Following my time in San Jose, California, I headed south again to Joshua Tree National Park for a week of climbing. I met up with friends Landon & Jenessa at the park, we camped at Hidden Valley Campground (clutch location!). Landon and I climbed quite a bit back during my time in Salt Lake City, so we picked up right where we left off.
If you are unfamiliar or slightly confused with the different types of roped free climbing,
click here for a guide
Joshua Tree is a really unique and neat place to climb. First of all, we were doing all trad climbing. There is sport at J Tree, but it's few and far between. This year was my first full season with trad climbing, so that's definitely on the far end of my comfort zone. Second of all, the ratings are pretty sandbagged. This means that the ratings sometimes are not fully accurate, like in the guidebook it'll say 5.5 but it'll climb like a red rock 5.8. Ratings are a subjective thing, but regardless, I was climbing about two grades below what I believed my abilities to be. Humbling for sure! Third of all, there are often long run-outs between places where one could place gear. This means that you can sometimes find yourself 10, 15, 20 (eek) feet above your last placed protection (cam/ stopper). A fall in this run-out condition can lead to a big whip, with pretty catastrophic consequences possible. For me, a highly risk averse and relatively new trad leader, all of these factors made climbing at J Tree an exciting challenge and humbling experience. Fortunately, everything went safe and fun this time around!
As usual, Jenessa took some photos throughout our week and that's mostly what you're seeing here. Photos and captions below will tell the rest of the story about this part of my trip...
Me following on Cryptic 5.8 on Headstone rock. When I arrived in J Tree, I randomly met 65 yr old Todd Parker in the gear shop, he wrote one of the guidebooks for the area and holds the first ascent for hundreds of J Tree climbs. He was super outgoing and gave me his number, said to hit him up if I wanted to climb. One day Landon & Jenessa decided to go to the beach so I texted Todd as a shot in the dark, but sure enough he showed up at my campground spot at 9am sharp just like I told him! So that's who took this photo. It was super freakin cool to climb with a J Tree legend. He led me up 3 classics all under 5.8. Amazing!
More desert climbing...
After leaving Joshua Tree, we headed to Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, Nevada for one day on a stellar multi pitch. The ratings at Red Rock are more accurate, if not a little bit soft. It was a nice confidence boost after J Tree! We climbed the 5 pitch 5.7 trad route Olive Oil. Landon and I swung pitches, and had a really fun time on some easier climbing but getting super high.
We spent the night in St. George, Utah with Jenessa's family, and the next day we drove to Zion National Park. We did another multipitch there, a 4 pitch 5.11 trad route Smashmouth. Landon led the whole thing, 5.11 trad is far beyond my leading grade. I had a fun yet challenging time on this route. Didn't get any pics on the climb, here's all i got:
After our one day in Red Rock and one day in Zion we spent a chill day hiking through a massive slot canyon near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. That canyon was called Buckskin Gulch and it is the longest/ biggest slot canyon in the world probably. It was so dope. Worth mentioning that on the car ride there, we stopped at some rad sand dunes. Again, all pics by Jenessa!
After I parted with Landon & Jenessa, I went back to Red Rock in Vegas to stay with family and climb a few more days. It was an awesome two weeks in the desert, with a ton of climbing that I'm so thankful I was able to experience! I have finally experienced a desert season of climbing and I look forward to many more to come. I imagine I'll spend the fall in the desert for the better part of this decade!
Next up, I have less than one week to make my final run to Big Sky, Montana. This trip is nearly over, I move in on Thursday and start work the Monday November 9th. What a ride it's been! San Deigo
One of the most unique stops of this road trip for me was in San Diego to visit my friend Caroline from NCOBS. Caroline lives in the town of Cardiff, and her apartment was just 3 blocks away from the beach. On our first full day we did a beach day, and she helped me get back on a surfboard for the first time in 1.5 years. It was only my third time ever surfing, and it didn't quite click yet, but I had a ton of fun. It's super humbling to be a beginner again, and I really enjoyed the challenge of being in the ocean. At my heart, I'm a lake girl, and the ocean honestly terrifies me.
The next day, we went deep sea fishing with Caroline's dad. I believe we went to Mexico for this. I was having a blast on the fast boat ride out there, but as soon as we stopped things turned for me. Right off the bat, both Caroline and I got fish on our lines. Caroline was able to haul her's on board, but mine snapped the line right at the boat. Oh well! Probably for the best anyway, because I was on the verge of puking everywhere. Once the boat had stopped so we could fish, seasickness set in on me extremely quickly and I was really suffering. We headed back with that one fish, and I slept for almost 3 hours back at the apartment. When I woke up I honestly thought it may have all been a dream.
On our final full day we did another beach day with some light surfing. It was so fun to visit with Caroline in her natural habitat. This weekend offered a really fun and energizing transition for me from a month of desert back to front-country living.
San Jose
I have quite a bit of family that lives in the Bay Area. I spent the past week in San Jose staying with my aunt & uncle, and also got the opportunity to hang out with a number of cousins that I haven't seen in years. It has been amazing!! We'll do this part through pictures...
three weeks left...
California continues to rock my world. This coming week, I head back south to Joshua Tree National Park to rock climb with my friends Landon & Jenessa (from Salt Lake City). After that I make my journey to Montana with just two more stops. It's wild to me that I'm actually almost at ski season. This trip has been and continues to be utterly epic.
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
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