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Cold Conans Corridor
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Sheeps pass in January is a very cold morning, but we had all arrived at the same plan: head to Conan’s Corridor. The west wall and belay ledge would pick up some morning sun and the corridor would also offer some protection from the ever increasing wind. We parked near…
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Axe of Dog & Horny Corner
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Another quick trip to Joshua tree, but this time with a last minute change-up: Luke invited us to stay in the park proper at Sheep Pass with an entire crew of climbers. The only downside was having to meet a bunch of new people and share a campsite with strangers.…
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Open Book & Left Ski Track
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The weather at Tahquitz was looking unseasonably warm and nice, so Luke and I planned a midweek trip to get in some climbing before it got snowed out. When Luke mentioned attempting Open Book a second time, I was fully onboard. My finger was still out of commission from tearing…
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High Strung
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The next morning was a hard call to make. We’d been super excited to climb High Strung for months, having scoped it out twice so far, but I was hesitant to climb a finger crack with my injury. But desire and excitement won out, and we headed into the Wonderland.…
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Pope’s Crack & Penny Lane
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Another cold day in Joshua Tree. This really is one of the coldest places I’ve ever climbed. But with clear skies, at least the sunny faces were doable. Unfortunately our list primarily featured shaded climbs, so we opted to redo a classic, Pope’s Crack. But this time we’d go for…
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Mental Physics
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We met Jack and Ellen in the Wall Street Mill parking lot back in May, when we got to chatting about all sorts of everything. We talked about hikes, our experience with owning an EV, favorite J-Tree campsites, and Yeti backpacks. Apparently Jack had been lugging coolers into the backcountry…
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Dappled Mare
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This was a hard one to get started on. After a short walk from the car, finding the start wasn’t so easy. I think I misread Blitzo’s topo photo in the glare of the sun, and made a determined attempt up a crack that just wouldn’t go. Not sure if…
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El Camino Real
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When I finally catch a glimpse of my cams passing by, the rope is still loose. Which means I’ve got plenty more falling to do. This is all to be expected though, as I definitely signed up for this. The rope finally pulls tight, which means now I’ve just got…
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Open Book
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More like ‘Open-Can-of-Whup-Ass’. I think we were both expecting this to be easier. This would be the third 5.9 route that Luke and I were to attempt at Tahquitz, and if it was anything like the first two (Whodunnit, Dave’s), it should be cruiser. At least that’s what we thought…
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Eldo Gold
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While I was deeply familiar with photographs of Eldo, as it seemed to overrepresented in climbing magazines from the 90’s, I never imagined I would visit. Despite being able to instantly recognize the rock, the bridge, the lichen, the creek, it just never stuck in my brain as a destination.…