The plan was to head up to Right Dairy Queen and spend the day hanging out. Emma’s pulley injury was much better, but still worrisome, so we thought that a cluster of 5.7 routes with big handholds would be perfect. I could always attempt some harder stuff if I wanted too. But once the ledge came into view, we began to have doubts. I saw two heads pop up, which seemed reasonable, but then a third, fourth, sixth… Then I noticed three top ropes already set up. The ledge was fairly big, but not that big. As we approached the boulder field below, a woman in NPS uniform appeared, with two older folks in tow. I had to ask if they were headed up there as well. She told us that they were indeed, and that today the wall was going to be taken over by a group of 25 for all day top roping and a seminar(!) up on the ledge. So glad we found out before scrambling all the way up.
Given the circumstances we settled on Hemmingway. The routes were longer, more committing, and harder, so not ideal for Emma’s finger, but it was the best option we had. After considering our options we opted to climb Hernie Hernie Hernie.
This was a fun climb, if a little heady. Protection was on the iffy side, and included an ok-ish wire and a optimistically slung horn. The loose flake is a little unnerving, but really no problem (except that it makes pro pretty scarce). I was feeling confident after cruising up Whodunit, but Joshua Tree has a way of dishing out spooky reality checks. The grade felt true to me, and if it was harder than Funky Dung it would be due to more cruxes required different techniques.
We’ve all had our moments of climbing ourselves into a bad place. Maybe skipping a bolt because the stance was too hard and regretting it later, or heading up a secure looking alternate path and discovering that the gear is bad. Occasionally some sort of deep instinctive urge overrides our judgment and we pay the price. Today Emma fell for it for the first time. Which is impressive since she’s been climbing for seven years. As the route traversed out around the face bulge to a bolt, she resisted using the offwidth to gain the blank face. As she climbed higher, staying on the featured face, her swing was only amplified, until she was nearly above the bolt. At this point she was relaly
I congratulated her on making it this far without getting worked over like that. It does suggest that she’s got a great head for climbing, if this her first experience of that.
Today Emma had her first incidence of this. Which is impressive since she’s been climbing for seven years. But her hesitation to cross the offwidth and enter the blank face led her up a featured face, every move taking her farther away from the bolt.
These two were characters for sure. While they rolled up American Spirit spliffs they asked about where the splitters were, and talked trash about various routes. The comedy routine continued as they ironed out their water situation. Apparently one of them was “good at being dehydrated” so he took the bullet for the team and gave up the last of his. After talking big chimney game, they had a strugglefest up Dung Fu. Apparently the one who could handle dehydration was also good at “sketchy situations” and so the leader built an anchor and brought him up to finish the chimney section. I’m not saying I relished the moment, but it was nice to see some very dirty dirtbags roll in from the valley and feel a little flummoxed by J-Tree. This place is special.
Given our near-epic disaster last time, we decided we should give Funky Dung another go. We did two weird pitches, with an anchor to the left of the arete-ledge after the crux. It was awkward, but worked well enough. Emma hang-dogged through the crux, but managed to pull it gradually. I kept wondering if this might be possible to set up as a top rope so Emma could practice it more, but would require some creativity for sure.
We shared a moment with Ethan and Alyssa, who were getting ready for Overseer next to us. Ethan was lamenting forgetting to bring an apple, and quickly handed one off to him, having packed extras for the day. This led to some joking about whether it was a honey crisp, or unworthy, and we got to counter with feigned indignity that he would suggest we would offer anything less than. It’s fun to joke about being bougie about apples, but the truth is, I think this betrays the fact that we’re definitely fancy-pants.
Fun time at the crag. Planning to run laps on easy 5.7s at Dairy Queen Right (& attempt airy and babies too), packed an extra rap line and hellllla stuff. Big crowd visible from below was worrisome, but fully shut down as ranger approached (with a group! were they her parents?) and announced party of 25(!) planning on all-day takeover (with a seminar and shit?!>!>). Bailed to Hemmingway instead, which was less than optimal with Emma’s finger injury. Not the best climbing day, but plenty of fun folks. Chatted with a nice Cedar-Wright-looking French guy up top, and some goofy dudes on the road from the valley down below. They were characters, rolling american spirit spliffs, talking trash, and seemingly struggling up Dung Fu after talking big chimney game. One of them was good at being dehydrated (and sketchy situations), lol. Met Ethan and Alyssa and bonded over apples and cocktails. Fun sunset/dark hike out.
We stopped at Sam’s on the way home for a delicious dinner, and then enjoyed minimal traffic on the drive home. It was a late end to a long day, but there was something special about being able to do Joshua Tree all within a day.
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