roboboy Posted January 2, 2006 Posted January 2, 2006 Climb: Joshua Tree NP - Various Date of Climb: 1/1/2006 Trip Report: Trip Dates: Dec. 26 to 30, 2005 Day 1: In early morning we drove from the LA area and secured a campsite at Hidden Valley campground. Within a few minutes of setting up camp catbirdseat was sorting climbing gear and we walked over to do "Toe Jam", which started less than 50 feet from our tent. Obviously with only five days available for climbing we had to move fast and much time for resting, eating and drinking was not on the agenda. Toe Jam, Hidden Valley campground: Day 2: We climbed "Right On" on Saddle Rock and "The Swift" on Lost Horse Wall, two of the longer routes at JT. Saddle Rock: 3rd pitch: 4th pitch: Approaching Lost Horse Wall: The Swift route: 1st pitch: Day 3: bcollins came from Phoenix for the day. Since cbs and I had done 12 pitches in the first two days I decided to take a rest and spend the day on photography to allow Barry to get in a decent amount of climbing. They did "White Lightning" on Hemingway Buttress, "Wilson route" on Lost Horse Wall and "Sail Away" at Real Hidden Valley. White Lightning: Wilson route: Day 4: Among other routes, cbs and robo did "Deflowered" at Steve Canyon and "Hex Marks the Poot" at Real Hidden Valley. Deflowered: (at the top I thought up a less polite name for it) Hex Marks the Poot: (perfect fist goes to perfect hand crack, then offwidth) Day 5: cbs leads "Double Cross", Hidden Valley Campground: climbing at Indian Cove: cbs did 27 pitches total and robo did 19 during the five-day stay. cbs did most of the leading. Hidden Valley campsite: Dirtbaggers-anonymous rainy afternoon in bouldering cave at Hidden Valley: Campground meeting: Cyclops Rock sunrise: JT sunset: Gear Notes: firewood, cheap wine (will do), large supply of Ibuprofen Quote
magellan Posted January 2, 2006 Posted January 2, 2006 You don't have to be a climber to appreciate all those interesting rock formations. Great report! Quote
CircleOfWillis Posted January 2, 2006 Posted January 2, 2006 Awesome photos! Sunset is lovely! You and CBS should come over to my place and have some not-so-cheap wine. Quote
Drederek Posted January 3, 2006 Posted January 3, 2006 Great TR and pics. Deflowered was the hardest 5.6 I'd done there (or anywhere) till this year. P2 of Duchess at Indian cove is the new champ. Quote
roboboy Posted January 3, 2006 Author Posted January 3, 2006 After a couple of days we gave up discussing the climb ratings. Almost everything rated 5.6 and up is strenuous. Many climbs we did were cracks and smooth chimneys, similar to Yosemite, although the JT rock is coarser. Several climbs, like Mike's Books on Intersection Rock, have very difficult starts that are not reflected in the guide book ratings. Quote
Dru Posted January 3, 2006 Posted January 3, 2006 heh heh heh i remember grovelling into the back of the chimney on right on to place gear and then slab climbing up the face nearby until it was time for the next piece and next grovel. Quote
roboboy Posted January 3, 2006 Author Posted January 3, 2006 right, some chimneys narrowed down so much that I didn't think I could easily reach in far enough to where I could place gear, being 15 lbs heavier than cbs, so I let him lead. on deflowered cbs jammed the chimney crack with his left hand and foot but at the crux I couldn't proceed upward until I moved well outward to the wide part of the chimney and stemmed sideways. or maybe I'm just lazier than him. Quote
Dru Posted January 3, 2006 Posted January 3, 2006 You guys should have climbed Dolphin. Classic 5.8. Quote
roboboy Posted January 3, 2006 Author Posted January 3, 2006 cbs will be back online tomorrow for those who know him and want to discuss. Quote
Alpinfox Posted January 3, 2006 Posted January 3, 2006 Unknown climber laybacks () through the perfect jams of "Leaping Leana"; Locomotion Rock. Sweet 5.6: Alpinfox dangles like a Wu Li Master. 5.10a my ass: Sunsets are pretty: Quote
catbirdseat Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 Nice job with the trip report, roboboy! Great pictures! Barry has some good photos on his camera, if we can just get him to log in and contribute them. I got a cool sequence of him approaching the belay on The Wilson. Yours truly went the "wrong way" on his lead of the second pitch and "discovered" an interesting variation that was definitely harder than 5.5. It featured a fingertip traverse past an old piton with bail slings on it. All I can say is someone had to be really desperate to have rapped from that pin. Not only that they missed the best part of the pitch! You know, you really can tell when you are off the trade routes when you are climbing over delicate flakes that surely would have broken off long ago had they seen any significant traffic. Getting off route can sometimes be a lot of fun. By the way, we ran into wirlwind as we were leaving camp. Holy crap! I didn't even recognize him. The old wirlwind had long hair and was clean shaven. The new wirlwind was clean cut with beard. We shared our camp site Thursday night with three very nice people from Canmore, Petr, his son Jan and girlfriend Susan. We climbed Hex Marks the Poot and Double Cross with them and really enjoyed their company. Turns out Petr lives down the street from a well known ice climber. We got a invite to go climb Mt. Assiniboin with them and we invited them to climb Rainier with us. Quote
bcollins Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 Ok I'm posting! Had an awesome day climbing with you 2, especially appreciated the invite to check out JT!! Great lead CBT on your Wilson variation, the pics were good and I'll post 'em maybe tonight. I'd call that traverse a sporty 5.8, and well worth a repeat! Barry Quote
goatboy Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 I climbed the Swift over Thanksgiving and there was more blood spewed over about 50 feet of that route than I have ever seen anyhwhere -- it was like someone was absolutely gushing blood all over the place ??? Must have been a bad scene...If anyone knows what happened there, I wish them the best. Quote
catbirdseat Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 (edited) When I climbed it, I saw some suspicious stains, but I couldn't say for sure if they were blood or bird shit, so I kept quiet about it. No sense alarming the partner for no reason. They were on the second pitch on the dihedral below the place where you step right to the arete. Not sure how you could actually fall there because there are huge holds, even though there is a small gap of ten feet or so with no protection. If you fall off the arete, there is a rather low angle slab below waiting for you. There was an accident on 11/12/05. Perhaps it was this: Accident on the Swift from SuperTaco Edited January 5, 2006 by catbirdseat Quote
Dru Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 Hey cbs did you clip the bolts next to the crack on Double cross Quote
catbirdseat Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 No. You must mean the bolts on the rap route to the right. Quote
Dru Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 No I mean thew bolts on the crack. Since you seem to be surfing around SuperTopo maybe you should ask Jeff Batten about them. Quote
catbirdseat Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 (edited) The first 25 feet is not protectable, but easy. Bolts have appeared and disappeared over the years. Currently, there is no bolt. I should qualify that by saying there IS a Yellow TCU/Alien placement at 18 ft, but it is a bit out of line to the right. You'd want to use a double runner on it. Edited January 5, 2006 by catbirdseat Quote
texplorer Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 I went for a few days just before christmas too. Enjoy a few pics from my new digital camera. Quote
Mike_Gauthier Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 J-Tree rocks! Tex, Is that "Super Roof?" Love that climb... Yeah, Dangling Wu Li, Big Horn Mating Grotto, Poodles are People too, Sidewinder, Tax Man, Illusion Dweller, etc, etc... Hey Roboby, what were the temps? I see down jackets during the day. I was there for 10 days this fall; absolutely PERFECT weather, and yet there were very, very few climbers. Never had to wait for a route, found a spot in Hidden Valley easily... Things seemed really quiet there (well, except for that awesome Halloween Party with Piñatas put on by the folks from Tahoe/Lowers Leap and Tony from the rock gym in San Diego.) BTW, is that the back seat of your rental car/mini van? Quote
roboboy Posted January 5, 2006 Author Posted January 5, 2006 Mike, temps during the day were around low 60s, I usually wore only a silkweight shirt. Indian Cove was warmer, maybe 70. Nights got down to around freezing, usually a light frost in the morning. It was probably a bit milder than normal for end of December. The area was busy with climbers but plenty of climbs you didn't have to wait for. Quote
goatboy Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 Isn't bird shit white? Anyway, what I saw was definitely dark red blood stains, what appeared to be liters of it... Quote
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