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.  

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!

Top Secret Los Angeles Dry Tooling February 29 2012

Top Secret Los Angeles Dry Tooling

February 29 2012

Where can you practice mixed climbing in LA was a big question of mine.  So I sat down, did some research and had an idea.  At 8pm, at a top secret location, Hamik met up with me and Steve and we geared up for some mixed climb practice!  

Hamik won rock paper scissors and he went first.  His tool popped early on and got a little bit of a pinky gash.  This didn't phase him...

Next up was me and Steve.  SO MUCH FUN!!! 

After we each did our respective laps, we packed up.  Hamik eyed a stellar overhanging route on the west side of the formation that we will head back to next time...

June Lake and Lee Vining Ice February 25-26th

June Lake and Lee Vining Ice

February 25-26th

Day 1:

I drove up after work to Bishop to meet Mike and Laura was nice enough to let us crash at the Moose Lodge.  We woke up at a decent time in the morning and headed to June Lake for some ice.  It was fun climbing but we only top roped because everything was de-laminating.  It was fun to test out the tools on some mixed climbing and climb some sketchy ice in the sun with the safety of a top rope.  We then drove up to Mammoth and snuck into a hot tub and chilled.  Headed back to Moose Lodge and got some shut eye.

Day 2:

We got to the trailhead at 7:30am for Lee Vining and hiked up.  We were able to secure the climb third form the left as Ryan lead the one second from the left.  This was the same climb one year ago that Miguel had me lower off of because I didn’t look safe.  It was WI3.  I lead it and I felt really secure.  Such a cool feeling.  Unfortunately the rope froze when we top roped it after and we had to clear the rope.  We got on a few more top ropes, then packed out and had a nice lunch and headed home.

Leading my first WI3 

Another Great Weekend

Ouray Ice Park, Colorado February 16-20th 2012

Ouray Ice Park, Colorado
February 16-20th 2012


Day 1:
We drove out to Colorado Friday night after work.  We drove into the night in a rented Suburban and made it here at 10am.  We loaded into the condo, packed up and headed out to Ouray Ice Park for a nice half day of some ice climbing.

Sheila at her belay stance

A view of our routes from the bridge

   

Sheila Crankin

Looking up route 93

                        

                                Jared Having Fun!

          

Getting Serious

 

   Having Fun

Day 2:

We decided to get an early start to get on some classic routes at the lower bridge.  We set up three ropes on a WI3, WI4 and W5.  Amazing climbing. Very steep with lots of hooking.  We swapped ropes a bit with the guides and got a few more routes.  Once we were good and tired, we decided to get on an M5 mixed route.  My first experience with mixed climbing.  It was awesome. I want to try it more often.  We did a bit more climbing, got totally pumped out and fatigued, then packed up and got dinner and jumped in the hot tub!

                               
                                           

                                      

We had a great dinner at the Ouray Brewery to top off a fantastic day.  Good food, good drinks and good friends.  We came back home, changed into our suits and then went into the hot tub!

Day 3:
We got up at a casual pace, headed out to South Park to do some leading...grabbed some food, jumped into the car and jetted home (13 hours).

Ryan Leading

Topping out on my lead

The Crew

About to head back home in the snow!

Ouray was such a great trip with great people. We had three solid climbing days with ideal weather and ideal ice.  You can't ask for more than that!