February Red Rocks and Joshua Tree

John in front of Mescalito. Snow dusts the ground this day at Red Rocks.

John and I made a weekend trip out to Red Rocks on February 9, 2019. Unfortunately, it started snowing on us as we hiked in to our eventual goal: a two-climb adventure, starting up MysterZ as a prelude to Armatron. We didn't even make it up five feet before we decided it was too wet to climb.

View of the first pitch of MysterZ from the bottom

Instead, we made the three hour drive to Joshua Tree and climbed there. On Saturday, we managed to climb two routes. Sail Away (5.8-) was a fun warmup, ending at the top of an almost towerlike formation. Leaping Learner (5.6) was the hardest 5.6 I've ever done. John was the first to get on it, but he decided to let me lead it instead after placing just two pieces. This climb had heady, hard moves right off the deck. Maybe we just started too far to the right. On Sunday we started on the Atlantis wall with Solar Technology (5.6) and Wet Pigeon (5.8-). These were both shorter, fun crack climbs with plenty of morning sunshine to keep us warm. As we started to lose this sun we quickly made our way up Fantasy of Light (5.10a). The first few moves were the only challenging ones on this particular route. We finished the day with a trip up a beautiful, sunny crack climb with a traverse in the middle, Cakewalk (5.8+). The traverse required a long, high reach on tenuous footholds and was particularly exciting. The name of this climb also had me thinking of a similarly named climb at T-Wall. Our final climb of the trip was Sig Alert (5.10b/c), a mostly bolted climb with a piece or two of gear near the bottom.

After a long day, we drearily made the drive back to Las Vegas for John to catch a red-eye flight home.

John and I with a backdrop of "boulders" in Joshua Tree. That sun was bright!

T-Wall Moderates with Malcolm and Adam

Malcolm on the start of Plastic Toys

Malcolm, Adam, and I climbed four moderates at T-Wall on Sunday, February 3. We chose to only do easy climbs in the hope that Malcolm could get up them. He did manage to make it up three of the four, only hanging on the rope a few times, and he made it halfway up the fourth. He's definitely getting stronger and improving his technique!

Motor Boatin' S.O.B. (5.6) - Our warmup. A bit chossy, but still worthwhile at the grade.

Plastic Toys (5.7) - The start is so much fun. You have to step across onto the main wall after climbing up onto a big boulder (see Malcolm in photo). I almost got off route halfway up by going to the right into 5.9 territory, but Adam clued me in and I backtracked.

Nappy (5.7) - Straightforward

Sunday Gardening (5.8) - This was tons of fun until I was 2/3 of the way from the top. At this point I hit a blocky roof and didn't really know which way to go. In the end, I trended up and left across a lichen-covered face to some anchors, but they seemed a bit off route.