J-Tree Guide

[JRCO]

I'm Heading to Palm Springs for 5 days week after next for a family vacation. I would like to take a day and rock climb at J-Tree. I have never been to J-Tree and I am not going with anyone else that climbs. Anyone have a recommendation on a guide?

[catbirdseat]

If you are not interested in climbing anything harder than 5.9, and you want to hit only quality routes, and if you want good directions to find said routes, I recommend The Trad Guide.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Trad-Guide-Joshua-Tree-Favorite/dp/0972441395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238349222&sr=8-1

 

I usually use that book in conjunction with Randy Vogel's 1992 Guide. Randy's guide is comprehensive, but lacks detail when it comes to finding routes and descents. If you use the Trad Guide, you'll invariably find that you are looking at adjacent routes and wondering what they are.

[catbirdseat]

This is off topic but I wanted to recommend a route that I led just yesterday. It's called Dogleg, 5.8. It's located on the left side of the west face of the Old Woman at Hidden Valley Campground.

 

With three stars this route has been on my tick list for a long time, but various comments I'd heard about it had intimidated me. It is more accessible than the much over-popular Double Cross nearby. And it's really fun.

 

The start is a little bouldery. Come at it from the right side making use of a flake to get established. It looks like the start is poorly protected but it's just fine. Bring a good selection of medium cams to Blue Camalot and a couple of mid sized Aliens or similar for the opening moves.

 

To get down, climb up to the left of the belay and back down to a ledge where there is a rappel anchor on the East side. We had a 60 m rope and there was plenty of rope on the ground, so a 50 m might work. You definitely need a 60 m to get off of Double Cross though.

[obwan]

If you only have one day - it is best to have a guide, otherwise you'll just spend all day wandering around. With 5,000 climbs it takes a few trips to get oriented, the Trad Book mentioned is good. Check with the climbing shop "Nomad Ventures" in the town of Joshua Tree at 760-366-4684 and they can hook you up.