hoping to find a spot there. But, before heading into the park, we stopped at a small organic vegan coffee shop and had a great conversation with an older couple who were probably in their mid to late 50's. They were adorable. The husband recommended a trad route called The Eye, 5.4. He also gave us a good tip on an area where we could set a top rope - Thin Wall. We took both of his recommendations and set out to start our day. We headed straight to Hidden Valley and struck up a conversation with the first camper we saw. With the park still claiming to be full, we were hoping to share someone's campsite. The camper we spoke to suggested that we pitch our tent on his neighbor's lot & just leave them a note. This seemed pretty ballsy to me, but apparently he knew that they had obtained the lot by sharing it with the couple that had booked it before them. Without a writing instrument, we crafted a friendly note with eyeliner and placed it on a table outside their tent with a rock on it. I was skeptical that this scheme would work, but it was our only shot. We pitched our tent in a secluded corner of their lot and took off for the day.

We found The Eye fairly easily and started setting up for the climb. I only had a 60 meter rope & was a little concerned about running out of rope and rope drag. After checking it out, I decided to free solo the first portion of the route which lead to a nice flat belay area. My partner, not having much trad experience, was too uncomfortable belaying me from anywhere but the ground. Not having communicated this clearly prior to my ascent, she followed me up the first portion of the route with the rope and then I had to belay her back down to the ground. The tension between us was not ideal for my first real trad lead in Joshua Tree, but I kept focused and pushed through. It was an awesome climb. I had no idea what to expect, just a map of the rock face with a line showing where my route was supposed to go. I made it to the top of the climb in the eye of the rock and belayed Maria up. We hashed out our miscommunication one more time and then scrambled our way down the backside of the rock.

After the drama of this climb, we were ready for some straight forward top roping. We headed over to the Thin Wall and decided that Maria would be the one to scramble to the top to set the top rope while I organized my trad rack. It looked fairly easy from the ground and she grabbed a bunch of gear, leaving behind her climb shoes. Fairly close to the top, she realized that it was much more than a simple scramble and ended up doing a V1 bouldering problem in her Chacos with the rope tied to her back. I was confident in her climbing abilities, but she was pretty shaken up by this. Next, she had to create our top rope anchor for the 5.9 climb that we had selected called Count on Your Fingers. This took awhile and we were losing daylight quickly by this point, but she did it and successfully rapped down. After getting to the ground, I tried to pull one side of the rope and it was stuck. Luckily, the other side moved more freely, but clearly the anchor wasn't far enough over the edge. Maria decided to top rope it first and fixed the anchor when she got to the top. I top roped it second and cleaned the anchor, rapping from a set of rings a few feet away. We finished just as the sun was setting and stayed a few minutes to enjoy it before hiking back to the car in the dark.

When we arrived back at the campsite, there was a camper parked in the lot with a couple starting to prepare their dinner inside it. Maria greeted them with her best, overly friendly Ohio greeting and proceeded to beg them for the use of their site. At first, it didn't seem like they were willing to share it, but they eventually agreed & I thankfully gave them some money to make it worth their while. After the day we had, we decided to head back into town for some pizza. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just weren't going to cut it for dinner. It wasn't the Joshua Tree experience that I had pictured in my head, but it was our experience. A real experience that I'll remember for a lifetime.

                      

Ice Climbing

I finally got the chance to ice climb for the first time last weekend! My friend Nate received a Groupon offer a few months ago and we had made plans to go in January, but were rained out by a freak storm.



The morning started early with a 6am alarm. Ugh, that was painful. It was the first time that I'd been out of bed before the sun in awhile. My body was not pleased with this. I was supposed to meet Nate at a drop off point near the Mass Pike so that we could carpool, but we both had trouble finding it and ended up following each other to the meeting point, a McDonald's in Auburn, MA. It wasn't hard to spot the other Grouponers, they were also dressed for a day of ice climbing.  We were a group of 10 with varied outdoor experiences. Nate and I were the only regular rock climbers. A few of the others had tried it once or twice before.  We quickly made friends and awaited the arrival of our instructor.



When Michael arrived, we took over the back corner of the McDonald's and tried on our rental boots and crampons while he gave us some tips for beginners. We were basically told to keep our heels down & don't hit ourselves in the face with the ice axes. All around solid advice. I assume Michael had a deal worked out with this McDonald's, as no one came over to ask us what the hell we were doing. The looks from the customers in the restaurant were priceless though.
 




Getting ready to hike in

Once everyone was geared up, we caravanned over to the parking lot that we were going to hike in from. I was a little nervous about the 30 minute hike in, not knowing what to expect. We started out with just our mountaineering boots on, but stopped to put on crampons before descending a wooded trail onto a mostly frozen river.  I've never used crampons before, so it was really cool to see how easily you can walk on ice with them. The river was only partially frozen, so we followed each other single file near the edge until we reached the Auburn Ice Canyon. It was an unseasonably warm day with temperatures rising into the upper 30's/low 40's, so there was some melting occurring in the sun.  Because of this, the climbs on the right side of the canyon were too dangerous to climb.





Descending the trail to the river

We dropped our packs on some solid ground in the middle of the canyon and began to get ready to climb. Michael lead the first climb to get to the top of the canyon, where he set a total of 3 top ropes for the group to climb on. After lead belaying Michael, Nate was the first to tie-in. He cleaned the route that Michael had lead. We had a bit of a scare on the start when he fell about 10-15 feet off the ground and gently landed on his feet. I was in awe, as I thought that I had him on a pretty tight belay with my GriGri. But, with a 60 foot climb there was a lot of rope stretch. He shook it off and got right back on. With the stretch taken out of the rope, the rest of the climb went much better & I lowered him down with a giant smile on his face.  He loved it!




Auburn Ice Canyon

Next, it was my turn. I was a little nervous trusting the tips of my crampons in the ice as foot holds. To solve for this, I tried to make some high step moves that just felt and looked awkward. After a few successful upward movements of trusting my feet, I began to relax a bit and started to get the hang of it. By the top of the climb, I was wishing there was more ice! It was beasty and my forearms felt the burn, but it was fun. Hard work, but very rewarding!

 

Nate and I switched off a couple more times and I ended up getting 3 climbs in - one lap on each of the top ropes. I was ready for more, but the weather wasn't cooperating at that point. It began to rain and the group decided to break down about an hour earlier than planned. I was lucky to have some willing photographers in the group to take pictures as I climbed. Looking back on the photos, I can really see the progress in my form. I can't wait to try it again, but I'll need to invest in some gear first.

 

Feeling comfortable on the ice