Taquitz

Well, I never did get my Joshua Tree post done. I got back from the trip and got laid-off the first day I was back at work, which got me a bit off track. Needless to say, the trip was unbelievable. Perfect weather for climbing, but a bit cold at night. I even had to get up at 4am one night and get in the car to warm up. The trip culminated with me leading Toe Jam (5.7)... I got a sweet video of it.

After being laid-off, I got into the gym about 4 days a week and started to get strong, but eventually my money started running short, so I had to move back home to So Cal and get back to work. This is good for my bank account, but bad for my climbing. I don't have a gym very close, but on the up side, I do have a beach 5 minutes down the road.

A little over a month after I was back in Cali, Hugo came down for a trip to JTree with me, but with temps in the 90's... we opted for Taquitz instead. We had a great trip with a couple hick ups, but fun none-the-less. The weather was really cold, so we decided to head to JTree on Sunday after all, but ended up getting hailed on in the desert in May... go figure.

I met Chris in the parking lot at Taquitz when I was there with Hugo, and we ended up exchanging numbers and got back out there 3 weeks later. We met at his house on a Sunday morning at 5:50, which required me leaving my house at 4:30am... ouch. We got up to the rock about 8am and were on Left Ski Track to begin with. It was a sweet climb, with almost vertical terrain, but never left you looking for a hold... they were plentiful. I led the first pitch which went quickly. He led the second pitch and did the "step around" move which really got your attention. I'm glad I was following the first time on that one. I led the third pitch after that which was pretty easy accept for one move above a bolt, which was all friction and had me thinking. Then a traverse to a tree ended the first climb. Then we scrambled up and around the back to the down climb. The book said it can be tough to find the first time... that's for sure.

Next we were going to do Finger Trip, but it was full with two parties waiting, so we jumped on Jensen's Jaunt instead. The book only gave it one star, but I have to say it seemed much more fun than that. He led the first short pitch, then I got the money pitch of the climb, a fun splitter crack with plenty of pro. Chris was up next and as luck had it, he got another "step around" move that was super exposed. He styled it and quickly finished off. I finished the last pitch, and didn't do the off width finish, instead I climbed out onto the face and took the easy route, although the pro on the face was weak at best. Another scramble up and down climb back to our gear to finish off the day.

We got a great coffee in a shop in town and headed home to get a burger. A few minutes out of town, we were talking about the day, when all the sudden, out jumps a doe... slam, crash, tumble... shake off and then she ran into the bush! Crazy... no damage to the car and I didn't even spill my coffee. My first deer encounter, hopefully my last as well. We ended with a great bacon cheeseburger and off I went on my long drive home. It felt great to be climbing again. (Sorry no pictures, I lost my cable to DL my photos off the camera in my move. I need to get another one...)

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...

Vantage [October 31/Nov1]

A group headed out to Vantage to find some dry rock to climb... the rain in Western Washington sucks! Mike, Damien and I met up with Josh and Tamber in the Feathers parking lot on Saturday afternoon. The wind was howling, but we decided to get on a few routes at the Feathers anyways. It was Mike's first time outdoors (and in a harness) and we discovered that my old size large harness was just a but too small for him. We were able to make it work, but it was quite a fiasco... him sucking in and pulling the harness tight to give me enough slack to get it double-backed enough to be safe. It was probably a bit short and way too tight, but we kept checking it every climb. As we climbed the wind kicked up and got pretty nasty, but Mike got his first top rope ascents on a 5.6 and 5.5 on the north side of the Feathers. We were ready to wrap up and headed over to find Josh and Tamber working on 'So Funny I Forgot to Laugh 5.9'... Josh got pumped while clipping a draw and had to down climb, leaving the draw. He was pumped, so Tamber went up and gave it a go, but ended up not making it past the bolt Josh placed... it was windy and super sketchy. The sun was just setting over the ridge when I tied in with a certain amount of urgency to get this done and get the gear, so we could get out of the wind and get warm. I made it up to the highest draw and did a take so I could scope the finish and make a run for it. The moves seemed like they were there, so after my short rest, I made the last few moves to the anchor, cleaned up and got the hell out of there.

Now the fun was starting... we were putting gear away in the cars in about 40 MPH wind with stronger gusts. It was hard to hear and do anything, but we were trying to figure out if we wanted to camp there, stay in a motel room or what. As we were getting squared away and about to leave for Ellensburg to search for food and lodging, I went to open my door and the wind took it and blew it open making a horrible noise... WTF!! My door "thingy" that keeps your door from closing on you snapped off and door swung wide open, bending the edge of the door back... nice.

So now were on the way to get food and decide what were doing, and I get a flat tire on 90, 8 miles outside of Ellensburg. We get towed back into town, as I don't think I have a spare (turns out I did). The tire place isn't open on Sunday, so I'm thinking I'll be waiting around until Monday morning. WTF! Everyone is tired and hungry, so we go eat. I can deal with shit after that. Dinner hit the spot.

Josh, Tamber and Damien headed to the Motel to check on a room, while I went with Mike to check my trunk for a spare. After removing wood, camping gear and Josh's Keg I find that I do have a spare. After locating the jack and tools, we remove the lug nuts to find that the wheel will not come off the car. After taking turns kicking it, I decided to call the tow truck guy to help, as we all had bruised feet by now. He came back and had to beat the wheel for 10 minutes with a 6' 4x4 to get the thing to come off. Finally the tire was changed and filled with air (along with the other 3 tires that were severely low), so we were ready to head back to Vantage. Turns out the Holiday Inn wanted $140 for a room... F#ck Off! So back to Vantage we went... turns out the wind died down a bit and camping was pretty nice. I got to the "secret spot" (not in the dust bowl) at about 11:15pm. I'll be damned if I was going to bring wood and beer and not use it, so we made a small but proud fire and enjoyed a few beers before bed.

Sunday morning came in with a whisper... no wind to speak of. We broke camp and headed off to the Sunshine Wall by 7:30 or so and met up with Kyle on the way. Contrary to the day before the weather was perfect. Josh led Chossmaster to warm up, and Tamber and I headed for Peaceful Warrior for our first route. She led it in style, I pulled the rope and led it as well. Mike went after that and did a fine job on his first Sunshine Wall route. After that I moved over a couple routes to 7 Virgins and a Mule (5.7 trad). While I was half was up the chimney I head tale of Josh taking a good leader fall while on Boshido (10b)... good on you for sacking up on a tough route and climbing hard. I wasn't finished with my chimney when Josh and Tamber headed off to Seattle to catch a plane. Finally I made it to the top, but no anchors... There was a set I could reach for Narlux (a route 2 over from 7Vs) which I used and lowered off of, so we could TR it after Damien and Kyle climbed 7Vs. They both climbed it without much trouble. We then took a burn on Narlux, which is a pumpy route with fun climbing up an arete. I took a few rests, but didn't ever find any moves that were too hard for me... just a fitness issue to lead that one I think.

On the way out, we stopped at the Feathers again for a couple last routes before going home. I was already pretty happy with my day, but ended up leading a couple more 5.7s including the Becky Route which was fun and seemed easy. Mike got back on the 5.7 that he lowered off the day before, and got a clean top rope send on that one too. After the great day of climbing, we headed to the town of Vantage and got dinner at the greasy spoon next to the gas station. Crappy food, but good company made for a fun meal. We sent Kyle off headed east and took off in our direction. Traffic was good headed back over the pass, and we were back home a 7:00pm. All I can say is thankfully Sunday was a perfect day climbing which made up for Saturday and the follies it brought.

Rain [October 30]

It has been raining for days here in Monroe. I was hoping to get out to Index on Sunday, since the forecast is for sun... but I was reminded it takes 3 days to dry out this time of year in Index. Damn! The weather (and interested parties) petered out for the Smith trip this weekend... but I wasn't giving up that easy. Vantage is going to be nice (10% chance of rain) and dry... and I'm dying to climb. Damien signed on to go with me and Mike (my brother), and Kyle called me and is coming to meet us from Spokane.

The last couple weeks hasn't seen much in the way of good weather. I have however been climbing hard in the climbing gym and seem to be making some decent progress. This week I did my first real V3 problem in 5 tries, then did another one in about 5 tries. I can tell that I have been climbing and training hard. I can't wait to continue what I have started building.

P.S. -- I was just reading my last post about training in the gym... that amount of climbing was killing me. My fingers were becoming injured and sore, it was just way too much for me. I've backed off to 1 day on, 1 day off climbing with Crossfit, 1 day on, 1 full rest day, repeat. This seems to be much more realistic right now for me.

Home [October 19]

I can't believe October is almost over already. It seems with the season changing from summer to fall, my opportunities to find partners and/or dry climbing conditions are becoming less and less. I haven't been climbing outside in over 2 weeks and don't see any dry weather in the next couple weeks around here... hopefully I can get a trip set up.

I have been climbing in the gym a lot. Last week I started consistent gym training; Monday and Tuesday in the climbing gym, Wednesday (rest day) cardio, Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the climbing gym and Sunday rest day. I plan on getting into the gym at least 4 to 5 times a week. Each workout consists of warm-up traverse, 20 min. 1 to 2 hours of general climbing. 15 - 20 minutes of 4x4 circuit. After a month of gym climbing, I will re-evaluate my climbing routine and refine what I am doing, but until them I am continuing to work on general stamina and strength as well as fundamental technique.

Index - GNS [October 4]

Josh and I decided to hit Index for a half-day. He arrived in Monroe chilled to the bone from riding his bike... hit 522 and the temp dropped to about 40. Summer is over. After loading up and getting on the road, we stopped for the best coffee ever at the place just east of Index on HWY 2. I got a dark chocolate mocha with hemp milk, which was the bomb. With super triple shot energy drink in hand, we killed it on the 3 minute aproach... 2.5 minutes on the dot. We took a quick tour of the lower town wall, then scrambled up to the ledge to start GNS.

I led the pitches and everything went fine... it was my third time leading it. There was a guy soloing the route, which was a bit odd. He rambled on by, and then a few minutes later came down-climbing back by. After rapelling the route, we dragged the rope over to a 5.8 crack on the lower level of the slab and burned a few laps on it. We headed out of there with ideas of getting the the Mountaineer's Salmon Bake, but we hit traffic in Gold Bar and that put a stop to that, as the ride home took longer than expected.

Vantage [September 26, 27]

I decided to blow off doing trail maintenance... I need to do a day of trail maintenance to finish my requirements to graduate the Mountaineers Basic Climbing Course. I finished all the other requirements last year, but the October 15th deadline is coming up quickly and one of these days I'll be doing it... but not this weekend.

At the last minute, I made plans with Hugo and Ashley to ride together to Vantage. The sport leading class was having their last field trip, so I figured I'd offer to help out again. I met Hugo and Ashley in the 'Quah and headed to Vantage on Saturday morning. We were a bit later than we planned, but made it out there by 9:30am. After a short lecture by Shannon, the class hit up The Feathers. We all paired up and started climb easy routes to warm up, then some harder ones. I mostly belayed new leaders and offered encouragement... I sent a few routes too. I did Don Quixote and the 10a on the other side of the tunnel from there... it looks so easy, but it's a tough pumpy route. When I came of that I was torched. I then got on Me Too (5.9) and I had trouble at the crux on TR. I was very disappointed at this, as I thought for sure I would be able to send that route. I always get pumped out at Vantage, due to my poor technique. I worked a bit on staying on my feet more and keeping my arms straight, but I need to work it in the gym then bring it out to Vantage.

We looked around for a better camping spot than the dust bowl, but due to price and proximity, we decided to just go primitive. It was a nice evening and the wind wasn't bad at all, which was a really nice treat. We had beers and a nice fire to relax by... before too long it was late and everyone was off to bed.

Sunday morning came quickly and we were all off, headed to Sunshine Wall at around 7:30am or so. The hike went quickly and soon we were looking up huge 100+ foot columns of basalt, with chalk smeared nooks and crack heading straight up. We stopped by and looked at Party in your Pants (PIYP 5.8trad) before moving along to Clip Em or Skip Em (5.8) to warm up. Josh led it and as I suspected, it was a tough warm up climb. I just TD'd the climb, as I really was looking for a warm up and was more focused on doing PIYP. I made it clean and didn't really get pumped, which was a good sign. Next we moved over to PIYP and Tamber was going to jump on and give it a go. She got about 1/3 of the way or about 30 feet up and Josh mentioned that he needed to leave, and she was riding with him. She needed to be back early as well, so she built and anchor and rapped off. I told her I would collect her gear and return it for her and went looking for a belay. Jim hooked me up with a belay (and good words of advice and encouragement). I wanted to do this climb, but I was a little scared, as the route is a column straight up and you stem in it and use twin cracks on either side. The good news is that the route eats PRO like Re-Run and you can place a piece at every cruxy move. I reached the crux about half way up and considered bailing, but I took a rest on the rope, relaxed and just went for it. Funny enough, the climbing is easy... it's the head game of leading on pro so far off the deck. It was a tough climb for me, but I made it. When I reached the chains I felt a combination of relief, excitement and satisfaction! What a great feeling, especially after being down on myself from the day before.

It was getting hot now, about 85 deg or so, so I decided I had enough. I packed up all my stuff and headed back to the lot to have a beer and wait for everyone else. Every time I climb at Vantage I get my ass kicked by routes a couple levels below what I feel my grade is. I realize this is just my lack of good technique coming out on the climbs at this area... long vertical routes, lots of crimpers and slopers. Plenty to work with usually, but I get pumped and can't hold on anymore. I have decided to get these flaws fixed and get a real training program going.

The ride home was uneventful and I was home relaxing on the couch by 5pm. Another great weekend with good friends.

The first picture is of a friend Henry climbing Party In Your Pants the last time we were in Vantage. The others are shots of Sunshine Wall.