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! Comments are closed.
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