Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Joshua Tree Rita's Birthday Challenge (31 routes in a day) March 12th 2012


Joshua Tree Rita's Birthday Challenge (31 routes in a day)
March 12th 2012

The Challenge:
Late night at Pappy and Hariets, the group of 5 of us (Vivky, Lea, Tony, Rita and I) were sipping some drinks and relaxing to some live music.  I was trying to stay awake (I got 2.5 hours of sleep the night before) when I heard Tony energetically announce "We are doing the birthday challenge, what time should we wake up?"  He explained that the birthday challenge is that you need to climb your age in routes.  It was Rita's 31st birthday.  I didn't think it was possible, but we went for it.  

The Planning

The Routes (35 are listed, we mixed and matched a few different ones):

Trashcan Rock:  11 total
Eye Sore 5.4
Eye Strain 5.3
Simptaico 5.1
The Trough 5.0
Karpwitz 5.6
B-1 5.1
B-2  5.3
B-3 5.3
Tiptoe 5.7+
Eschar 5.4
Tulip 5.6




Lizard's Hangout:  7 total
Off to see the Lizard 5.5
Lizard Taylor 5.5
Lizard Breath Arden 5.5
Goeb's Goes Gecko 5.2
Poodle Lizard 5.7
Lizard Skin 5.9
Right Lizard Crack 5.9






Dairy Queen Wall:  10 total
Leap year Flake 5.7
Double Delight 5.7
Chili Dog 5.6
Scrumdillyishus 5.7
Frosty Cone 5.7
Mr. Misty Kiss 5.7
Dilly Bar 5.5
Double Decker 5.7
Bill's Nuts 5.7
Nuts and Cherries 5.6




Atlantis Wall:  5 total
Unwiped Butt 5.4
Taurus 5.7
Men with Cow's Heads 5.5
Self Abuse 5.6
Solar Technology 5.6






The Celebration
The climbing was so much fun.  We comboed some lead climbing with some soloing with some top ropes and between the five of us, we climbed 155 routes.  As we climbed each number, we reminisced on significant events during that period of our lives.  Stories were shared:  Living with your grandma, getting married, living abroad, singing in a band etc..  Twelve hours later landed us with huge grins on our faces stuffing our mouthes at Pie for the People.  

Monday, March 5, 2012

Small Walling Stay of Execution 5.8 PG A3 March 5th 2012

Small Walling Stay of Execution 5.8 PG A3
March 5th 2012

Well, I recently bought a hammer and some pins, so I decided to head to the Quarry with Lea to practice some safe hard aid.  I got the idea from Wes Goulding when I saw his trip report - knowing that it truly wasn't A3 as it was protectable by bolts gave me the warm and fuzziez.  The aid was safe and not very tricky and but I was able to get in some pins!  One popped on Lea though - gotta work on placements.  We climbed Stay of Execution which is really probably A2 with bolts to protect the moves.  Although I got some sick hook moves on pitch 4!  It was pretty easy and safe with all the bolts, but without them, I would Sh#$t my pants.

Stay of Execution 5.8 PG A3?

Pitch 1


Cleaning Pitch 2



Pitch 4:  Some fun hooking action.  I had bolts right at my knees, but I was still a little spooked.  The one on the left was really just hooking on friction and the one on the right is only 50% contact.


Top Out

Overall it was a great experience.  We only brought a liter of water and no food, so it was good training for being dehydrated and hungry while climbing.  Gotta head out some more and get used to hooking and hammering!

Jtree Jeremy REI Weekend March 3-4th


Jtree Jeremy REI Weekend
March 3-4th

Day 1:
Headed out to Jtree for some good food, drinks and climbing.  Day 1 hit up Banana Cracks.  Left was pretty cruiser for 5.10c (soft), right kicked my ass at 5.11b.  I fell right at the crux and spent so much energy, I couldn't pull it.  We then headed to sphincter quits which was fun with offset cams and then  route on the great burrito.


Day 2:
Headed out to Equinox to rope solo.  It was pretty fun and was going easy.  I decided near to the top to place a cam hook, a cam which I back cleaned and another cam hook.  The second cam hook was in a flare.  I was about 8-10 feet above my last piece and I heard the cam hook starting to wedge out.  I threw in a finger lock just as the cam hook popped and was hanging above my gear on a single finger lock.  I looked down at my all potential and knew I wouldn't deck, so I tightened up my gri gri and quickly threw a cam in.  It stuck and I was relieved.  I had a mini epic trying to find my car in the dark - that is another story :)
Prusik Rebelay

Sweet thin crack
The good cam hook!