SteelMonkey's Random Junk

Hittin' the Pond with Pedro

2012-02-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

Felicia had a friend from work that had been out climbing a couple of times (once gym, once outside), and we were headed out Saturday morning, so she offered to take him out for another go. Pedro was one of those YSGs (young, strong, guys), but we would demonstrate how age and diabolical scheming can benefit the old when climbing rocks.

He had a pair of shoes that a friend had given him (with a big hole in the toe), and we pulled a harness and chalkbag out of the dungeon. We started him off on our own FA, a nice 5.6 with big holds.

Pedro sends Fat Boy Goes To The Pond (5.6)

Then we moved him on to Christmas Chocolate (5.7) next door. He did pretty well on that too. Unfortunately, the hideous crowds that day meant that someone was already queued up on the 5.8 just left of this one, so we had to leave and find something else.

Our friend Chris was over hucking a lap on Big Weld Show (5.11a), a scenic long route that Fred put up a few years back.

Another shot of Chris on Big Weld Show (11a).

We found a couple of free moderates over in the Holey Void and I led Nothing's Right (5.7+). The sort of pumpy overhung start on this one flamed Pedro's hands out in short order. With some aggro belaying and pulling, we got him through the overhang an onto the fun climbing on the upper part of the route.

We followed that up with a lap on Nothing's Left (5.7+) to the left. This also has a bit of a cranker-overhang start and it slapped a pretty good whoopin' on what was left of Pedro's forearms. He gamely hung in there thru the same active belaying to get thru the bottom part and on to the bigger holds above.

We went back over to the main area after that and I wanted to do something harder before the skin on my fingers really started screaming. I led Space Hog (5.10b/c). I hadn't pulled on anything that hard in a while, so I took a couple of breaks on it, the last on the overhang before finishing, just to make sure I didn't go splat on the slab below the finish. Overall, I felt okay about my effort. Gotta start somewhere.

Pedro played a bit on the bottom of the route while we schooled him on the importance of using those clubs on the ends of his legs for actually standing on. He got up to the first bolt and burned out, but he was actually getting the hang of it.

After that, I was thinking of doing the 10b to right right, but the hoards descended on us and we had a big group that more or less surrounded us while we were pulling the rope off Space Hogs, so we decided to get the heck out of there. Pretty freaky how many people are swamping the Pond lately. Guess they're getting their last laps in before the Mine shuts it down.

On the way out, we saw this guy on Inner Basin (10c), a route I don't believe I've ever seen anyone climb before. Those routes down there by the waterfall/pond area are slick and don't have the big deep pockets the rest of the area has, so they're not very popular and very seldom climbed.

So we got down by the parking lot and found that some d-bag in a pickup had nearly blocked us into our parking spot. The arrow is our car. Luckily, we could do an "S" exit from our spot backing up to get out. Couple more cars and we might have been out of luck and I might have been jumping up and down on someone's hood until they came down to let us out.

Last Tracks at Granite Mountain

2012-01-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

Granite Mountain is set to close for falcon nesting next Wednesday, so this weekend was my last chance to get some routes in before it's closed until mid-July. I thought I had a partner, but it just didn't come together at the last minute, so I went alone (again). Somehow in the parking lot, taking a light pack with shoes and a chalkbag sounded way better than lugging a full rack, pack, and rope up there. So I just went to the Swamp Slabs and soloed a few easy routes and called it a day.

The heart of Granite Mountain.

Some dude on the Swamp Slabs

Some dude on (I think) Waterstreak Delight (10b) left of the Coatimundi corner.

Kicking off the McDowells MTB Season!

2012-01-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

With the beginning of the new year, it's time again to get out into the McDowell Mountains and recalibrate the "vertical meter". While most of the Valley of the Sun is pancake flat or thereabouts, to get some climbing in on your mountain bike, you need to head to either South Mountain or the McDowells. Tim met me for some riding yesterday and we loosened up the climbing legs heading up to Windgate Pass and back. I only got a couple of shots with my iPhone. Always liked that one you can take at the very top of the climb up to Windgate.

Tim on the last 50 feet before Windgate Pass.

Coming back down from Windgate Pass.

New Year's Eve Mountain BIking!

2011-12-31T18:54:00.000-08:00

Got out today for a little last minute 2011 mountain biking with my buddy Tim. I didn't think I was going to make it there for a while, although I wasn't sure if I wasn't going to have a bike, or if I was going to have an aneurism from all the last minute b.s. I had to go through to get off for the ride.

I went out to the garage to load up the bike so I could meet Tim on time, and found a 3" nail making a gigantic hole in the rear tire of my bike. Here's the offending culprit:

I've had nothing but the worst luck in the world with those bike tires (Kenda Tomac's) and I will NEVER use them again. I don't care if the nail was just bad luck. A trip to the bike shop, some Stan's, Slime and profanity, and I was ready to roll. I called Tim and told him I was on my way. We met in Pima Canyon on the east side of South Mountain (aka SoMo). It was a madhouse of people down there today... last day of the year, bluebird sky, warm, sunny... bad combo. We waited and got lucky with parking spots near the end of the road up the canyon. We racked up and headed off up the fire road to the trails.

We turned off onto the National Trail, the most challenging way to go from the west side. In fact, today was the first day I'd ever done National, having opted for the slightly easier Mormon Trail the other few times I'd ridden at SoMo. Needless to say, the rocky terrain had us doing quite a bit of hike-a-bike here and there. It would be fun to go back and "learn" more of the trail to try to ride some more of the techy bits, but some of them are just nuts.

A shot of Tim well up National with an arrow showing our approximate starting point.

Tim and the Phoenix metro area in the backdrop.

A shot of downtown Phoenix from the side of South Mountain.

As I said, this trail features some pretty serious rock. This is a pretty clean section, but on others, you can either attempt to ride over this sort of stuff, or you just have to get off and walk it. It can be a very humbling ride if you have any illusions that your tech ability is top shelf.

A bit of a break...

We rode up National to the Buena Vista Lookout area. This is probably only about halfway across SoMo from east to west, but it's a good spot to turn it around and head back if you're not up for the seriously challenging coast-to-coast ride. At this point, we "armored up" with the combo elbow/forearm pads since we'd be doing a lot of rocky dropoff type downhill riding on the way back to the start. Us old doods need some protection in case of accidental rock encounters.

We ran into and talked to a guy that was on his way back east and he was pretty psyched to see a couple more Turner Five-Spots on the mountain. Here's the Turner-Fest going on at the Buena Vista.

I didn't take any shots on the way down. Too much fun just cruising and attempting to keep from going over the handlebars. I nearly lost it and went OTB at one spot where my front wheel got into a "keeper" hole between two rocks, but it bounced free and I managed to ride away from it. Close call!

Great ride. Only 10 miles round trip, but 1328 feet of climbing (most done in the first half), and an excellent way to kill a few hours at the end of a year!

Post Christmas Climbing - Part 2

2011-12-28T17:25:00.001-08:00

We headed into the main park today and went to Lost Horse Wall. This is one of the biggest formations in Joshua Tree and one of the few that has multi-pitch routes. It's a pretty popular place for climbers, especially in the colder parts of the year (sunny and warm), but today it was pretty much empty except for us and one other party of climbers nearly all day.

The view of Lost Horse Wall from the parking lot.

We started out on Mare's Tail (5.9) over on the right side of the wall. This had been on my hit list for years, but I'd never gotten around to it until today. Here's where the route generally goes.

As with a bunch of routes in the middle-right part of the wall, you go up and then traverse across a sloping shelf to reach the route of choice. Here's Felicia traversing across to the start of the main part of the route.

And coming up slightly to a belay just above the shelf.

The second pitch went over a couple of small roofs on jams and then just some regular climbing. Nothing too stand out, or exciting there. Here's Felicia coming up to the belay, which was kind of cramped and just below the little no-pro slab traverse that starts the crux last (3rd) pitch.

The crux of the route was a bare neked slab traverse to reach a vertical seam. We did 10a routes yesterday that had more to stand on. We were both also a little concerned that if I peeled off the slab, I'd go plummeting right down onto Felicia. As it happened, we didn't have to test that theory. All the friction climbing lately is starting to pay off! (I made it!)

Here's Felicia coming up the last long stretch of the third pitch. Bummer no better pics.

We scrambled down from the top through all the boulders and made it back to our packs, then decided to head on up the wall again after a break for snacks and drinks. This time we climbed the first two pitches of Dappled Mare (5.8), a route that we've both done a few times, but headed up the direct finish to that route, Roan Way (cute huh?) that carries a 5.8+ rating.

Once again across the sloping shelf...

The second pitch of Dappled Mare is tricky at the start and features some pretty cool climbing up to a pair of bolts at the anchor.

Couple shots of Felicia coming up the second pitch:

The Roan Way finish goes straight up above the anchor bolts (Dappled Mare traverses left there) with some climbing I'd describe as a 5.8 version of Bird On A Wire (a 10a route over to the left on this wall). A straight-up 5.8 leader might have some visions on this, but it turned out to be fairly straight forward and pretty fun climbing. I ran the rope out a long ways and set up a belay below the top of the wall.

Couple shots of Felicia on the Roan Way pitch.

And Felicia took us to the top of the wall via this short pitch that she'd led back over Thanksgiving.

We were pretty hammered when we got to the top of the wall, Felicia's bum elbow and my feet had been properly broken in by my new shoes. We limped and scrambled back down to the base of the wall just as another party was starting the Roan Way pitch.

Here's a zoomed in shot of the leader on Roan Way.

When we got back to the truck, we found an entire family of six there, sort of confused about how to get back to the Hidden Valley Loop Trail. Apparently, they'd hiked north off the loop trail because "there were too many people" and come down the wash in front of Lost Horse Wall. We offered to give them a lift back to the parking lot so they wouldn't have to hoof back over to the trail.

The climbing aggravated Felicia's elbow in a big way. This is her soaking it in a pot of ice water before bed. Not good.

Post Christmas Climbing - Part I

2011-12-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

Back to Joshua Tree. Seems like I was just here...

Today we headed to Corral Wall. Seems like I was just there too... yeah, it was last Wednesday. So, six days later, I returned. Why go back so soon? Couple of reasons. a) Brian and Patti had never been there before, and it's a nice spot on a winter day with some pretty good routes, and b) I had a little mental meltdown on a face climb last week, where I did this wacky sideways dyno into a flake off route, which I climbed to the top. I needed some paybacks.

We were sort of tailgated up into the canyon from the parking lot by a large group of late-teen, early twenty-somethings. Figuring we were about to get waylaid on a bunch of routes, I took off and hiked up to at least stake our claim to a good warmup or two.

Brian leading Pony Express (5.9)

Long shot of Brian on Pony Express (5.9). The canyon back there is really nice with more rock than most people see in a lifetime.

Brian taking a lap on Czech Crack (10a). The start is an awkward spit-you-out affair with little in the way of good holds. This leads to the short overhanging wide crack above that has no finishing holds.

Brian on Exfoliation Confrontation (9).

Tricky thin start to good edges and polished black rock.

Patti was taking it easy and on exercise restrictions after having some work done on her legs recently.

We moved on down the line and Brian led Hang 'Em High (10a), a friction affair with three bolts. This is a shot of Felicia following the route.

Left from Hang 'Em High, is a crack line that I hadn't done before, so I racked up and led High Plains Drifter (9+). Mostly the attention-getting climbing was in the first 18 feet or so, then some fun easier climbing to the anchor.

Felicia on the upper part of High Plains Drifter (9+)

I spotted this millipede (?) on a boulder after I nearly sat on him.

Finally I had to tackle my vendetta route of the day, Six Gun By My Side (10a). Last week when I was out with Susan, I had a major brain meltdown on the tiny footholds past the third bolt and did a sideways dyno exit into the flake system to the right. I needed some paybacks. This week, I kept it together, made sure my fingers were chalked at the right time, the shoes were laced tight and I managed to clear the black mark from the books! A few more of these and we might be able to declare our footwork back from the grave!

What the hell? Ha, ha, ha, ha... nobody said that thing is bolted well. :-)

Brian higher on Six Gun By My Side (10a).

Another shot of Brian on Six Gun By My Side (10a).

The left side of Corral Wall. Brian is rappelling somewhere in there...

A little Christmas Side Trip...

2011-12-20T18:13:00.000-08:00

I had this week off and Felicia had to work, so I figured I could make a little side trip out to Joshua Tree. I'm only going to be here two or three days, so I'm really hoping the weather will make some climbing possible. Brought my rope soloing gear, so the lack of a partner won't be too big of an issue.

It was pretty cool (49 deg) and a bit breezy when I got to the house about 2pm local time. Yikes!!! Since we were here at Thanksgiving the trees have completely shed their leaves. I think the lows have dropped into the upper 20's, so that's not a huge surprise.

This was this afternoon's project... shelves and desk for the office.

It took a while to put them together. Whenever I was down on the floor working on them, Riley would try to crawl into my shirt with me. Not quite sure what his big problem was (Ginny, maybe), but he was really craving some cuddling. Ginny just kept doing laps in and out to the back yard. I had to shut her down, she was driving me nuts.

We all went for a walk around 5pm or so. That and a little food calmed them down big time. They're kicked back on their pillows now, being good puppies! Well, it's 7:30, I better get cracking on some dinner since it's getting close to 8. More tomorrow.

Thanksgiving in Joshua Tree with Dave and Callie

2011-11-29T15:30:00.001-08:00

Joshua Tree has been our Thanksgiving spot for about twenty years now. We've gone from roughing it, freezing our butts off making the holiday dinner around a rough picnic table, to some humongously upgraded digs in Russ and Susan's place, to our own place this year. Dave and Callie even drove down from Boulder (via Red Rocks) and Russ, Susan and the other Dave came over to help us celebrate our first Thanksgiving dinner in the new place.

Dave working his way up the tricky dike of Pinched Rib (10b) on Chimney Rock.

Dave on Ride A Wild Bago (10a) on the Sports Challenge Wall. This proved to be a lot trickier than it looked from the ground.

Felicia and Callie scrambling through the boulders over to the Brown Wall.

Dave on Brownian Motion (10b) on the Brown Wall.

Felicia near the top of the Brown Wall.

Dave on the trickier Jerry Brown (10b), the Brown Wall.

Nolina, clouds, and rocks.

To finish off the day, Dave and I went over and froze our taters off doing Run For Your Life (10b), a really nice face route that turns into a holdless horror over it's last twenty feet or so. Great route!!

Another shot of Dave on Run For Your Life (10b) on the Tumbling Rainbow formation.

Traffic jam on Intersection Rock with climbers headed for North Overhang (left), and Overhang Bypass (right).

Dave took me over to initiate me into the end-of-the-day ritual of visiting the Space Station. This is a sort of cave about halfway up Chimney Rock in the Hidden Valley Campground. It's probably a 5.6 (or so) solo to get into the Station, and not a good place slip from, although I hear a Marine fell face-first out of there to the ground once.

Dave enjoying his tall-boy Heineken and the sunset from the Space Station.

A shot out the side "window" of the Space Station. I'm sure I'm the first to ever think of taking this photo. :-)

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner crowd hanging out waiting for the grub to commence.

The Thanksiving dinner crew!!

L to R: Russ, Callie, Dave, Sooze, the "other" Dave, and Felicia.

The other Dave working on Norwegian Wood (5.9) on the north side of the Snickers formation.

Dave trying something out (that didn't quite work) while leading The Maw (10a) on the Little Hunk formation.

Felicia working on The Maw (10a).

To the side of Maw and Paw is this really cool easy 5.7 route called Right Between The Eyes. It basically traverses this crack system on big knobs and such for about 70 feet.

Very fun!

With the kiddie routes out of the way, Dave upped the ante with an ascent of Physical Grafitti (11a) on Anasazi Wall. The route starts with this cool upward traverse along an intrusion dike.

Felicia working the upper crux section of Physical Grafitti (11a). Made me arms hurt just watching.

We joined up with Sooze and crew for the hike back to the lot. Of course discussions of the various routes along the way have to take place.

Dave finished up the day soloing The Eye (5.3) on Cyclops Rock. The lower left arrow shows the big cleft that the route ascends, and the upper arrow is Dave on top of the formation.

The last day (Saturday morning), Dave and I went up to the Hot Tub area near Steve Canyon. We started out with this finger/forearm wrecking route called Elixer (10a/b). I think we were hurting from having climbed 5 of the last 6 days.

Dave in the upper dihedral of Amanda (10a), a nice line with lots of variation in it. We followed this up with the route to the right (We Never Get The Girls, 10b) and called it a day.

Dave and Callie first met in Joshua Tree (somewhere near Intersection Rock, I think) four years ago, so they wanted a photo to commemorate the occasion. Thanks for visiting guys!

Bill and Tom's Excellent J-Tree Adventure - Day 3

2011-11-14T18:50:00.001-08:00

Sunday morning was sunny, but cool. The boyz were rearin' to go and we had some stuff to straighten up at the house, so we sent them off to the nice, sunny, east-facing wall of Hemmingway Buttress. Unfortunately, while this wall is in full-on sun in the morning all summer, apparently, it actually faces NORTHeast, and gets pretty full shade in the fall and winter. Being from the great white north, the boyz just got their gear out and started ticking the classics.

We arrived a couple hours later to find Tom leading Poodles Are People Too (10b) - he's the small figure next to the straight up crack in the middle of the picture.

A closer shot of Tom working the thin crack 25 feet up Poodles Are People Too (10b).

A couple routes later, Tom leading Prepackaged (10a) out right of Poodles.

Another shot of Tom on Prepackaged (10a)

Felicia at the top of Feltoneon Physics (8).

We were ticking routes off at Hemmingway when no less than TEN climbers all in a group marched up the bottom of the crag and tossed their stuff down on top of ours, pretty much commandeering the crag. We saw the writing on the wall and bailed for the parking lot and sunnier crags. We drove on up the road to Intersection Rock. Bill and Tom had never done North Overhang (9) or Overhang Bypass (7), so they headed on up.

Here's a shot of Bill on the first pitch of Overhang Bypass (7)

Bill nearing the first belay on Overhang Bypass (7). The climber above him is headed out the upper section of the route. Bill and Tom actually crossed over from here and did the upper pitch of North Overhang (9) to the left.

Bill belaying Tom, who led the second pitch of North Overhang (9). We headed up there and did Overhang Bypass finish, which is always fun and exciting.

Bill headed out into the thin air of the upper pitch of North Overhang (9). Gets kind of exciting out there where you go around the corner.

Bill going around the corner on North Overhang (9). Yeeeee haaaa!!! Very cool climbing there.

Felicia topping out on Overhang Bypass (7).

Bill and Tom went down the rap, then up the first pitch of North Overhang, then up and out the upper pitch of Overhang Bypass (7). This is Bill after coming around the corner on the traverse, about to clip the bolt and head for the summit.

Bill rappelling from the top of Intersection Rock.

While I packed my stuff up, the boyz steamed over to the Old Woman formation and started up Orphan (9), a nice route on the right side of the west face. You can see Tom leading in the lower right corner of the rock.

Tom working the fingers and stemming of the middle part of Orphan (9). I recall this as being some really cool climbing from my one time up the route in 1995.

Bill ensconced in his "belay throne" at the base of Orphan.

Tom into the upper chimney that finishes Orphan (9). It ain't over 'til it's over!

Bill headed up Orphan (9).

The south end of The Old Woman formation with a soloist (no rope) going up to Toe Jam (7). Normally, climbers who solo tend to climb carefully and meticulously. This guy was about as manic as I've ever seen a climber, and it was a little nerve wracking to watch him spaz his way up the route.

Bill and Tom's Excellent J-Tree Adventure - Day 2

2011-11-14T18:38:00.001-08:00

Saturday dawned cold and drizzly. Just when we'd think it was going to quit, it would start spitting again and continue soaking things down. Luckily, Tom had looked up the rules to shuffleboard, and we staged the world championships right there on the front porch. As expected, Felicia and I dominated the Colorado boyz, sending them packing in shame in a best two out of three match.

The mutts were pretty happy about having people around to snuggle up to all morning.

After a while, things lightened up a bit to the southeast, so we decided to give Indian Cove a shot and hope for the best. There were people all over the place, but shockingly, Silent Scream (10a) was open, so we jumped on it for the warmup of the day. Here's Tom ticking the onsight.

Another shot of Tom on Silent Scream (10a).

We were hoping to get on Sweat Band (10c) after Silent Scream, but someone already had a rope on it when we got over there. Bill was feeling pretty adventurous, so he started up Tarawassie Wiggle (10a) route, a tradfest, thin-pro, seldom-led route to the right of Sweat Band on King Otto's Castle.

A shot of Bill on Tarawassie Wiggle (10a) from the bottom of the route.

Bill nearing the top of Tarawassie Wiggle (10a). Things got a little exciting at this point when it started raining again, wetting the rock down. Bill kept it together and finished things off in style while Felicia and I retreated to the waterproofness of the car, where Felicia promptly turned the heater on full blast.

Felicia roughing it in the car out of the rain! :-)

Bill and Tom's Excellent J-Tree Adventure - Day 1

2011-11-14T18:15:00.001-08:00

A while back, Bill and Tom decided it might be fun to get out of the frigid wastelands of Boulder and come on out to the desert to do a little climbing. The date was set, plane tickets were booked, and Thursday afternoon, I headed down to pick up the boyz at the airport and we rolled west for Joshua Tree.

Tom had a cold one while Bill played with Riley. Ginny gets jealous.

Friday morning, we headed into the park to overcast skies and cool temperatures. We were hoping the weather would keep the crowds down and we found the popular Houser Buttress area free of climbers.

The boyz were pretty psyched to warm up on Loose Lady, a somewhat steep and challenging face climb that required some pretty good trust in the friction properties of climbing rubber. Unfortunately for the boyz, it had been a long time since they tried out that Josh friction. Still, they brought their A-game and fired the pitch with little problem. Here's Tom pulling the first bulge.

Long shot of Tom headed up Loose Lady (5.9+) .

Another shot of Tom in the middle of Loose Lady (5.9+).

After heading over and knocking off Dummy's Delight (the 5.9 crack just showing in the left margin of this photo), Tom got on Ladyfingers, a 10b bolted face route.

Here's Bill on Ladyfingers (10b). Dummy's Delight to his left.

Felicia firing Dummy's Delight (9).

The boyz headed around to the right and fired off a pair of 10a crack routes. This is Bill on the right one, Dodo's Delight (10a) on Dodo Buttress.

So much for the fluffy bunny routes! Time to man up! We headed on into Real Hidden Valley proper and lined up on the classic Clean and Jerk (10c). The start was a bit of a slap in the face, but Tom styled it and fired the route in good style.

Tom on Clean and Jerk (10c)

Bill into the crack on Clean and Jerk (10c).

There was still at least ten minutes of sun left in the day, so we headed around on the west side of Sports Challenge Rock and Bill fired off Sphinctre Quits (10a), a tricky and challenging thin crack lead.

Bill making the step-across move into the thin upper crack of Sphinctre Quits (10a).

It was nice and toasty up on the climb, and a bit of a shady pit for belaying at the bottom of the route. Tom and Felicia trying to keep warm.

Bill into the think crack and on his way to the top of Sphinctre Quits (10a).

Bill and Tom on the scramble down from the top of Sports Challenge Rock.

Been a long time...

2011-11-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

One of the local crags we used to hit up when we first started climbing was Morrell's Wall, in the McDowell Mountains of northeast Scottsdale. After a while, we didn't go there much and the last time we made it there was March of 2002, nearly ten years ago now. I happened to think about it when Tim and I got frozen out of Granite Mountain this weekend by a freak low-pressure system moving through. So today we went!

Morrell's Wall zoom from the parking lot.

We'd forgotten about the horrendous thrash it takes to get over to the face routes on the left end of the formation, but it was the only thing in the sun and we wanted to warm up, so we thrashed and scrambled, and bouldered our way up there with heavy packs. After doing the route, we decided maybe we weren't going to thrash up there anymore for 40 feet of climbing.

Leading E.S.A.D. (Eat Sh*t and Die)

Tim on E.S.A.D. (Eat Sh*t and Die).

Tim on E.S.A.D. (Eat Sh*t and Die). You get one bolt, and then follow a seam, essentially face climbing with the seam for protection.

Tim on E.S.A.D. (Eat Sh*t and Die) near the top.

We did Beat Feet (5.7) just for old time's sake. We always considered this as one of the Phoenix 5.7 "grad climbs", but as Tim said today..."if you can do the 5.7 grad climbs here, you can climb 5.9 anywhere." This route is nearly a full rope length, beautiful jamming and climbing, and the consensus on Mountain Project has it at 5.8+.

Tim in the maw near the top of the route. I don't recall this being much of a problem back in the day, but I was sort of happy I brought along a #5 Camalot to cover the first few moves.

Tim rappelling off of Beat Feet. Long sucker. Good thing we bring second rope!

Tim looking up at the buttress on the right end of Morrell's.

On the left is Mutt, on the right is Jeff. We climbed the first pitch of both.

Leading the first pitch of Mutt. This starts out with some semi-intense laybacking that turns into perfect handjams to the top. Good fun once you get past that hollow flake.

Tim nearing the top of Mutt.

Another shot of Tim wrist-deep in the top of Mutt.

Leading the first pitch of Jeff. It rolls off a lot at the top, but the finger crack below is pretty dang nice. One of the only 5.7 fingercrack pitches I've ever been on that actually requires you to use the crack (as opposed to sort of face climbing with the crack just for pro).

Tim near the top of Jeff.

Daylight fading... hiking back down to the parking lot.

The McDowells with Four Peaks backdrop.

Local flora.

Local flora with local fauna.

Moonrise and rocks. My friend Scott did a first ascent in that curving crack in the formation lower right. I recall it as being exciting and hard.

A pano shot of the approach from the parking area. Turns out it's only a bit over half a mile with a little over 500 feet of elevation gain. The distance will at least double or more when they back us up to the new trailhead they're building south of the current lot.

Another old tradition from our early climbing days is the standard visit to Greasewood Flats for beers and burgers. The place itself hasn't changed much, and the same old cowboy dude is still belting out the classics on the small stage, but the clientele has changed immensely. 20 years ago, it was bikers (of the REAL™ variety) and the occasional weekend dirtbag set of climbers. Now, it's the boutique Harley dewds, the parking lot is full of Beemers and Mercedes, and the dance floor is full of bleached blondes with twin 38DD punching bags.

Bad phone photo of the inside of Greasewood.

Must be about $10,000 in dollar bills on that ceiling!

Fall is in the air!

2011-10-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

After three weeks, we headed back to Joshua Tree for a visit. The weather was looking pretty dang good for the visit, with the highs in the upper 70's or so. Just the right temperature for climbing either in the shade or the sun.

On Friday afternoon, we hooked up with Russ, Susan and Karen to sample one of the lesser known crags in the Indian Cove area. It was a good selection for a late-afternoon launch, but not a destination crag by any means.

Susan leading Road To Utopia (I think).

5.7 or 5.8.

Dave (caughtinside) leading Bort (5.10a), probably the best route in the area.

Russ on The Todd Gordon Memorial Chossy Pile of Radness (aka The Big Todd), a pretty chossy overhanging 5.11 big pull route. Nobody recommended this one and Felicia got kind of a nasty small finger flapper from it.

Felicia on Bort (10a).

On Saturday, the gang was headed for more obscurities. We were headed down the Lost Horse Road and saw a dearth of cars at the lot for Rock Garden Valley/Shorter Wall area. With mileage signs in our eyes, we passed on the giant hike and did the boulder scrambling instead. This is Felicia coming up Young Lust (5.8). The woman below and left is on Smithereens (5.8), the route we started with.

Felicia near the top of Young Lust. This is sort of like a featured sport climb with a crack for pro. You don't really have to do any crack climbing.

A shot of unknown climber on Rock Candy (5.9) on the Shorter Wall. We ran out of time before we got to that one.

Unknown climber on Euthyphro (5.8), to the left of Young Lust. I thought this was a nice route and it compared nicely with Young Lust and Smithereens in terms of quality. A smidge harder than those due to a lack of face holds and the need for crack climbing skills.

Felicia with her HANDS IN A CRACK!! Climbing Double Dogleg (5.7) on the Shorter Wall. A fun romp at the end of the day.

A shot of the Shorter Wall (right) and the upper Rock Garden Valley Wall (Young Lust, Smithereens, Euthyphro, Spitwad). Felicia headed for the parking lot.

Back on the road headed for the truck.

Ginny in an unusual contemplative moment.

Trying out out deluxe supplemental guest accomodations this morning with the help of the mutts.

A little birthday climbing!

2011-10-16T19:35:00.001-07:00

Weekend birthday... I get my choice of climbing venues! Which is pretty much saying no need for choice. Granite Mountain, hands down. Felicia had valiantly offered to go with me, even though I know she would rather eat broken glass than hike up there. But Tim came thru at the last minute to take one for the team and Felicia was off the hook. She was broken-hearted, but somehow managed to bear up under the disappointment. :-)

So we headed out of Phoenix early Saturday morning and found the parking lot with only a few cars in it, none of which really looked like climber's cars. Hmmm...

Tim shouldering the pack, ready to head up the trail.

Good old Trail 261. 2.25 miles and 1100 feet later, we can climb some rock!

Wildlife sighting! We surprised a pack of javelina browsing on the trail on the way up. They were surprisingly unconcerned with us. Usually, they scatter like scalded cats and you barely get a look at them headed into the brush.

Another javelina shot.

Tim humping it up the trail.

This was the first time Tim had been on rock in like two years, so we opted for something with a little lower burl factor.

Yeah... Hero cam... HD.

Got a nice shot of me leading the second pitch, though.

Tim pulling the short 5.9 section on the second pitch.

Longer shot of the same section.

Wheeeeeee!!! We had the ENTIRE mountain to ourselves all day. No other climbers. Might have been because of the heat. It was a little warm, but completely doable.

Tim coming up the High Exposure Exit above the Flying Buttress.

Crimping away on the High Exposure Exit.

Rappelling...

Cap'n Crunch rides!
Arrrrrrr matey!

Hiking out.

Another wildlife sighting! Tufted eared squirrel of some kind.

Gorgeous October Weekend!

2011-10-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous weekend in Joshua Tree! Columbus Day was Monday, so Felicia had it off. We made an extended weekend of it. We hadn't been out since our week long stay over Labor Day. Everything was pretty much where we left it. We're gradually whittling down the items that need to get done while we're over there, which should allow us to hang out, relax, and climb more. One must-do job this trip was to install the doggie door so the mutts can get outside when we have to leave them behind for the day.

The job has begun... put template on the door, drill holes, then start cutting. Of course when you get that done, the resulting hole is slightly too small, and the holes don't quite line up, but that's why there's a template, right? Ridiculous.

The hole has been cut in the door, then more cutting, then some profanity, and some more cutting and reaming out of the bolt holes, and more screaming, and yelling. After all that, I finally got it all together and tightened down.

Houston, we have success! The backstory here is that by the time I got done putting the doggie door in, I'd been yelling and screaming at it for the better part of an hour, so the dogs were cowering in the living room and wanted NO part of whatever it was I was yelling at. It took a little cajoling to get them in the utility room to try out the new door. After that, they took to it like fish in water!

We managed to get out climbing on Sunday. Gorgeous day, mid-70's and mostly sunny out. Good for climbing in shade or sun.

Joshua Tree and con trail.

Some guy below us with his camera set up to take pictures of himself bouldering.

Felicia with her hand IN a crack!

And back to her normal crack technique near the top.

Some guy on Dog Day Afternoon.
Nice route.

South side of Intersection Rock.

Tour de Scottsdale 2011

2011-10-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has gone and with it the Tour de Scottsdale. This was my second year of this event and we did pretty well, refuting what were some less-than-optimistic expectations we had going into the event. As usual, as fall progresses, my motivation to get out there and mix it up with the local auto-maniacs, sucking exhaust and trying to keep from getting flattened by a 2000+ lb. vehicle causes my motivation meter to start sagging a bit. But I managed to persevere at least enough to maintain some fitness and make the event go okay. We were rejected for parking at 5:45am... lot full. We parked about a mile and a half away, which solved our need for a little bit of warm up since we had to ride to the starting line.

The race launched at 7am and immediately went right to a crazy 30 mph pace headed over to Scottsdale Road, then chilled out a bit headed north on Scottsdale (slightly uphill and into a headwind). We hung on for that, made it through Cave Creek and motored with a pack south on Pima before doing the four mile hill climb up Dynamite. The descent down the 9-mile Rio Verde Hill was a bit of a break before we rode over to Fountain Hills. Doing that part of the ride with a pack this year had our pace pushing up over 25 mph, so we made good time. My legs were doing okay for the most part until we climbed back up the hill on Shea Rd. I just got a little bit of a "we're getting a little tired" notification, though, and never saw the cramps this year that I had last. We held our pace well over to the climb up McDowell Mountain Ranch Rd, coasted down Bell to Thompson Peak Parkway and then took it home, pushing the pace up over 20 mph again for the last two or three miles to the finish line. We came in at 3:09:12, shaving about 8 minutes off our pace from last year and logging an average speed of 21.9 mph.

It was fun, but thank God that's over for another year!!!

Headed north on Scottsdale Rd. in our Wheezers and Geezers kit.

That's us on the far right margin of the picture...

The finish. Don't know how they got me alone when Pete and I rode across together.

Climbing!

2011-09-17T20:53:00.001-07:00

What a novel idea! Actual time to get out climbing!!! Still, we didn't exactly hit the crack 'o noon guidelines. But we drove up to Flagstaff on the relaxed plan and arrived to find it a little busy. The highs for the day were hovering around 70 degrees and NAU is back in session, so this was not particularly surprising. We got right to work on the first easy climb we could find without someone on it!!

The Overlook has always had a bit of a wasp population. This crowd was working pretty hard on something in a little crevasse at the bottom of the Orange Out Direct route. We avoided exciting them as much as possible.

Another shot of the resident wasp nest in progress.

There was some goofy dude (who mentioned the wasps at the base of this - Orange Out) who was practicing his prussiking on the Orange Out overhang. Prussiking? Who does that anymore?

Felicia rappelling. Having a crowd meant we couldn't use our usual rappel spot (someone already there). Used to be everyone was cool about just letting everyone else use their rap lines, but these days it seems to be less of a given and more of a deal where you have to sort of track them down and ask permission or get lucky and see them on or near their line to ask.

I got this sort of unique angle on a climber in the top of the twin cracks of the Ginger Bread route from the top of Angel's Delight.

Felicia on Angel's Delight.

Just an observation... new climbers don't learn how to tie knots anymore. Rap setup 101... wrap the rope a bunch of times around a tree, tie some sort of knot with a loop in it that you can clip back to the main line. Done.

Felicia working the dihedral of Morning's Mourning.

Shot of Felicia pulling thru the crux of Isaiah. This has always been a bit of a hard spot for her due to the size of the crack.

Isaiah...

Near the top of Isaiah...

Near the top of Head Cheese.

Our Summer Vacation - Part 4

2011-09-11T18:01:00.001-07:00

This is Part 4 of 4 !!!

Well, the week was pretty much in the can. After a leaky water faucet on the washer machine blew our Friday afternoon climbing (waiting for the plumber guy to show up), we vowed that we would get some climbing in before we had to head back to Phoenix on Saturday!

Felicia declared it a day to work on our friction footwork, so we headed over to Echo Rock. This is one of the most popular places to climb in the Park, but this being the shoulder-season and all, we found ourselves over there alone with no other climbers in sight.

Full panorama of the west side of Echo Rock.

We did a little reintroduction to the friction properties of rubber on Double Dip, an easy classic route on the left side of Echo Rock. This is Felicia paddling up the last 25 feet of the route.

The view from the top of Double Dip looking back towards the parking lot.

We scrambled back down off the back after climbing Double Dip. While we were scrambling off, Felicia screamed when a bee nailed her on the lower neck-shoulder area. Given that this area would have pretty much all Africanized bees, we were at least thankful the stinger didn't bring any friends.

Hiking back around to our packs at the base of the route.

Exploded and expired Joshua Tree.

Nice scenery...

This is a shot looking up at our next route, Black Tide (aka Stichter Quits), that follows the obvious black ridge. Still moderate, the route has become harder over the years as the rock becomes a little polished from so many climbers. Good footwork practice though! We sent that thing no prob.

Felicia coming up the upper part of Black Tide. It's a little runout at the top, something I didn't help by missing the last bolt somewhere down there around where Felicia is in this picture.

Felicia moving over to the prominent ridge of Black Tide on her way to the top.

A little ridge-running near the top of Black Tide.

We were running out of time and the heat was climbing quickly, so we headed over to Forbidden Paradise, a stiff friction route to the right of Black Tide. This one would give us sore feet and blown calves!

Felicia headed up Forbidden Paradise. The angle is deceptive. There is NOTHING to stand on other than just friction on the rock here.

Felicia a little higher on Forbidden Paradise. One of the few bits where there's a little crack to hang onto.

The route gets a little steeper as you move up it. Felicia's about to pull over a small roof here, a long, delicate move with very little to hold onto.

Felicia rappelling off Forbidden Paradise. We were out of time, but we got a nice re-introduction to using our feet on the unique friction routes of Joshua Tree. We'll be back!

Pretty place to climb, and even better when you can enjoy it when it's not crowded with people!

Time to head for home!

Our Summer Vacation - Part 3

2011-09-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is Part 3 of 4 !!!

So... Friday here already. Seemed like the week whizzed by. Guess that's the way it is when you're not at work.

I finished up my little wall project in the morning. Never goes exactly like you want, but it was done and nothing short of direct impact is going to move that thing.

The fence guys were supposed to be over as soon as they could get away from another job, but they didn't end up showing until 1pm or so.

They didn't work weekends, so we figured there was no way they would be done that day, but they stayed until just after dark, whacking out the whole rest of the fence in one hot afternoon. Only thing left now is for him to come back and touch up the paint on the wrought iron part where he welded it together in places.

Shot of the fence work Saturday morning.

The wrought iron (decorative steel is the proper term, I think) section of fence on the porch. We figured it would look better than running chain link across there.

One seriously HAPPY puppy to be out running around the back yard like a deer on caffeine!!!

A shot over the fence at my little wall project.

Yard and fence with delirious dog.

I put in stakes to mark where we wanted the fence to go. Ginny liked using that stake as a stick to chase. I was afraid she'd trip and drive the stake into her mouth. Crazy mutt!!! Riley is just clearing out of the way.

Outside shot of the fence...

They actually did a fairly nice job with the tricky section of fence where the shed, stairs to the upper deck, and the roof line come together.

Panorama of the whole side of the house and fence.

Our Summer Vacation - Part 2

2011-09-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is Part 2 of 4 !!

So... the week continued. Seems like we would get up in the morning and be moving pretty non-stop until evening doing one thing or another. We used to give Susan crap about how they never seemed to eat until 8pm every night, then we found out that it was nearly impossible to eat before then most nights. We stand corrected!

Tuesday, we got out climbing in the afternoon. It's warm enough this time of year that 1) you don't have to worry about other climbers, even on a weekend, and 2) you have to go to the areas where the routes are in the shade. This is approaching Hemmingway Buttress, home of nice routes that have afternoon shade. I didn't get any climbing shots here due to a gravitational anomaly (never got the camera off the ground).

After a bit of climbing at Hemmingway, we decided to hoof back out to the car and head over to Hidden Valley Campground and enjoy the sunset from the top of Intersection Rock.

A shot to the south looking over at Saddle Rocks. This is one of only a few places in Joshua Tree that has multi-pitch routes (i.e. long routes). Some nice routes over there including Walk on the Wild Side, one of the nicest moderate routes in the Park.

To stay in the shade, we climbed up Intersection Rock via Mike's Books, a two pitch route with a 5.8 direct start that goes up two wide cracks. I did this route the first time in April of 1992 and I think it felt harder this time! Ugh! This is Felicia coming up the first pitch.

Felicia on the first pitch of Mike's Books.

Our timing was just a little off... as Felicia came up the second pitch, the sun went into the clouds on the horizon. No matter, we still caught the light show from the top.

Felicia coming up to the top of Intersection Rock on the second pitch of Mike's Books.

Spectacular sunset show from the top of Intersection Rock (photo obviously doesn't do it justice).

A panorama of Hidden Valley Campground from the top of Intersection Rock. Empty!

Sunset on top of Intersection Rock!

Felicia rappelling off Intersection Rock.

Wednesday, the fence guys showed up with a handful of posts, which they set in place and then headed on out. We were making progress, though!

My big assignment on Wednesday was to swap out the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. It took a trip to Home Depot, lots of sweat and some profanity, but I got it done in the end. This is my third ceiling fan installation this year. I really don't see it as a career, though.

While everything else was going on, I started working on this small addition to the retaining wall on the back porch to try to limit the erosion over there. I pounded these three foot rebar over a foot into the ground, then poured a footer for the blocks.

Footer curing. Blocks and rocks are just there to keep the form in place. Crude, but effective.

It rained off and on most of the day on Monday that was eroding the hill out front and by the garage, so our resident drainage expert headed out to set an advanced drainage channel that would direct water around the garage.

The fence guys showed up Thursday with another pile of posts and set them while we were headed down the hill to Palm Springs (the big city!) mid day on Thursday to do some shopping.

Lots and lots of huge wind turbines just outside of Palm Springs.

Lots...

Our Summer Vacation - Part 1

2011-09-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

We headed for Joshua Tree this past week to spend our week of summer vacation working on the new house. We had lots of little jobs and at least one big one to get done during the week, as well as getting off the gerbil wheel at work for a bit. For the second time, we drove two vehicles over. I had the truck packed to the gills with "stuff", including a dining room table and four (of six) chairs, queen sized bed for the second bedroom, queen sized mattress, and untold other smaller items like lamps, end tables, and other doo-dads to take over. Felicia drove her car with our bags, climbing gear, and the mutts. We drove over Saturday morning, so getting out of town and driving over was pretty mellow for the most part. Good way to start the trip.

This will be in four parts, this is part I, so you're in the right place to start!

Master bedroom... end tables and lamps. Plastic crate "end tables" on their way out.

The declaration of "no TV" lasted about three trips. We have no cable up there, but I got a cable for my iPad and we could watch movies that way all week. Ginny liked whatever was on in this case. DOWN IN FRONT!!!

Ahhhh... a quiet moment in the late afternoon to relax.

While Felicia made a run to the grocery store (around 8 miles to the nearest store over in Yucca Valley), I put the new dining room table back together to surprise her when she got back.

The work commenced Sunday. My first big job was to put together the bed for the second bedroom. Lots and lots of little pieces to go together.

Luckily, I had Inspectors 24 and 25 at the ready to help me get it together properly. And a nice view out the front window to keep me motivated!

Hey check that out! Nearly there!

Ginny being quite the proper well-behaved young lady (for a change of pace).

Viola! We have guest accomodations!

Later in the week, we picked up some lights and a clock to finish up the "decor". Ready for visitors!

The TV only lasted one day on the low table. We found a nice multi-tilt wall mount for it and had it up on the wall in short order.

Finally found an acceptable mirror for the master bath area and got that in place.

Riley claiming ownership of the little cheapo rubber dog toy we got somewhere in town. Ginny trying to lull him into complacency so she can grab it from him. What a couple of bozos!

A vew into what we have dubbed the "box room". Not too hard to see where that name came from.

Some of the boxes get reused for other things, like keeping the mutts out on the front deck for some fresh air.

My road bike got some adjustments and new handlebar tape before heading off up into the park for a morning ride. I was chugging up the hill into the park one morning thinking what a pain it was... then I looked around and figured I could be knocking myself out in far worse surroundings. Actually met a nice guy from Yucca Valley out riding on Monday that I hope to get out for some future rides with.

Sedona To Jerome Road Ride

2011-08-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

So... someone had this brilliant idea to head out to Sedona this morning and do the Sedona to Jerome (and back) road bike ride. After looking, I found out that this was pretty close to the exact same weekend that Tim and I did this ride back in 2007, but I can assure you that this ride was WAY hotter than that one. We baked out there in a big way. Like two pies in the oven. Like ants on a hot sidewalk. Like chocolate chip cookies!! We should have known when we loaded up in the parking lot to head out (where it was already warm!), but after driving up there, whaddya gonna do?

Happy camper on his way out of Sedona! Headed into the great unknown with a smile on his face and a song in his heart! What could be better than this?

Most of the run from Sedona to the small town of Cottonwood is on a slight downhill grade. There are a few places where you do some short climbs, but by and large... mostly not working that hard. Bad news for later in the day!

Cruising the wide open road between Cottonwood and Clarkdale, where the road rises into the sky and the legs will have holes punched in them!

The party's over!!! Headed up the hill from Clarkdale to Jerome. Still not too hefty yet.

Making progress... only four miles to Jerome! All uphill, of course.

Welcome to Jerome! Still WAY below town. You can see it up there above and right of the sign. Climb, climb, climb!

Gettin' a little elevation now. Oh boy! I was surprised how much traffic there was on a Sunday up there. We were getting buzzed pretty regularly, but mostly people weren't too bad.

UP! Keep on truckin'!

Curves? Mountain grades? Ya don't say... there's town up there above the sign. Ouch.

At the top of the two big switchbacks leading up to town. A little casual spinning, then we start climbing some more!

Lots of air there off the side of the road. Always thought that wall was pretty impressive.

As if the legs weren't already in the can... the slope goes nasty all the way up into town. Jerome is built on the mountainside, and the roads are steep and windy. Kind of a cool little town, actually.

Damn glad that's over with! Halfway there!

Some cool old buildings in Jerome. Some have been renovated into shops, galleries, wine stores, and other neveau-stylish purveyors of yuppie finery!

Pete sitting in the center of town working on his social media-ing. (posting pics to somewhere or other).

Like to visit this museum one of these days... looks kind of cool from the outside. This is a giant wheel from some sort of mining machinery.

Prescott... yeah.... maybe if it wasn't hottern than the back porch of Hades out here!!! Not today!

Break's over... time to head on back. You can see the road we climbed up into town in the right side of the pic below the road Pete is on here.

On the road again...I can't wait to get on the road again... headed back to Sedona. Lots more uphill, but the angle isn't so serious now.

Do I have helmet-hair in this picture?

The pearly gates! Sedona ho!

It was a good ride. All tolled, we put in around 52 miles with around 4000 feet of climbing. Not bad for a day's work. After a quick rehydration stop at the McDonald's next to where we parked, we headed off for pizza and then back to Phoenix!

Next time, we'll shoot for a cooler day... much cooler.

Reasonably successful weekend...

2011-08-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

We headed west again this weekend, fresh and ready to get some more stuff done on the JT house! We'd originally planned to head out on Thursday afternoon, but that didn't work out, so we left early Friday morning instead. We picked up a used stove in Phoenix last weekend, so we took it out with us to get it into place. That was our first order of business on Friday.

Russ showed up to help get the stove off the truck and into place, then we spent the rest of the afternoon b.s.ing and drinking beer. That did not really augment the workout program the next morning. Susan came over later, freshly arrived from Phoenix, and we had a nice dinner made using the new stove! Success! (the drawer is missing in order to sample and match some paint at Home Depot).

Saturday morning, Felicia got up and headed off to walk the mutts. I dragged myself out of bed to get going before it got too hot. I took my old road bike out so I could get a weekend ride in. This is a shot from the front porch looking out at the road. You can just barely make out Felicia and the dogs coming back. I headed up the road into the park on my bike.

The ride has a bit of climbing as you head up into the park. Here's a shot passing Monument Manor.

And a shot looking back down from about the same place. Already gained some altitude...the house is down there somewhere.

And I arrived at the entrance station. I had to show my National Parks Pass to get in without being charged. I think they get a buck or so for walk-ins and bikes.

The signs were taunting me as I slowly ground uphill.

Nice scenery, but Ugh...

After the rather abrupt climbing, it sort of seems to level out, only it's still climbing slightly (as empirically observed on the way back out). This is a nice stretch through a forest of Joshua Trees.

Further on, I started passing climbing areas... this is one called Left Hand of Darkness, and a climb Felicia likes called Granny Goose.

Arriving at Hidden Valley Campground. The formation straight ahead is called the Old Woman. The last weekend we were out, we did a couple of climbs on there while it was still in the shade. One good thing about summer... there's no lines on these easily accessible routes!

They say if you don't have pics, it didn't happen. So I had to take the "Captain America shot" in front of Intersection Rock!

Hmmmm... left or right? One of these weekends, Pete and I are going to go left! This weekend, I headed back to Joshua Tree.

While I was taking some photos, this rider passed me. Thinking it would be cool to ride and chat with him on the way out, I took off after him. He saw me and speeded up. So I speeded up. And he got out of the saddle and tried to sprint away. I was slowly catching up to him when I decided if he didn't want company that bad, I wasn't going to be his carrot for the day, so I let him go for good. Out in the middle of nowhere, and working like a dog to keep from having to interact with someone. Kind of scary.

My big job for the weekend was to fix this leak... so after a trip to Home Depot for some parts and pieces, I installed a PVC ball valve in the uphill (the direction the water comes in from the main) line to cut off the leaking part until we could decide what to do with it later. It was a beautiful fix. Then I turned the water back on and... it was coming from the downhill side. That made no sense, but that didn't help much. I would have to start over Sunday morning... it was time to go climbing.

Felicia had some other projects she wanted to work on, so when Susan came over, we headed off to do some climbing and Felicia stayed behind. I didn't get any shots of her projects (my bad) so you can't see those.

Susan climbing...

Susan rappelling...

More climbing...

More climbing...

Sunday morning, and another trip to Home Depot (8 miles away in Yucca Valley), I had all the parts to get the job done. I completely took out the leaky section and put a new one in place. Let the glue dry, then turned the main back on. The main is about a quarter of a mile to the south, up the hill, in the front yard of the 94 year old guy who lives there. By the time I got back down, it looked like I had no leaks, but when I turned the faucet on, I got some rushing air, then a coupler that was still underground on the edge of the driveway blew and started dousing the place with water. Lots of frustration ensued, but eventually this is what I ended up with... this is four couplers in the line (the fifth is out of sight to the bottom of the picture). Crazy! But when I turned the main back on, it held!!! For now. Still, just to be safe, we turned the main off before we left for the weekend. All these crazy pipes running around the yard need some serious inspection!

Trying to get something done...

2011-08-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

We had a full round scheduled for this weekend to get stuff done on the new place. We did a quick exit from Phoenix Thursday night so we would have all of Friday to get crankin' on the list. First up we had to go shopping for a refrigerator and stove. We found both after breakfast over in Yucca Valley on Friday morning. Set them up to be delivered that afternoon, and then off to other stuff. Some other shopping, a visit to the local propane joint to get our account set up, and then back to eagerly anticipate the arrival of our new appliances.

Thought we might have some issues getting the refrigerator into the kitchen. It was seemingly too big to fit through the opening between the counters and apparently, you can ruin a refrigerator by tilting it too much (like if we lifted it sideways up and over). Uh-oh! Then we had the brilliant idea to take the doors off and voila! We were in business! It fit in our oddly shaped fridge hole great, looked great and purred like a kitten!!! Excellent!! Put one up in the "W" column!

Russ and Susan had loaned us this spare "drink fridge", which worked pretty well in the short term, but we were happy to be working with a full sized unit now!

The fun and games crashed to the earth when it came time to put in the stove. Current "standard" stoves are apparently too high to fit under the granite shelf we have above the countertop. Sonofa... the stove went in and sat there overnight for the options to be considered. Felicia was extremely NOT happy.

There was only one thing left to do. Drink. Thank God blenders and tequila fit just about anywhere!!!

Saturday morning, we took the mutts out for an early hike to burn off some steam before we shut them up to go take care of our appliance debacle.

It was a gorgeous morning. We hiked up the road past one of the nearby houses that has appeared in Architectural Digest. This one is built out of straw bales, and corrugated metal. Interesting looking place.

We made sort of a loop over to the north to check out the other Architectural Digest entry in the neighborhood. This is kind of a wacky place. I think the open building on the right is sort of a free-standing artsy-fartsy carport deal.

On the way back, Riley staged a sit-down strike when he decided he was warm enough for one day.

We killed most of Saturday trying to solve our stove dilemma. Suffice to say, I made a few laps up and down the main drag of Yucca Valley with various units in the back of the truck, and after no suitable solution, we decided to retreat and regroup. We have a better plan now and we're hoping for the best. One thing we did get done was the guy finally showed up to put in the hot water heater!! He showed up at 4:50pm and it took him 2.5 hours, but he did some nice work and we got another one in the "W" column for the day! After the stove failure, we needed it!

After hot water heater guy finished up, we could finally head into town for dinner (no stove, remember). Can't recall the name of the place, but they had pretty good food, margaritas and even this two piece mariachi duo!

Sunday morning, we finally got around to some climbing! You can see the parking lot in front of Intersection Rock was JAMMED!!! We found a spot, though!

There's Felicia down there coming up Double Cross, on the shady side of the Old Woman formation.

During the regular climbing season, this thing draws crowds like flies at a picnic. Today, we walked up and had no problem getting right on it. Of course, shortly after we rapped off, a group of four guys showed up and got on it. A line, even in August!!

Felicia rapping off Double Cross. A guy to the right of her on the Sexy Grandma route.

We climbed Dogleg, to the left of Double Cross as well. I hadn't done this one in probably over 15 years, but it was as fun an interesting as I remembered. Felicia liked it better as well (it fit her hands better!).

Felicia up high on Dogleg.

Felicia rapping off the other side of the Old Woman after climbing Dogleg.

First weekend!

2011-07-31T21:12:00.001-07:00

Well, we closed on the house this week, so it was our first weekend! By the time we rolled out of Phoenix, we had a big pile of stuff that had to go over. So I drove the truck and Felicia drove her car. I had the bed, mattress, chairs and other miscellaneous stuff, she had our bags, climbing gear, and the dogs. I left first, but we met up in Quartzite and I followed her into Joshua Tree from there.

First line of business... get the dogs comfortable.

This was well into Friday after assembly of the chairs and footstools for the living room. This is the new room the seller guy added to the back of the house. It will probably be the main "hangout" room for the house, but it will probably be kind of empty for a while.

It took a surprising amount of time to put this bed together. You can't get too far ahead in the instructions, or when you find out something's together backwards, you get to take it all apart and start again. I probably put it together like two and a half times.

Check that out! Chairs, footstools, happy doggie, and even a picture hanging on the wall!

Seems like I have a lot of doggie pictures from this weekend. We got to spend a lot of time with them.

It was cool enough Saturday night that we spent some time hanging out on the front deck watching the sunset.

It was so nice out there that we decided to have dinner out there. The doggies didn't seem to mind, and there's not many times you can enjoy being outside in Phoenix this time of year.

Riley enjoying the sunset.

Ginny when her perpetual motion was suspended for about two minutes.

Last rays on Riley.

And goodbye to the last minutes of sun. The first of what we hope will be many nice sunsets.

Cute babies hanging out together in the bedroom.

The Mountain in July!!

2011-07-23T19:19:00.001-07:00

The Granite Mountain (near Prescott) climbing season is usually pretty short. It closes on the 1st of February, and doesn't open again until July 15th. Normally, I wait until it cools of up there to go climbing, but I've also found that anything under 85 in town is doable up at the wall. That being the rule, with a forecast (low, as it turned out) of 82 for today, I wanted to go. As I didn't have a partner, I whittled my rack down, chucked anything not absolutely necessary, and headed up.

There it is... from the approach trail... long way to go. On the way up the trail, I ran into this guy (Kevin) from Prescott headed up to the Swamp Slabs to solo some easy stuff. We sort of hit it off, and I invited him to rope up with me for an ascent of the Classic (four pitches, 5.7 with the 5.9 Crack Lover's variation tossed in).

Kevin coming up the first pitch of Reunion (best start IMHO for The Classic).

Kevin headed up the second Crack Lover's pitch. At the top of that pod, you can continue straight up to do the 5.9 var (only a couple moves of .9). No problem mon!

Close shot of Kevin putting in some gear for the cruxy part of the 5.9 Crack Lover's var. It seemed a little thin today... but it went.

I ran the rope up to the top of the Flying Buttress. This is a shot of Kevin coming up the 12" wide "sidewalk" ramp on the way to the belay.

This angling crack leads from the main wall to other end of the Flying Buttress and the belay.

Kevin heads across the top of the Flying Buttress to get to the main wall and the High Exposure Exit pitch. Great climbing!

On the main wall, connecting the holds.

The High Exposure Exit is only rated 5.6+, but there are a couple of spots that definitely get your attention. It's not something you just run up, that's for sure!

Kevin out towards the end of the technical climbing on the High Exposure Exit, about to turn the corner and head up the gully behind to the anchor at the top of the headwall on the left.

First rap back down past the top of the Flying Buttress. Pretty airy up there!

Two guys working on the second pitch of Cat's Pajamas. Although it's only rated 5.8+, it would probably be rated a bit harder at most other areas. I recall this pitch as being straight-up burly difficult.

Super long shot of the spot where the falcons nest up to the right of the last pitch of Kingpin. They were screeching quite a bit today... maybe nobody told them the ban has lifted for the year?

Longer shot of the guys on Cats Pajamas.

The leader on Cat's Pajamas just past the second crux of the pitch and headed for the top of the Flying Buttress.

And a parting shot... what an awesome place! Love it!

Summer in Iowa!

2011-07-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to celebrate a pair of 80th birthdays. My dad and his wife both turned 80 this year and a family gathering was planned to celebrate. So we jumped on a plane and flew via Denver (and a delayed flight) To Des Moines for the weekend. Although I had my camera with me, for some reason it never made it out of my backpack, so the only photos I have came from our phones.

We booked the cheapest car we could find, a subcompact through Enterprise. This is what we turned up with... a Fiat that was barely bigger than a SmartCar. I wouldn't want one for every day, but it was actually kind of fun running around in it. The only problem we had was not being able to get our shared bag into the trunk. I had to SQUEEZE it into the back seat!

When in Iowa... who doesn't see some of the famous bridges of Madison County? I think a lot of them have been renovated in in the last ten years. This one was rededicated in 2004. Oh, and they all have names.

A shot of the inside of the bridge... apparently, it is very popular to fill the inside of the bridges with graffiti. Go figure.

We happened to be very near Winterset, Iowa, the birthplace of John Wayne, so we stopped in for the tour. You couldn't take any photos inside the house, so this was the best we could do.

Customized 1980 fan parked outside the birthplace. Some serious painting and work went into this thing. It was kind of impressive.

John Wayne statue on the main drag of Winterset. They're raising money now for a sort of big birthplace museum and visitor's center and this statue will be moved there when it's done.

Can't keep a good climber down...

My cat burglar impression. Headed for the window.

Who knew?

Another covered bridge at a park in Winterset.

Great sign at the Madison County Desert Factory in Winterset where we had lunch.

And just the day before, she was making fun of me for having to climb something!!

Castle Rock - Big Bear

2011-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today, we headed up to Big Bear to try out some of the climbing. The area has pockets of scattered small granite formations, so we picked Castle Rock out of the guidebook and headed off.

Castle Rock Trail sign. The hiking trail up to the formation is pretty popular. We managed to squeeze into a roadside pullout a ways up the road, then hiked back down to where the trail started.

Can you say uphill grind?

Russ and Felicia hoofing up the trail with Big Bear Lake just barely visible in the background. The sign at the start said it was a mile to Castle Rock. I had my GPS watch with me and it was more like just under 0.6 mile. But it was nearly all uphill.

Russ leading The Turret, a nice 5.8 crack on the southwest face of Castle Rock.

Susan on The Turret.

Felicia starting up The Sphinx (5.6). Nice crack system with a fairly airy finish that was probably a bit harder than 5.6.

Felicia up near the finishing moves on The Sphinx

Looking past the formation with Big Bear Lake in the background.

Felicia on The Turret (5.8). Very nice route!

Felicia on The Turret, Russ near the top of The Sphinx.

Susan leading Ball and Chain (5.10a). This was sort of a contrived line with a hard start (depending on how straight up you went) and hard finish (depending on how far right you stayed).

Susan on Ball and Chain (10a)

Russ on Holy Fingers (5.11b). We all gave this one a go on TR, but none of us have been climbing that much, and it was hard on the fingers. Russ was having trouble seeing with the sun in his eyes!

Nice snack break! Tecate Light? They make that?

Back to the action... Russ on Knightline (5.10a+?).

Russ on Knightline (5.10a+)

Closeup of Russ on Knightline (5.10a+) at the roof.

Felicia on Easy As Your Sister's Best Friend (5.5). Was a nice little sport route. The fingertips were starting to glow by this point from the rough rock. I also did Black Tower Crack (5.7) to the right of this and it turned out to be a pretty nice route as well.

I hoofed up to the summit of Castle Rock to check out the clear view of Big Bear Lake from the top. Leaned over and caught a shot of Felicia taking a lap on Knightline (5.10a+) from above.

The anchor above Knightline... the left bolt is solid, the right one is pretty sketch. Backed up to a pair of ancient looking SMC bolts four feet back the other way.

What's that thing? Pirates on Big Bear? Arrrrrr matey!

Panorama shot of Big Bear Lake from the top of Castle Rock.

Joshua Tree in July!

2011-07-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

Over the years I've probably managed to climb in Joshua Tree nearly every month of the year, but I don't think I'd ticked off July yet...until today. After all our horsing around with the house, we took care of lunch and some other stuff, then decided we should head off and do some climbing. We probably started climbing somewhere around 6pm and finished up around 8:30pm or so, just as it was getting too dark to see. We originally planned to head to Hemminway Buttress, but then Russ said he heard about some sort of bee problem there, so we switched and went to Thin Wall. This formation is CRAWLING with climbing during the "season", but there was nobody there today! Sweeeet!

Crow perched in the big dead tree near the Real Hidden Valley parking lot.

Felicia and Susan hoofing up the trail into Real Hidden Valley.

I think this is Butterfingers Make Me Horny (5.8), a nice warmup on the right side of the wall.

Happy belayer at the base of the wall!

Felicia climbing Count On Your Fingers (5.9)

Another shot of Felicia on Count On Your Fingers (5.9).

Pano shot of Thin Wall... having fun with Photochop's Photomerge feature today!

Susan on Count On Your Fingers (5.9)

Susan starting up No Calculators Allowed (10a). Did it a few years ago, but still a nice route!

Last route... Chocolate Is Better Than Sex. It gets 9+ in the guidebook, but it isn't that hard. Some nice moves, but short. We ticked this off, then rapped and called it a day as it was very close to getting dark. Fun late day outing!!

The Walk Thru!

2011-07-08T16:18:00.001-07:00

We headed out to Joshua Tree this weekend so we could do (sort of) a walk thru on the house. We're probably going to have to do it again, as there is some work that isn't done yet. But it was nice to see the house again and take some photos of the inside this time. On with the show...

Shot looking up from the road looking at the garage with the house behind and right.

Joshua tree and "sold" sign...

Up the side road looking at the garage with the house behind.

Back side of the house looking at the small patio area on the east end.

Behind the house looking at the southwest corner. The dark grey stuff is the room addition they're still trying to finish off so we can close on the house.

Master bedroom looking at the bath part. We're already thinking about how we're going to redo this eventually.

Plastic sheet across the entry to the room addition. The guy was over there texturing the walls today. Supposed to be all done next week.

Back bedroom.

Big bath in the hallway by the two back bedrooms. There's a jet tub in there that someone I know will be using a lot.

Master bedroom area with bath remodel discussion going on.

Shuffleboard court on the front (north) side of the house. We've decided that thing might be okay with a few margaritas in us. It's the sport of kings!

The cocktail deck on the front of the house. Very nice in the shade of the big mulberry tree, even in July!

The view off the front deck looking towards Joshua Tree (the town).

The inside of the garage. There's two single doors plus another car-n-a-half sized bay, so quite a bit of room in there.

Looking past the garage toward the entrance to Joshua Tree NP.

Laundry room... heater/water heater closet on right, door to back patio area, plus door down on the right that goes into a half bath attached to the bedroom across from the kitchen.

Kitchen.

Living room/fireplace. Door to front (north) porch.

Kitchen with living room. Door on right is bedroom and you can see the attached half bath thru the far door.

Shot from living room looking past kitchen and bedroom (on left) at the entry for the room addition on the back of the house.

Big panorama shot of the view from southwest over to northeast or so. Check it out!

West end of the house. There's a walk-up deck on top of the cube-shaped deal there. The sliding glass door goes to the shuffleboard court.

Pano shot of the front (north) side of the house. The software put some bending into it.

House from the main road.

Garage and house and Joshua Trees from the northeast.

The northeast driveway entrance view.

The southeast driveway (other end of the loop from the northeast) entrance view.

Deck Repair 101 - The Final Chapter!

2011-07-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

So after tearing the decks apart, and then rebuilding them. they get super-coated with this two-part epoxy/alphatic roof coating stuff. Painting commenced, more coating, then a topcoat with sand added for traction. Originally, the guy said "two days to tear down and rebuild, two days to do the coatings and finish up." He worked on it for TWELVE days during the hottest month of the year. This also included one day that was the fourth HOTTEST recorded day in Phoenix EVER at 118 degrees.

Back deck with a primer coat on for the epoxy...

Front deck all primed up.

Other side of front deck...

Inspectors 24 and 25 keeping tabs on the progress.

And magically we zoom forward to complete deck. The railings went on on day thirteen, touchup and it was finally OVER. Here's the finished back deck.

Finished back deck looking the other way.

Low shot showing the sand in the topcoat.

Front deck finished...

Front deck finished from below.

Back deck right.

Back deck left.

Deck Repair 101

2011-07-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

After a multi-year search to find someone willing to rebuild the decks on the house, we finally found a guy that could do it sometime in early May. He had some stuff going on and the next thing I know he doesn't start the work until like the third week in June, which coincides with the hottest time of the year in Phoenix. Ouch!

Both decks needed some serious work due to leakage and water damage (yes, we live in the desert), so they had to tear them down and then build them back up.

They found out pretty quickly that the original builders had used Liquid Nails or something to glue the deck down to the support rafters. They were outside hammering on the deck to get it off and stuff is falling off the wall on the inside. New plan... just enough deck off to get rid of the damaged part.

Closer shot of where the water got into the end support and it had some pretty good rot going.

Back deck with the railings removed and undergoing demo treatment.

Back with the topping removed, ready to be demo'd.

Damage on the back deck was pretty much along the edges and around the columns.

Probably the worst damage on the back... amazingly, the damage was all in the deck and some of the fascia and hadn't penetrated into the rafters or the sheeting under the deck. Years of soakage, I guess.

After the experience out front, they applied the same strip-removal out back.

New deck strip in place.

New fascia board on the back.

New fascia on the front, new decking in place.

Front deck rebuilt...

Underside of front deck...no more drywall underneath!!

Here I go again...

2011-06-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend it was time to fire up the ceiling fan tools once again to replace the fan in the master bath with a unit that matches all the updated hardware. It was time. I'm getting to be a veteran installer, so I managed to get this sucker up and running (properly, mind you) with a) very little profanity, and b) NO trips to Home Depot. Maybe there's hope for me after all!

We have a winner!

Another trip to the Forks...

2011-06-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

After last weekend, I figured it would be a while before I got back to the Forks, but Mr. X shipped me an email in the middle of the week and it was ON! He was going to hang out and camp up there overnight, so we met up in the parking lot and headed off to climb.

First up, Black Rose (5.8), nice warmup, classic location, aesthetic, nice and airy over the Silver Pond. As the resident lightweight, I got the lead!

Nice view looking off up the canyon from the top of Black Rose.

Just for the heckuvit, we chucked a TR on down Heart Of Darkness (9+), to the right of Black Rose. You can lead it, but it's pretty necky getting to your first piece. Still, nice route.

I didn't get any photos of Loose Lips (10+), the next route we did. The sun was pretty much straight over the route (and got into the next route photos - see below). I give it special mention here as I managed to get up it clean (following) for the first time ever! Wacky!

We rapped back down and Mr. X headed up Retard's Recess (10+), to the right of Loose Lips. I'd never even been on this one. Face climbing, to sort of easy corner, to overhanging tight corner finish.

Mr. X getting ready to move into the fun zone on Retard's Recess (10+)

You can see the crux topout of Retard's Recess just above Mr. X in the photo... good pro, hard little section of climbing.

We packed up and headed for the shade, over at The Prow Area and I led Fool's Game (9) as a bit of a break. Still kind of a heads up route in places.

Mr. X near the top of Fool's Game (9).

We debated what to do next, and settled on moving to the Gold Wall and doing a lap on East of Eden. This thing bouted me last weekend. I was hoping for a good showing today.

Mr. X rappels to the base of the Gold Wall. Supercrack is the big fissure behind him.

Mr. X starts up East of Eden (10).

And about halfway up East of Eden (10).

And a little bit higher, closer shot. I got my revenge today... managed to get a clean lap on EoE in spite of a couple of hard to clean cams that nearly had me hanging.

This guy (Abel) and his girlfriend were climbing next to us on this heinous thin corner. He said a lot of it was 5.11 when we talked to him later, and that the section he aided was MUCH harder. Looked pretty hairy from where I was standing.

Me 'n The Cabe at The Overlook

2011-06-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last day in the northland... we went to The Overlook. This is a good choice after a couple days of trashing the arms and egos, as it has a number of three-star moderate pitches to choose from and you can climb as hard (or as easy) as you feel like that day.

This is Brian firing the first route, Ginger Bread (5.7) for a little arm wake up call. Nice climbing to a great three-sided stem box. This was the first route I ever led at The Overlook 20 years ago and it's still awesome!

I followed up with a lap up probably the best 5.7 at The Overlook, Angel's Delight. Long, airy, and classic!!! Here's a shot of Brian about halfway up.

A shot looking off down Oak Creek Canyon. The Overlook is situated at the very top of the Canyon, so you get a nice view from your seat as you belay at the top of the cliff. (photo by Brian C.)

After Angel's Delight, we did the nice combo of the two routes Everyday 5.3 and Head Cheese for a nice left-facing corner that comes in about 5.8 or so.

Me coming up the Everyday Cheese combo route.
(Brian C. photo)

I figured we better do something to get the blood rushing to the tips, so I led Isaiah (5.9), THE classic of the entire crag. Looks a little low-angle from below, but it's pretty steep as it goes to the top. (Brian C. photo)

Brian working the tight crux jams of Isaiah (5.9). He did a nice job sorting this little section out. It tends to spit out the onsight crowd most of the time.

Brian milking a rest stance about 2/3rds of the way up Isaiah (5.9).

We were just about done for the day, but we finished up with a lap up Morning's Mourning, probably the best 5.8 at The Overlook (to go with the best 5.7 and best 5.9)
(Brian C. photo)

Brian in the clean upper corner of Morning's Mourning (5.8). It was a nice end to a weekend of great routes. I really enjoyed it!

A shot of the main Overlook cliffline from the scenic overlook down at the end of the point overlooking Oak Creek Canyon. You can just make out a tiny climber climbing Angel's Delight in the center of the picture. (Brian C. photo)

Standard fare for summer climbing in Flagstaff. The I-17 parking lot scene. Someone's had a wreck and we're now part of miles and miles of backed up cars headed home to Phoenix. As it turned out, the delay wasn't that bad. Helped that it wasn't the usual 110+ degrees out either.

Me 'n The Cabe at The Pit

2011-06-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Day two in Flagstaff. Today's arena is Le Petit Verdon (aka The Pit), the limestone sport area just south of Flag. Not sure we were hitting on all the cylinders after yesterday's session at Paradise Forks, but we gave it a go. There was about a bazillion people down around the right end of the area (surrounding Son Tower). Never saw so many... conversely, the left side down around Swiss Tower (Mr. Slate, The Abyss, etc.) that usually sees the most climbers, was mostly empty all day. Go figure.

Hoofing it in to The Pit.

Brian headed up Sunshine Daydream (5.7) on Son Tower. A nice easy warmup route. We actually started the day out on Popeye (5.9), but I forgot my camera and didn't get any shots on that one.

Up higher on Sunshine Daydream.

There was a swarm on the other routes on Son Tower, but Blackboard (5.9) was open, so we grabbed a quick lap on that.

Another shot on Blackboard.

After Blackboard, the party was over and it was time to get a little more serious... Mr. Slate was up. 10b or so. Brian strapped on the rack and headed off for glory!

He didn't have much in the guns and the roof sort of stymied him, so he came back down and handed off the rack. I managed to get up and Brian took a ride on TR for the tick.

We were running short on juice, but we jumped on Sporte (5.10b). Steep route, got a good burn on that. Here's Brian heading up...

Another shot on Sporte, getting set to head into the business section.

Rapping off Sporte. That sucka is Steep!

Me 'n The Cabe at The Forks

2011-06-03T19:19:00.001-07:00

Brian C. is in town from SLC for some schwanky AAC dinner up in Flagstaff, so I picked him up at the airport and we headed north so I could give him the Tour de Flag climbing tour of the three largest climbing areas over the weekend. Today was Paradise Forks. Beautiful day, hardly any other climbers around. Had the place mostly to ourselves!

Brian headed up Standard Forks 5.8 (5.9), his first Forks route!

What the hell is that? Belly flopping onto the pillar halfway up Standard Forks 5.8.

Brian working on the upper part of Black and Sassy (5.10-), Gold Wall

Brian working at the very top of Black and Sassy (5.10-), Gold Wall

Shot down the canyon from the base of the Gold Wall.

Brian working hard on the Gold Wall classic route, East of Eden (5.10b or so).

After the traverse on Mayflower (5.9) getting ready to hit the karate chop hand crack that takes you to the top.

In the gorgeous hands of Mayflower (5.9).

Brian on another perfect-hands crack, Pillow Talk (5.9) on the Pillow Wall.

Shot over at Raindance Buttress

Shot looking down and over at the left end of the Davidson Wall. Great bunch of routes over there!

Coming up Pillow Case (5.9).

Closeup on Pillow Case (5.9)

Check out that new chalkbag action!!! My old chalkbag was trashed and I kept forgetting to bring another one... had to fix that, so I picked one up at the Flagstaff climbing gym.

Headed out at the end of a good day!