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[TR] Joshua Tree NP - Various 1/1/2006


roboboy

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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:

JT_-_Toe_Jam.JPG

 

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:

JT_Saddle_Rock.JPG

 

3rd pitch:

JT_-_Right_On_3rd_pitch.JPG

 

4th pitch:

JT_-_Right_On_4th_pitch.JPG

 

Approaching Lost Horse Wall:

JT_-_Lost_Horse_Wall.JPG

 

The Swift route:

JT_The_Swift_route.JPG

 

1st pitch:

JT_-_The_Swift_1st_pitch__a.JPG

 

JT_-_The_Swift__1st_pitch_b.JPG

 

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:

JT_White_Lightning_a.JPG

 

Wilson route:

JT_Wilson_route_a.JPG

 

JT_Wilson_route_b.JPG

 

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)

JT_-_Deflowered.JPG

 

Hex Marks the Poot:

(perfect fist goes to perfect hand crack, then offwidth)

JT_-_Hex_Marks_the_Poot.JPG

 

Day 5:

cbs leads "Double Cross", Hidden Valley Campground:

JT_-_Double_Cross_a.JPG

 

JT_-_Double_Cross_b.JPG

 

climbing at Indian Cove:

JT_-_Indian_Cove.JPG

 

cbs did 27 pitches total and robo did 19 during the five-day stay.

cbs did most of the leading.

 

Hidden Valley campsite:

JT_-_Hidden_Valley.JPG

 

Dirtbaggers-anonymous rainy afternoon in bouldering cave at Hidden Valley:

JT_-_Hidden_Valley_cave.JPG

 

Campground meeting:

JT_-_Hidden_Valley_meeting.JPG

 

Cyclops Rock sunrise:

JT_-_Cyclops_Rock_sunrise.JPG

 

JT sunset:

JT_-_Sunset.JPG

 

Gear Notes:

firewood, cheap wine (will do), large supply of Ibuprofen

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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.

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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.

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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. grin.gif

 

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.

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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

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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 hellno3d.gif???

 

Must have been a bad scene...If anyone knows what happened there, I wish them the best.

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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 by catbirdseat
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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 by catbirdseat
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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... cool.gif

 

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.) rockband.gif

 

BTW, is that the back seat of your rental car/mini van? grin.gif

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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.

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