Joshua Tree Trip - Preparations...

It's been a while since I posted anything... mostly because I've have nothing to talk about. I've been in the gym at least 4 times a week, working on technique and general climbing strength and it seems to be helping. I have been eagerly awaiting the trip to Joshua Tree I had planned, and now it's only days away.

Now that I'm ready to climb, I still need to get ready for the trip. I don't leave until Friday afternoon (Christmas Day), so I have until then to get all my gear organized and packed for the trip. Today is the day I will start to get things out and checked off on my packing list. I still need to hit the store for a camping food shopping trip, including lots of chocolate milk, almonds, beef jerky, HUGE bag of Swedish Fish and what ever else looks good. I have to hit REI for some last minute things including tape... I'll be taking 4 to 5 rolls. When climbing cracks at JTree, tape gloves are a MUST for those of us whose hands are not made of leather. We will Booze up in CA, since their prices are quite a bit cheaper than in WA, but we will surely be bringing a couple handles with us.

On a side note, I did get a bunch of new trad gear to beef up my rack. For this trip I added a set of BD Stoppers, a pink tri-cam, 3 BD C4 cams (.75, 1, 1.5) and 3 Metolius Ultralight TCUs. I got a new 4 man tent for the trip as well (REI Half Dome4), my 2 man is a very tight 2 man and is not freestanding (which could be an issue in Jtree). The 4 man accommodations will be much more enjoyable for a week-long trip.

T-Minus 3 days and counting...

Leavenworth - Classic Crack [September 12]

I headed out to Leavenworth to meet up with Kyle and the group for a weekend of climbing. We stayed at 8 Mile CG and had a nice big site with access for 5 cars. We arrived on Friday night, later than expected, as Velvet was a last minute add on to the trip. We didn't do any climbing, just drinking by the fire... it was fun.

Saturday morning, Kyle and I headed out to do R&D (4P 5.6 trad) while Peter and Joel went to do Outer Space. Kyle and I styled the route and were back to the car in 3:05. We started at about 8:45 or so, so we were back to camp by lunchtime. We ate and relaxed... I had a couple beers, which hit the spot.

Next we headed over to 8 Mile rock via the path... nice walk. We set up a TR on Mickey Mantle, and I gave it a go. It was tough... I guess the beers were more of a detractor than I thought. Velvet got on it next and made it to the crux, but couldn't get past, and Kyle styled it. Next we did Deception Crack and that was pretty tough, as it was hot out on top of the beers. Once we did that, I moved the anchor over to Classic Crack and we gave it a go. Kyle and I both made it clean on TR, so a few more laps and I'll be ready to try to lead it, as the crack seems easy to protect. The Pics below are of me on Classic Crack. After that, we packed up and headed back to camp to get the fire going and get on some beers. Ashley and Hugo arrived right on cue at about 9:00pm or so, to add to the festivities.

We had to leave early on Sunday, so I took Velvet to XY Craig for a quick couple of routes, since she didn't get to do much on Saturday. She did great on the routes at XY. We packed up and headed home, missing the bad traffic on the 2.