Feb 17-19th 2007 - Joshua Tree
[Alex's Photos] [Drew's Photos] [Cody's Photos] [Jill's Photos] [Daisy's Photos]
The yearly Presidents Day trip to Jtree, this time with a great crew and mostly great weather. Folks in attendance: Polly, Alex C, Colin, Steph, Ben, Jill, Abeles, Daisy, Martha, Cody, Drew, Chelsea, couple other folks.
Saturday: Split Rocks. Polly did a nice job on Bird of Fire, then Alex and I both led Rubicon, which is definitely now on my Jtree top 5 list. Then drove to Hidden Valley Campground, and both Alex and I had a go at leading Hot Rocks. Alex had tried leading it before, and I had tried following him on it, but both of us took a hang on lead. Crux is hard with bad feet and a bottoming off fingers crack/lieback for hands.
Sunday: Lost Horse. Polly had read about some crack out at Hill Street Blues crag which was supposed to be nice ('Blues Brothers'), but upon closer inspection it looked like an unprotected seam, so we went next door to Ranger Station Wall, and I had a go at Hercules. Overhanging, flaring 0.5 camalot territory with a couple good hand jams. Really cool, but a really awful warmup. Otherwise I'm sure I would've sent. Couple of hangs. Jill and Ben did Bush Crack right next door, which looked really nice. Then to Hemmingway, where Colin cruised Prepackaged, his first 5.10 (note: Colin started leading 9 months ago). Then Polly led Poodles are People Too, taking a couple of whips at the slippery crux. Then as the sun was setting we ran over to Coarse and Buggy so I could have a go leading it. Really awesome climb, also on the Jtree top 5 list now, but being 5.11 I was forced to hang to protect my unblemished record of "no Jtree 5.11 clean on lead". Neat stemming with thiiiiinnn gear, to hand crack to overhanging lieback finish. Nice sunset from the top of Dihedral rock, and we saw a bobcat.
Monday: Polly and Daisy did some slab on Echo Rock, and followed Jill up that bolted climb next to Double Cross. Various other folks led stuff in the area. Then it rained, and we came home.
Alex on Rubicon:
Alex on Hot Rocks:
