For spring break, I was all set to go to Arkansas, to climb for
a week in the Sam's Throne Area. It seemed like a convenient place for Victor to go
from Dallas. However, Victor vetoed that option, looking for something else. Him and
Stan Hammon (also from Dallas), decided they would drive to J-Tree, so I ended up flying there
and joining them.
The granite at J-Tree is rough on the hands, although tape can
help there. The friction is awesome, although I didn't trust it
at first, especially when leading. Lots of great climbing ...
we are sure to come back again.
We climbed at Indian Cove for the first two days, where I got pretty
freaked on a couple of "easy" pitches where the protection was not
that good. Scored a #2 Camalot as booty, it had been forgotten at a
belay, and toproped a bunch of stuff too. The idea was to get a bunch
of 5.2 climbs in (Victor wanting to lead some). Some of the climbs I
remember :
- Scaramouche (5.2) - more like 5.4 at the start
- Marquise (5.2) - probably 5.6 at the start of the second pitch
- Duchess Left (5.4) - 5.6 with poor pro at the start, had me gripped
We moved on to Hidden Valley, which is a neat place, full of climbers. We had
our fire, and the beer going every night, which was a treat onto itself. Our
first objective was The Eye (5.1), but a lot
scarier, which Victor led. Moves were easy, but a lot of those flakes which
made it easy looked very ready to break ...
After our descent from Cyclops Rock, more easy climbs were to be found
at Echo Cove. Aside from the Indian Cove area, this was the one place we
explored in depth. Our initial goal
was to climb another 5.2 so as to gain the bolt anchors for a couple of
5.8 face climbs on the left side of the cove. It went OK, but I
found myself unwilling to commit to the last 15 feet which involved an
ascending traverse of a slab to the anchors. The challenge loomed, and I was
psyched, but the prospect of sketching far out from my last piece, and
swinging back into the dihedral I had just climbed was really unpleasant.
Everything was low angle, but I had never before climbed something like this
section. Pass...
It was becoming apparent that figuring out how to climb friction while on lead
may not be optimal for me. So I decided we might as well set up some topropes
rather than insist on leading everything. Victor led another 5.2 on the
other side of the slab, which offered a less committing traverse to the same
anchors mentioned before. On toprope, predictably, we were successful with
both 5.8 climbs, and started to feel more comfortable. We were back the next
day, also at Echo Cove, where we toproped RAF (5.9
**), some variation to the left of it (5.10), and later Big Moe (5.11a,
none of us made it). We met up with a local climber, who was recovering after
a pretty serious accident suffered on Half Dome, and who of course managed to
flash the 5.11 in one climbing shoe and one hiking boot.
We concluded the by hiking through the Wonderland of Rocks, to Astro Domes and
back. The place has a magical quality, it's as if the succession of domes and
rocks were made exactly for the sunset light and vice-versa. Mental Physics
(5.7+), definitely made it on my tick list.
We had another scheduled day of climbing, but Victor and Stan decided
to split a bit early to get a head start on their long drive back. Not
wanting to spend the night by myself, I went one up on them and took off
early in the morning to get back one day earlier than planned. After the
last evening by the fire, the last beer, and the last look at the
incredibly starlit night sky, my thoughts shifted towards home. I would
catch one extra day at work (i.e. one extra day of vacation saved for another
climbing trip).
I learned :
- - granite takes me some time to get used to
- - friction climbing is easy once you get used to it (true of many things)
- - J-Tree low grades are mostly sandbagged, not a good place to push leading
- - must climb harder (true of every trip I've ever been on)
Ann and I stopped at Joshua Tree during our sort of climbing trip in Nov. 00. We found
a site at Hidden Valley and climbed and hiked for a couple of days, before
returning to Red Rocks. Ann was thus introduced to granite friction climbing,
and also to some crack / offwidth / chimney climbing. We did :
- Toe Jam (5.7)
- at Hidden Valley Campground, just outside our tent
- Bat Crack (5.5) *
- at Intersection Rock
- Double Dip (5.6) ** -
at Echo Rock
