• Category Archives Rock Climbing

  • Bishop Area Bouldering

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 2 Comments

    When the weather at our favorite destinations is bad (like now), or we’re between outdoor trips (gotta come home sometime), or recovering from injury (frequently), Carol and I spend a lot of time at our climbing gym working on our climbing skills and strength.

    Our favorite climbing gym activity is called bouldering, a branch of rock climbing that dispenses with harnesses, ropes and protection gear and focuses on making a few (let’s say typically less than 15) very hard moves relatively close to the ground. Protection from falls is provided by a crash pad and / or spotters (other climbers whose job it is to guide a falling climber onto a fall-friendly surface).

    Bouldering is very compelling for a number of reasons, but my favorites are 1) the climber doesn’t have to tie up another person’s time being a belayer and 2) bouldering tends to be a very social activity with a number of climbers working the same problem at a time and giving each other  encouragement, beta and tips on technique.

    We had gone bouldering outdoors a couple times in the past, but had no crash pad, which severely limited what we were willing to try because of the risk of significant injury from a relatively short fall. Duh, huh? In October we went to a local bouldering hot spot called Castle Rock with our friends Eric and Brian; had a great time and decided to commit to getting a crash pad.

    Since then we’ve been on a couple trips to the Eastern Sierra to try out the crash pad and are pretty much hooked. Our Bishop Bouldering guidebook lists 2,000+ climbs in the area, so we’ll not run out of things to do for a long, long time. The bouldering venues in the Bishop area are just unbelievable – the Sierra Nevada crest is to the west and the Inyos and White Mountains are to the east so the views from the top of each climb are just breathtaking.

    There’s also a tremendous amount of variety in types of rock and in climbing skills required – from deeply pocketed gymnastic climbs on welded volcanic tuff to thin, technical slabby climbs on granite. We’re better at the former than at the latter ’cause it matches more with what we see in the gym – and it turns out you’re good at what you practice (how’s that for insight!).

    We took a lot of video and I’ve spent some time editing them; I think I’ve come up with a couple fun ones.

    1. Carol, at Pocketopia, working out the kinks on “Salty C”
    2. Rick, at the Buttermilks, enjoying “Patina”
    3. Carol, at the Happy Boulders, doing gymnastics on Jesus Chrysler Boulder and Zero Boulder
    4. Rick and Carol, at the Catacombs, highballing on “Church of the Lost and Found, arete right”

    I have to say I never thought we’d do something like number 4 on this trip, but we met some other boulderers that had done it before and we got some good beta and encouragement. It was so awesome we climbed it 7 times between us over 2 days.

    I’ve included a scan from the inside cover of the Bishop Bouldering guidebook for the purposes of a little orienteering. The guidebook is really good – for instance, finding Pocketopia and the Catacombs involves driving around on the volcanic plateau on forest service roads, some of which are unmarked – but we drove right up to both these spots on the first try.

    We’ll be off again as soon as we spot a break in the weather around Bishop – snow, rain and nighttime temperatures in the low 20’s don’t work for us.

    Namaste, Rick

    P.S.

    We’re always looking for an excuse to head to the Eastern Sierra to do most anything. One of the best excuses is when friends or family want to go and explore, so help us out and propose a trip!

    Email or comment (comments are moderated, sorry, civility is lacking on the Internet at times). I’m on Facebook, too: www.facebook.com/spanel


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Middle Palisade – My 10th, Carol’s 7th CA Fourteener

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 3 Comments
    “Failure comes not from falling down, failure comes from not getting back up again” – Somebody

     

    The cockscomb profile of Middle Palisade

    Middle Palisade. 14,012′. The East Face. Class 3. Rated *** –  for Awesome. Peter Croft (“The Good, the Great and the Awesome”) says “This route and the East Ridge of Russell are the best class 3 routes I’ve done in the Sierra.” We don’t have enough experience to agree or disagree with Peter, but we can say – the admission price for this climb is high!

    Three years ago, Carol and I tried Middle Palisade, and experienced a perfect storm of poor route finding, insufficient conditioning and – more poor route finding (all on me). We did manage to get on the mountain, but it was late, we were pretty tired and we got on the wrong route; a class 4 chute with loose rock. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to turn around and live to climb another day.

    This time, with almost 2 weeks of acclimatization and some success on Cloudripper under our belts, we decided to try again.

    We headed out on the South Fork of Big Pine Creek trail, retracing our steps all the way to what I call “Dinky Lake” – it’s NOT Brainerd – then continuing on up to Brainerd Lake. A nice trail from ~7800′ up to 10260′. There is a use trail from Brainerd Lake up to Finger Lake that climbs 500′ of talus – fun with the ‘ol backpack on.

    We found a campsite and turned in early (7 p.m.-ish). Our plan was to get up about 4:30 a.m. – we’ve learned that it’s rarely too soon to start climbing. Off by headlamp about 5:20 a.m., we crossed the Finger Lake outlet and headed up – more talus.

    I’ll interject here that the nice climbing on Middle Palisade is about the last 800-1000′; before that you’ll climb mostly talus (with a few snow fields and some heinous scree thrown in) from 10,260’ at Brainerd Lake to ~13,000 feet on Middle Pal. Have Fun!

    On the third class ledge, ready to climb

    We made pretty good time (going uphill while fresh) and were on the mountain in climbing shoes and helmets, ready to climb, by 9 a.m. First ones on the mountain. We started climbing and found it was really pretty easy going. Guidebooks and internet trip reports had called it “sustained” third class; we still wonder what this means. About every 10-15 feet was a ledge where I could stand with my hands in my pockets – this doesn’t seem “sustained” to me.

    A word about rock shoes – we brought ours and it made the climb more fun, I think. One thousand feet up and the same down, the extra security of rock shoes was well worth the extra weight, IMO.

    Up through the initial couloir, then there’s a LH chute vs RH chute decision to make – I chose the RH chute as the rock looked cleaner. We fairly quickly found ourselves on steeper ground, but the rock was good and the climbing was easy. You just DO NOT want to fall, because pretty much any injury at all will become serious here 6-7 miles and 5,000 feet above the trail head.

    frack-a-whack-a-ding-dong, there's the real summit

    Topping out, I climbed up onto what I hoped was the summit blocks and – oh, frack – the summit is actually over there, a couple hundred feet away. Some pretty spicy down climbing off the other side and a traverse, then up toward the actual summit. A couple fun bouldering moves to haul up onto the summit blocks and we’re there; it’s about 11 a.m. First climbers of the day to reach the top. Just awesome views.

    To the north, the North Palisade complex is in view – Mt Sill, Polemonium, North Palisade, etc. To the south, Split Mountain seems just a traverse away, and it was easy to pick out the profiles of Mount Tyndall and Mount Williamson. Glaciers, peaks, basins for forever. Amazing.

    We goofed around, taking pictures and videos, eating and drinking, signing the peak register, watching other climbers approach us for a good 30 minutes or more. A perfect day, no wind, forever views – doesn’t get any better.

    With only half the climb done (there’s the whole getting-down-safe thing, too), we sadly departed the

    good times on the summit block of Middle Pal

    peak and started the long, long way back to camp. We went down via what would have been the LH chute going up, and found we were right – the rock was cleaner in the RH chute. Down climbing 1000′ of third class rock with scree on every ledge waiting to ball bearing your foot off the ledge – requires lots of attention and careful movement.

    About 1 p.m. we were off the mountain, onto the glacier and starting the long trip back. The glacier was fun, then the talus and scree started again. Going downhill on unconsolidated talus with relatively tired legs – our progress could have been tracked with a sundial. But, whatever, I much prefer to go slowly and carefully and finish the day uninjured.

    After what seemed like forever (4 hours back to camp), we arrived in camp around 5 p.m. 11 1/2 hour day, but we took it easy on the way up to save energy for peaking, and took it easy on the way down just because. As much as I am not a big fan of simple carbohydrates, the GU’s and Skittles a couple miles from camp helped bring me home.

    Back at camp, we dug into the bear canister (Carol calls it “that heavy MoFo”) and ate the heaviest things we could find – so we (I) didn’t have to carry it out. Food, water, a little stretching and we crawled onto the tent around 6:30 p.m. I slept for almost 12  hours.

    morning in camp at Finger Lake

    Up at the COD, we broke camp and headed out. Somewhere around noon, we dropped packs and I went and fetched the truck. Shortly thereafter, beer, cheese, meatloaf, chips went down and then a quick trail head nap.

    We packed up, headed into Big Pine and stopped at Carroll’s Market for our ice cream treat we had been discussing for, oh, about 3 days. It was 100 degrees in Big Pine and when the clerk asked us if we “were ready for it to get hot” we were kind of confused – apparently, it got hotter later that day – we got outta town.

    Stopped at Von’s in Bishop to buy yummy things to eat, then off to the Mono Basin (20 degrees cooler) for an awesome evening.

    A great trip, a great Fourteener.

    Click here for Middle Palisade Pictures (best viewed as a slideshow).

    Namaste, Rick

    Some Beta for You:
    • Middle Palisade on SummitPost.
    • Be careful reading online Middle Pal trip reports. Some writers, I think, over-dramatize the climb (clearly, I have never / would never do that!). The climb on the mountain was really pretty straightforward (ideal conditions); we just were careful not to fall.
    • We got some beta that you could not approach the start of the third class climb over the glacier without crampons / ice axe. This is not true when the snow is soft, like it was for us. The glacier was one of the easier parts of the climb.
    • You’ll read about the terrible bergschrund – we had no trouble. I stepped right across; I gave Carol a hand both ways just because her reach is smaller.
    • IMO, the hardest part of the climb is the approach and exit. Climbing on the mountain (apart from being above 13,000′) was a cruise.

    Fourteener Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • 2010 May + June Eastern Sierra Rock Climbing

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 2 Comments

    Where to start – an amazing trip – new climbing friends, new climbing areas, new climbing routes, new lead climbing breakthroughs, our first ever lead climbing falls (yikes!)…

    I’ll start by mentioning a few climbing mentors that have helped us so much, coaching us on climbing technique, style and confidence – Bob, Mat, Eric, Diana, Paul, Hunter, Ryan, Kyle, Peter and Karl – thanks!!! There are dozens of others that we’ve watched and learned from as well.

    Next, thanks to Serge and the Rock Rendezvous + “friends of RR” gang (Faith, Dirk, Don, Elaine, Kelly, Andre, Colleen, Chelsea, Jennifer, Liza, Susan, Tim, Drea) for motivating us to get out early before our Idaho friends showed up. We came away from the early Alabama Hills climbing session with a whole new (positive) opinion of AH rock.

    It’s always a pleasure to climb with Idahoans Diana and Paul and we’ve learned so much about outdoor climbing from them both. My favorite Diana-ism is “just stand up and believe the hold will be there” – she’s so right and doing so really opens up one’s climbing potential. We can only dream of having Diana and Paul’s endurance and enthusiasm for rock climbing.

    Big, big thanks to Carol for taking on lead climbs so that I could rest more and enjoy “toprope time”. We definitely get more climbing in with more than one leader.

    It’s hard to know how to organize a report from such a trip; this time I’ve decided to focus on the climbing areas and what we thought were the best climbs – hopefully to get my readers interested in them. All the climbs are sport or topropes; we never got the trad gear out on this trip.

    Alabama Hills (near Lone Pine)

    The Alabama Hills are just west of Lone Pine and are easy to find. The climbing crags are less easy to find because of the somewhat confusing network of roads. Once you find your crag, you can mostly gear up at the car and walk a few yards to your climb. A lazy climber’s dream.

    We had two sessions at the AH, one with the RR group, and another later session with Diana and Paul.  My guidebook lists 200 sport climbs and 70 gear climbs in the AH. I know there are more as we found and climbed one sport climb that wasn’t in the book in our short time there.

    Carol  lead climbs:

    • Tall Wall, Spur, 7, ***, Carol’s first ever 5.7 lead, but in fairness she did have two 5.6 leads under her belt to build that climbing pyramid…
    • Walnut, Honey Bunny, 6, * – a typical AH 5.6 face, thin hands and feet
    • Hoodgie Wall, Leonosphere, 7, **, face
    • Hoodgie Wall, Ankles Away, 8, ****, fun face
    • Truffle Tower, Escargot, 8, ***, fun face
    • Tall Wall, Bananarama, 8, ****

    Continue reading → Post ID 1005


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • 20100402 Kernville Rock Climbing

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 5 Comments

    Guidebook: “California Road Trip”, Slater and Summit

    Click  here for all the pictures and then click “Slideshow” for best results – thanks to Mat for sharing his pictures, too!

    Ya gotta be prepared – after each outing, there are always the routine things to do to get ready for the next trip (cleaning, restocking, maintenance) and usually something breaks or needs upgrading (Carol and I disagree on the word “needs”) and those things need to be taken care of, too.

    So I felt good when Mat’s message “plans for the weekend?” popped up – and we were ready. Much back and forth having to do with weather reports and type of rock and kinds of rock climbs; how much time Mat had available, etc. – we settled on the Kern river gorge and Kernville as our destinations. Carol and I had done a little scouting on the way home from our last trip and were familiar with the area, if not the specific crags and climbs – yet.

    It all got a little intense – we were due to meet Steven at Planet Granite San Francisco for indoor climbing Thursday afternoon, then attend the premiere of a video Steven’s art was in Thursday night, so that left us needing to pack and prepare to leave home in a couple hours Friday morning. I know, boo-hoo…

    Thursday turned out to be quite the day – we’d not been to PG San Fran before; it’s pretty awesome – we’ll likely return. I’ll let you read about the day from Steven’s POV. Great time climbing with Steven, great time at the video premiere (a few logistical stumbles, but worth the wait); stimulating walk back to the car through San Fran neighborhoods; we got home late; crashed.

    Friday morning, up and packed, Mat arrived and we threw his kit in the truck then we were off. Our house to the first climbing crag in the Kern River gorge is about 4 ½ hours driving time. Between having to stop at Casa de Fruta and gasoline / humanity stops, we were climbing by 2 pm at “The Roadside Crag”, three miles up into the gorge. It doesn’t look like much, but we managed to put in three hours there, getting used to the feel of granite, practicing crack technique and enjoying the warm sunshine and scenery. Plus there’s a nice stiff arête climb that was entertaining more than once.

    We drove on to Kernville, stopping at the Kern River Brewing Company to fill one of my growlers with Just Outstanding IPA (again, there’s that “NEED” thing) and then went on to find “Kernville Rock”. Comparing the guidebook to the rock, there it is. Mat and Carol went on an evening scouting trip; I stayed behind to make sure the beer was fresh. We spent the night at Headquarters CG (pretty standard USFS type campground).

    Saturday morning, fed and geared up, we headed up the hill to Kernville Rock (Really? This is an amazing spot with perfectly clean granite and a lot of variety in types and grades of climbs, it deserves a much better moniker!) and spent the day on “Lieback”, “Initiation Crack” (I think), “Claustrophobia Crack”, “Dirty Dishes” (not in the guidebook; a local told us his name for it) and then “Mat wants to lead this two-finger crack” (Carol and I made that one up). A great day; this is a spot to revisit over and over. The rock is so clean and you can knock yourself out climbing cracks, liebacks, slabs – I didn’t detect a lot of face climbing, but then we only climbed a very small portion of the total opportunities.

    A word about “Claustrophobia Crack” – if you’re fairly large, like me, let’s just say it’s aptly named – but really cool and a don’t-miss. I spent some time resisting the inevitable by “squeeze chimneying” to avoid getting into the crack. At least I provided a lot of entertainment to my climbing partners, who were laughing it up as “encouragement”. Thanks, guys.

    Saturday night we went to the Kern River Brewing Co. for dinner and drinks; Mat scored a 6-pack of Klondike Crunch ice cream bars for dessert. Camped for the night, it’s colder than last night…

    Sunday morning we went on up the road to New Directions. We found it pretty handily, but no one seemed too enthused about humping gear up to the crags, so we walked further up the road looking for “Crank Start Crack”, which we finally found and decided to try out. Mat set a top rope and we spent the morning playing on this route. I had trouble with the Crank Start until Mat talked me into trying a finger jam; accepting the inevitable I tried it and after a few false starts, got on the climb. The crux is right off the ground (IMO, YMMV), the rest is pretty straightforward.

    Scraped up, tired but exhilarated, we packed it in for climbing. Mat and Carol hiked up to take a look at “Garden Party” and “Rusty Nail” (c u next trip!); meanwhile, I took a nap.

    We went down to the Kern river to find a little confluence, then headed for home, stopping once again at KRBC for lunch (only takeaway beer; long drive ahead) and then we were off. We hit the first rain west of Wasco and then starting in Pacheco Pass and then for the rest of the way home, it basically poured. Sunday night traffic in the rain – joy.

    Home, unpacked, pictures shared, Mat on his way home – another great outing.

    If you’re a climber – just go – we loved the area and fully intend to go back and climb everything we can find and are capable of climbing…

    Click  here for all the pictures– thanks to Mat for sharing his pictures, too!

    Namaste.

    ~Rick


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • 201003 Red Rock Canyon NCA Rock Climbing, etc.

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    Friends Diana and Paul from Northern Idaho invited us to join them at Red Rocks near Vegas for some early season desert rock climbing. Sure, sounds great, we’re in.

    Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner). There are a lot, but we went crazy on wildflowers…

    3/8 – Our biggest epic of the trip occurred on the first night out. Somewhere on I-5, Paul called to tell us the weather in RR was too wet to climb, so they were headed for Death Valley for the  next day. Thinking we might sneak in a climbing session in Lone Pine the next day, we headed north, camping for the night  at Fossil Falls. About 1 a.m., I woke to howling winds, rocking camper and Carol saying “Are you worried yet?”. Well, no, not yet, but as time progressed, I laid awake listening to the winds grow worse and worse. Finally, I became concerned that the wind might tear the fabric apart on the pop-up, so we broke camp and headed slowly up 395 looking for a more sheltered spot.

    A couple miles up the road we came upon a semi that had just been blown on it’s side by the wind – and the driver was still in the rig. We parked and started helping the guy down out of the cab – he crawled out of the driver’s side window and – wow – he was a big man. Carol and I were like “If he falls, he’s getting a belly belay (we’d push his belly into the top of the cab for friction), ’cause we’re not getting underneath him” (thanks, Malia, for the tip!). Once he was on the ground, he bent over and his cigarettes fell on the ground. Great, 100 lbs overweight and a smoker – we installed him in the back seat of the truck, dialed 911 and listened to him wheeze until a deputy sheriff arrived and took him off our hands. Not to be harsh, but man, I’m glad he didn’t have a heart attack and expire in our back seat. My handy stereotype of big rig drivers got reinforced that night.

    3/9 – Next day, cold and really windy, Lone Pine climbing off the table, we headed off for Vegas. Grabbed a campsite at the RR Canyon Campground (definitely not a favorite, but convenient), got a call from Nancy G. and wound up spending a nice evening with Nancy, Ellie, Nikki, Tina – and Randy, late in the evening. Best salad of the entire trip :).

    3/10 – The following  morning we met up with Paul and Diana, climbing still not available (we made our best effort to honor the “don’t climb on the sandstone until it’s had at least a day to dry out” ethic), we all went for a hike into aptly named Icebox Canyon. A nice little canyoneering adventure with pretty falls at the upper end, but it started snowing as we approached the falls, so we didn’t linger. It snowed on us all the way back to the parking lot. Later in the afternoon, Carol and I went on a short wild burro tour and hit the jackpot.

    3/11 – Next day, another “down” day, Diana and Paul took Carol and I to White Rock Canyon in Arizona for a hike down to Arizona Hot Springs. Enjoyable hike, nice hot springs, a great day. There is definite potential for a leisurely kayak trip from below the Hoover Damnation with a pullout / overnight at the hot springs. People have clearly enjoyed night time at the hot springs as there are candles on the rocks around the pool.

    Carol and Rick on Cat in the Hat3/12 – Finally, rock climbing! We headed out early for “Cat in the Hat“, one of the most popular climbs in RRC. We found one rope team ahead of us (their day started out great, one guy had forgotten his climbing harness, and after rigging a swami, figured out he also had no belay device), but  got started up the climb around 10 a.m. We split into rope teams, XX and XY, and Paul led off on the first pitch. Fun, easy climbing, great views and practically before I know it, I’m at the top with Paul rigging to rappel down. The last pitch of Cat in the Hat is awesome – intimidating to look up at, but relatively easy mixed climbing – crack, face, a little sketch slab – all the good stuff.

    After rapping to the top of the third pitch, the reality of climbing a popular route on a nice day sank in – it got congested. Climbers above us, climbers below us – lots of stuff to think about. In a world of social networking, I had the experience of physically meeting Liz H., one of my Facebook friends, at the anchor at the top of the third pitch. Hey, nice to meet you, yeah, I’m the energy bar guy, glad you like them, have you tried the homemade crackers, and so on, until finally Carol has rapped down and it’s my turn. ‘Bye, Liz, oh, there’s Chris climbing and at the bottom Lila waiting to climb. Hail, hail, the PNW gang is here.

    I went first on the next rappel and what a clusterfrick of rope management that turned out to be – our rope toss had tangled with another belayer’s rope down below, blah blah blah, but in the end we’re all on the ground with all our gear; the climb is complete. While we were packing we enjoyed the sight of the desert rodents feasting on some climber’s nut bag – that they had failed to secure – the rodents would dash in, grab a nut, maybe an M&M, and dash off thinking “I don’t have to hunt and gather for a month or two now!!!”.

    3/13 – No multi-pitch today, let’s go find a crag and do some “hard climbs”. Headed into the Calico Basin, in a stiff breeze, Paul or Diana noticed some climbers off to our left, we all went to chat them up and discovered The Existential Wall (which only appears in our new third RR guide book “Fun Climbs Red Rocks”), but they claim there are some good climbs on it so we set up two top ropes and while away the afternoon on some great climbs. Nice face climbs and a couple of fun roofs we all had a great time on.

    One small epic – I was reclimbing “No Exit” – about the 7th time it had been climbed that day – yarded on a big hold, and to my surprise, a 1 foot square chunk of sandstone about 2 inches thick peeled off and cartwheeled to the ground, smashing to pieces on impact. Diana was belaying and did not drop me; I did not fall, but that could have come out worse. A random fragment of sandstone did manage to find my sunglasses on the ground and scratch them.

    Please. Wear a helmet. At all times while climbing on or belaying near rock. You don’t know what’s going to happen – really.

    I’m also rethinking using a GriGri while cragging. Sure, it’s heavy and not “the real thing”, but those will be thin excuses if the belayer gets conked on the head and someone dies. I can replay the movie in my head of that chunk of rock spinning to the ground anytime I want…

    3/14 – Carol and I took a down day. Slept in, food shopping, showers, gear store, lunch at Diego’s.

    3/15 – Welcome to PDT – the time has changed but nonetheless Paul and Diana want to pick us up at 6:30 and head for “Johnny Vegas“, another popular multi-pitch climb. Carol and I manage to be ready and off we go. At the parking lot, oh boy, there are cars already. Fortunately, when we got to the base of the climb, there is only one team ahead of us, and they soon disappear out of sight. Once again we split into teams XX and XY. I psyched myself up, took the first lead and – it’s easy going. Climbing is easy, there’s plenty of opportunity for protection, the  morning is just gorgeous, all good. Paul and I switch leads and apart from a little route finding problem on my part leading the third pitch, all goes smoothly. If you climb Johnny Vegas, be sure to pay attention to the part where you’re to “step left after a small roof and follow easy climbing”; in retrospect this  must mean immediately after a small roof…

    We headed for Solar Slab; Paul led the first pitch and when I joined him we had a short discussion and staged a team XY revolt – we’re ready to head down – footsore and tired. This turned out to be a good decision, I think, as getting down was not trivial. Once again we hit problems with congestion, plus all those climber-friendly horns and cracks make for some really fun rope tosses, rope pulls and rope management. At the top of the last rappel, since we were using both ropes to rappel, we had 4 climbers in a small spot; we stacked Paul above the belay station while we rigged the rap.

    Everybody down, all the gear down, packed and off, back  at the parking lot with daylight to spare. Tremendously  enjoyable.

    3/16 – Another cragging day; we headed for Moderate Mecca as Carol and I wanted to work out the trick on “The Swinging Love Pen” which had defeated us many times before. It’s rated 5.9 and I was convinced it was just a matter of working out the footholds to get it down to that rating. We had a great day. Carol coached me on the easiest way to mount Love Pen; I finally found the feet for following the crack. We also worked out on “Valentine’s Day” and “Ace of Hearts”. The latter climbs taught me that not working on crack climbing was not making me a better crack climber. Duh. However, I was happy to be making progress on an outdoor 5.10d (Ace of Hearts); we fully intend to hit it again next month. Diana had great success on Ace of Hearts, making it all the way to the top. Awesome.

    In late afternoon, we all (Carol, Diana, Paul and I) met up with Tim R., Brad G., Chris D. and Bob M. of the PNW gang, and Tim (from Western Mass) and headed of for Archi’s Thai Cafe. Awesome food, and inexpensive to boot. Must revisit.

    Dessert at Coldstone Creamery, goodbyes and Carol and I are off for Death Valley – can’t spend another night in Crunchy Campground – found Slabby Acres and spent the first peaceful night in a long time…

    3/17 – Up on our own schedule, some breakfast, walking around and picking up garbage (if everyone who visited Slabby took away more garbage, pretty soon, it wouldn’t be exactly nice, but it would be clean), headed on into DV. Noticeable absence of wildflowers, but the desert pupfish are out doing their thing in Salt Creek, which always cheers us up. Only – it’s HOT – we decide to depart DV for Lone Pine.

    In Panamint Valley we ran into a couple of other pop-top-camper types that I noticed had good-looking wind deflectors mounted on the front. We turned around, started a conversation and learned all about how the deflectors had been optimized and how they were attached to the camper. I’ll have to try this out…

    3/18 – Good news, Tuttle Creek CG campers, the road in has been covered with asphalt, no mile of washboard and dust! We spent the morning plugging gear and building anchors, checked out the local wildflowers, took a shower and then concluded – we were tired, sore and ready to head home.

    I was all ready to jet home; Carol talked us into heading north of Kernville to check out the climbing areas there from our “California Road Trip” guidebook. This turned out to be a great decision, as we hit the wildflower jackpot. North of Kernville we found acres of wildflowers. After an early dinner at the Kernville Brewing Company (“Just Outstanding IPA”, indeed), we headed north looking for Needles. Oh, oh, road closed. We camped along the upper Kern river.

    3/19 – Headed toward home, decided to go down the Kern river gorge, hit the Wildflower Super Lotto. Unbelievable hillsides covered with flowers. We stopped at Lucas Creek and hiked up onto the hill and – the acreage of wildflowers defies description. We did our best to capture  the sheer scale of the bloom, but – there’s no way. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Late in the day, home at last, unpacking, laundry, showers – the usual drill. Happy, tired and fulfilled.

    Epilogue

    • Please. Wear a helmet. We like you the way  you are.
    • Diana and Paul, many thanks for inviting us to join you. We learned so much and had such a great time. Your cool competence on lead climbs was inspirational; Carol and I will have so much more fun in the future thanks to this experience. And we’re looking forward to our future adventures.
    • Nancy, Randy, as ever you’re great hosts, we’ll see you again in the near future.
    • Great to catch up a little with the rest of the PNW gang – Bob, Tim, Brad, Kay, Steve, Lila. Nice to finally meet Liz and to meet Chris. Thanks to our new mobility, we  may actually make it to western WA sometime this year – we’ll look y’all up.
    • We were so busy in Vegas we didn’t have time to find everyone. Catch you next time.
    • Last March I could hardly walk to the local coffee shop and back on my gimpy knee. This year is shaping up to be better!
    • “Do you guys even have a home?” Yes, we do; we’re home more than we’re out and about…
    • In case you missed it: Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner).

    Namaste.

    ~Rick


    Canyoneering Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • February 2010 Death Valley / Eastern Sierra

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 1 Comment

    Email from Ram: “Sir I am arriving at Death Valley around 4 PM on February 12th. I will be staying until the 21st and am available for canyons etc until 19th and social fun every evening. Wanna?”

    Sure, why not, we’re always looking for an excuse to take a trip. Meeting old friends / making new friends / tramping around in the outdoors on adventures – that qualifies as a great reason.

    Pictures – on the odd chance that you’re not interested in my ramblings (or, as I’d prefer to think, you just can’t wait to see pictures):

    Panorama of Convict Lake. Convict Lake is here, in the Eastern Sierra just southeast of Mammoth Lakes.

    All the rest of the pictures.

    02/11 Thursday

    Camper and truck groaning with food, liquids of various sorts, hiking and climbing gear, off we went, the usual long drive down I-5 then across through Bakersfield, Lake Isabella, Ridgecrest and sometime in the evening we arrive in Panamint Valley and set up camp out near the Panamint dunes.

    02/12 Friday

    Up at a leisurely hour (we always sleep so well in the lonely, quiet places), breakfasted, packed, off we go into DV proper. We decide to explore Fall Canyon, which is a nice hike with a little cookie of a slot canyon just past the dryfall that stops most people. We stopped to talk to a nice couple from Hungary (Julia and Tamas) whom we’ve since heard from. After a beer and a sunset, drove off to Slabby Acres (not even as nice as it sounds) to meet up with Ram and the rest of the gang.

    Intros around the campfire I remember: Ram, Steve, Ranger Bill, Denali Mike, Flagstaff Mike, Malia, Heather, Dan, SLC Carol, Brendan (aka Bender). More people came and went, but brain overload occurred. Continue reading → Post ID 1005


    Canyoneering Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Thanksgiving Week in the Eastern Sierra

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    “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.”  George Bernard Shaw

    A couple months ago our friend Angela from Alabama e-mailed us – “What are y’all up to Thanksgiving week? I am trying to figure out something fun to do.”

    Um, we don’t even know what we’re doing next week, so – no plans, why, what’s up???

    Long story short, Angela flew in for the week, spent a day and a half in Oakland with a friend, then arrived at our house noonish Monday. After discussion (we still didn’t know what we were going to do together), we all four (me, Carol, Angela and the Droid, more on the Droid later) packed into the BFT and headed for Lone Pine, CA, in the Owens Valley and near the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada.

    We made it all the way to Casa de Fruta and stopped for dried fruit and nuts (this is California, after all; we embrace our fruit and nuttiness) and the first folly occurred. Back at the BFT, it wouldn’t start. Open the hood, look around like there was some big revelation awaiting, stand around waiting for it to cool some more then it fired off. I assured all that this would be a “one-time occurrence” – as if I knew – and we headed on down the road. Continue reading → Post ID 1005


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Rock Climbing Snow Canyon

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 1 Comment

    We met up with Paul and Diana one morning in Snow Canyon State Park north of St. George, Utah. Carol and I have climbed at Snow Canyon a few times, but Paul and Diana found and climbed the best route we’ve ever done there.

    Carol and I first climbed a couple routes at The Circus Wall. One unnamed sport route and then The Barbarian, a relatively easy, but long, trad route. One nice twist to The Barbarian for us – Paul and Diana let us try out their twin ropes which Carol and I had never used before. One upside is that with two 60m twin ropes, it’s possible to get off The Barbarian’s first pitch in one rappel instead of doing a multistage.

    Climbing20091012151107-1 on the twins (that just sounds wrong) was pretty straightforward; I had no clipping problems and Carol didn’t tell me about any belaying problems she might have had. I did get a lot of rope drag, but that’s pretty normal for The Barbarian as I remember.

    At the top, I set up to belay Carol. As she climbed, I did what I thought was a careful job of flaking the rope. After Carol got up to the anchor, we started trying to get ready to rappel.

    Long story short, we soon had a bit of a tangle – enough that Carol overheard some people that were watching from the road with binoculars say “they’ve tangled the rope”. Carefully pulling out rope, we set up the rappel and successfully threw the ropes. I don’t know what might have happened if there had been a lot of wind, but  it probably wouldn’t have been good. We both got down and managed to pull rope without getting snagged – whew.

    I liked using the twin ropes, especially thinking about alpine climbing where it would be good to be able to rappel 60m with the twins, and to have a backup rappel rope if something happened to one of them. Redundancy is our friend. I decided that if I were to use twin ropes, though, they’d need to be stowed safely in a rope bag at all times to avoid the whole tanglefoot thing.

    While Carol and I were climbing The Barbarian,  Paul and Diana were off at the Aftershock Wall climbing pitch one of “Living on the Edge“. The route goes up over a big alcove with big apparent exposure. Diana led the pitch (what a stud climber she is) and Paul, Carol and I all got to climb on toprope.

    It was awesome. The highest rated outdoor climb Carol and I had ever done – and that’s cool – but  the coolest part was the climb itself. We probably used every skill we’ve learned, and the view past your feet once you were over the alcove was just too much.

    Meanwhile, Paul and Diana had gone off and climbed The Barbarian.

    20091012152511-1Back on Terra Firma, Carol and I pulled the rope, stowed our gear and went and found Paul and Diana. We were ready to pack it in (excepting Diana, who has no discernible limit when it comes to climbing, in our short experience) and hungry, so we headed into St. George for dinner.

    I took everyone to Marv’s, where we indulged in the traditional American way of looking death in the face – cheeseburgers and fries. I don’t even remember the last time I had fries, but Marv’s were hand cut, freshly cooked – and awesome.

    A great day, inspirational climbing friends, inspirational climbing – I have to go back and lead Living on the Edge myself now – can’t wait.

    Click here for PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    A note on the pictures – whoever was belaying was also taking the pics; our rule was that the climber had to be in a stable position before any photography could take place, so no difficult moves are captured. I think we can all agree “hands on the belay” trumps picture-taking…

    ~Rick


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Rock Climbing Zion – Aries Butte / Led by Sheep

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    Arriving at Zion, “Zion Climbing: Free and Clean” guidebook in hand, Carol and I started scouting out climbs.

    We hiked in by way of Petroglyph Canyon (yes, we stopped and checked out the petroglyphs) and found the bottom of “Led by Sheep” fairly handily and decided, yeah, let’s try this one.

    20091007112336A few days later, Bob, Carol and I packed up early, headed out and scrambled up to the bottom of the technical climb, started gearing up and – oh-oh – that 20% chance of rain started to look more like 100%. Not wanting to be caught climbing wet sandstone, much less caught on top of Aries Butte in a lightning storm, we aborted and headed out.

    As an aside, it had nothing whatever to do with the fact that a certain person (yeah, OK, me, Mr_”Cotton_Is_Death_So_Don’t_Wear_It_In_The_Back_Country_Guy”) hadn’t brought a raincoat and was dressed in cotton pants.

    Somewhat  later, joined by new friends Paul and Diana, we again headed out early in the morning. Paul and Diana would be one rope team; Bob, Carol and I would be the other.

    Karma rewarded us for our three-times-persistence; climbing up to the saddle next to Aries Butte, planning to climb Led by Sheep, we encountered Desert Bighorns at the saddle. If that isn’t a hat trick, I don’t know what is. As we were gearing up, a bighorn peeked back over at us and decided the crazy humans weren’t leaving, and departed for good.

    I need to mention that SuperTopo gets a BIG FAIL for the beta on Led by Sheep – the guidebook suggests taking “10 long slings, and some parties may want a small rack” – there are no more than 4 bolts between anchors and if you climb it and find something useful to stick trad pro in, send me a picture. The rock is what I’d call barely cemented sandstone. A much better description of what you’re in for can be found here.

    20091010120931Paul and Diana geared up and set off; Bob, Carol and I started up as soon as Diana left the ground. I lobbied for lead climber; interesting stuff as it’s basically a big slab climb with little or no handholds (I suspect if there were handholds, they’d break off if one were to yard on them). Interesting for me as slab climbing is not something we get to practice much.

    The second, third and fourth pitches seemed much easier, either because they WERE easier or because I got used to slabbin’ it. We all got on top, had lunch, took lotsa pictures including one of a lightning-fried-tree (TOTALLY justifying our days-earlier decision not to climb in the storm) and then rappelled off.

    Fun day, awesome views, easy climbing – highly recommended!!!

    Click here for PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    Namaste.

    ~Rick

    P.S. Thanks to Bob, Diana, Paul and Carol for sharing pictures!


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Owens River Gorge Rock Climbing

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 4 Comments

    Carol and I went to the Eastern Sierra for a week or so – rock climbing, sightseeing, camping…

    Highlights:

    • Carol did her first, second and third outdoor lead climbs. Yay, Carol! That took guts, no  matter if they were beginner climbs in the Alabama Hills.
    • I did my second, third, fourth and fifth 5.8 outdoor lead climbs. Plus I did my first and second 5.9 outdoor lead climbs.
    • We did a lot of scouting and found a lot of new crags to return to – basically a lifetime of climbing opportunities.
    • We found that soaking in hot springs after a hard day’s climbing worked wonders.
    • There’s no end of scenery in the Eastern Sierra.
    • All the pictures here…

    Safety:

    We had discovered at the climbing gym that when I took a lead fall, I pulled both Carol AND the 70 lb belay melon she was tied to off the ground. One evening, Carol says “So what happens if you take a lead fall outdoors? Do I stop at the first bolt or what?” Continue reading → Post ID 1005


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports