Usually I wouldn’t give food names as my title, but this weekend the food was the highlight. Tim and I headed out to Joshua Tree on Friday, hitting the road at 2:00pm just before traffic starts to become an issue. We had an uneventful trip out and hit the park around 5:30pm or so. We looked at Hidden Valley and Ryan, but all the sites were taken of course, so we were banished to Jumbo Rocks again. We set up camp and had a great dinner consisting of Pan Seared Ahi and grilled veggies (Onions, mushrooms, red bell peppers and sugar peas). It was amazing to say the least. Then we cranked up the fire and had beers while waiting for my friend Nick to show up. By midnight, I was ready to get some sleep and Nick was yet to be seen.
When I woke up on Saturday, Nick had arrived… late I guess and he decided to sleep in the car. Tim and I had bacon and omelets for breakfast and got packed up to climb. The weather was cold and windy, but we thought we could get in a few routes none-the-less. We headed out to the Real Hidden Valley to check out the Thin Wall, but when we arrived it was a mob scene… about 6 top-ropes set up and 30 people milling about. That’s out. Since we were close and nobody was on it, we got on Fote Hog (.6 – 2 pitches). This worked perfectly since we wanted to do some multi-pitch before out trip to Red Rocks coming up. Tim led the first pitch and sent it clean. It had a couple tough sections and he did a great job. I followed and was soon at the belay. We traded gear and I took off on my lead. It was pretty uneventful and fun climbing. There was a fun place where I had to bear hug 2 cracks to get up over a bulge, then a fun layback section near the top. Soon I had the belay built and Tim followed up. We then walked off the Sentinel and back around to our gear, packed up and headed to Intersection Rock.
Nobody was on Overhang Bypass (5.7 – 2 pitches), so I suggested we jump on that. I got the first pitch this time, so I geared up and led off up the gulley/crack system. It was a fun lead with a semi-tough move to get over a roof. It seems I didn’t extend my draws enough in the beginning of my lead… by the end I had to pull rope just to be able to move the final feet to the overhang so I could set up my belay. After building the belay, I had to yank that damn 70M rope up there which wasn’t much fun. Tim followed without any issues and was soon looking at the traverse he needed to do on his pitch. It was intimidating, but he pulled around the corner and was soon at the bolt before the slab finish. I followed the fun move and was happy to find a few foot holds that you can’t see from the belay. We rapped down from Intersection Rock and were unsure if we wanted to climb another or not… it had already rained a bit and the clouds were coming in pretty strong. We took a look at Bussioner located on The Blob there in Hidden Valley CG, but decided to hit it another day. We headed back to camp and started the fire and waited out the light drizzle that was coming down. It only lasted for about an hour or so then let up. After warming up a bit and having a few beers, we got on the food which was Filet Minion and veggies again. The Filets were amazing… they stole the show on this night. A few more beers and I was down for the count.
Sunday we woke up to a cold windy day. We were able to get some free wood from an empty site close by and had a nice morning fire to stay warm. It seemed a bit cold for climbing, so we decided to hike into the Wonderland of Rocks to check out the area and scope some future climbs. It was my first time into that area and it was amazing… a lot of rock out there. After a few hours out there, we headed back to the car and decided to go check out Gun Smoke Traverse (5.11+) while we were close. A short walk in brought us to Gun Smoke and a few people were there working it. We talked a bit and I decided to work it a bit. Man, it is tough! I got the beginning section dialed in up to the first crux area. I will hit this again and keep working it... it’s a good project for me. My forearms are still sore as I type this, so I can tell it beat me up a bit. We headed back to the car and headed for home… stopping in town for a hot cup of coffee on the way. Next stop… Red Rocks, NV!
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