The funniest part was, people kept recognizing Chelsea's truck & asking if she was around. I had hijaked her identity! Our new neighbor across the street recognized her truck & introduced himself. We climbed together the first day. The second day was met with a group from El Portal, who _also_ recognized Chelsea's truck! They were curious about it, and were expecting her to pop into their campsite on the "campfire tour" at any moment. They got me instead, and hope I didn't disappoint... ;-)
I climbed a 5.9 route,
"Nobody Walks in LA", on the Freeway wall the first day out - yay! It was fantastic! Had lots of everything, including a dicey slab-ish move at the beginning. The top was even harder, because I missed the giant jugs on the left-side of this finger-crack area. Just goes to show what can be done when a person doesn't put limitations in their own mind. Still made it up, even though the move was probably a 10.a...
The next day was spent with the El Portal crew, at the
Bighorn Sheep Mating Grotto, in South Wonderland. We had to shimmy through a chimney to get to this nook of a canyon. It was such an out-of-the-way place, secluded & special. Battling a headache & weak stomach, it was only top-ropes for me. But the routes were glorious! The off-widths killed me though; something to work on for sure.
The next two days were spent at
Gilligan's Island, in the North Wonderland, care of another pal of Chelsea's, Joe. He came by our campsite looking for partners, and mentioned Chelsea's name out of thin air... Coincidence? (read the book) Anyway, Joe hooked us up with excellent beta. The crag was in the sun, there were hardly any crowds, and the routes were challenging & fun. I lead two 5.7 cracks, and two 5.8 crack to slab routes. My climbing partner & I agreed
"Hit it Ethel" was the most favorite out of the 3 days we climbed together.
Last day was met with rain, so we ended up bouldering in
Echo Cove. In between showers, we hopped on Fun Stuff, which was really no fun til the 2nd bolt on the slab. Yet Another Dicey Slab. This was the mantra dogging me on the trip. But, the crack part was fun, indeed.
From there, we went to Barker Dam for bouldering, since another storm was blowing in. Just as we arrived, the slushy rain began to fall. The entire Barker Dam trail complex emptied out. As we fought against the tide of people running to their cars carrying bulky bouldering pads, one fellah shouted excitedly, "Ya know, it's snowing up there!". I responded with, "Yes, thank you.", and kept walking. A little snow won't stop us stalwarts! What was so great about this accidental strategy, was, the whole crag was empty! We had the entire
Gunsmoke traverse to ourselves! It was a stroke of great luck. We didn't get too far on the traverse, then tried the High Noon hi-ball problem. I had forgotten how fun outdoor bouldering was...
All in all, the climbing couldn't be better. I lead lots of stuff, and felt very strong & confident on just about everything, despite the dicey slabs. I wanted to do another 5.9 before I left, but the rainy Saturday made it hard to commit to a climb that might require being on the crag for a while. Getting rained on in the middle of a crux move is no fun. It just means I'll have to go back...
Couldn't get to my photos cuz the camera isn't importing properly, so they will be on Facebook likely later. (Yup, finally got on that crazy thing...)
