Joshua Tree Trad!

So I am going to try to catch up a little on blog posts, since I am about two months behind. At the end of April, Josh decided I should learn to trad lead, so I decided if I wasn't too stressed out it sounded like a good idea. The weekend was planned around that so I also wouldn't be too tired. Which meant Friday was a quick surf day. I headed out to some local waves although I didn't find great waves this time. I had thought about trying to ride normal spots that other people ride, and spent almost three hours getting depressed because the waves were terrible. Finally, I was walking along the beach looking at not very surfable waves when I realized I should think about the spots I like to ride...and also realized about a half mile from me was probably just about perfect. And it was! YAY! Lesson learned!

The next day we woke up and drove out to Joshua Tree for trad climbing! Josh planned a warmup but I decided to just lead from the start, so I did. On a route neither of us had climbed or really knew anything about., but was theoretically pretty easy.

The beginning was fun and my 1/2 hour total of trad instruction from Josh was working well. Until I hit a sketchy section that was also chossy...not cool for my first trad lead. I freaked out for awhile before getting over it and moving on. The next section was cool and I managed to place gear even though I had to try pretty much all the cams on each placement before I found the right size (including yelling to Josh: "what color do I put in this one?"). Then, I got to the actual crux. I refused to take or otherwise not onsight my first trad climb so I held on to the rock before giving up on crack climbing and moved onto the face (not how you are supposed to do it). I was exhausted at the end so I just put in whatever gear I could find which actually ended up working really well. At the top I had to build an anchor with all nuts...the conversation went like this:

Me: "Josh! I don't have any more cams."

Josh: "Um...well can you build an anchor some other way."

Me: "Not really. I can't find any cracks."

--long pause--

Me: "Ok you can climb! The nuts worked."

Josh wasn't so psyched with this so panicked all the way up the route until he could see my anchor and was okay with it. Yay! To get down, we borrowed some other climbers' rope and rappelled over a ledge...also fun.

Once we got back to the car, we ate lunch in the shade (it got hot). Eventually, Matus and his friend who had never climbed before showed up. Matus and Josh decided we should go over to a 5.6 two pitch route (Fote Hog). Once we got there, the plan was Matus and Joey were going to do the route first, then Josh and I would climb it after. So Matus gave his only harness to Joey and started free soloing the route trailing a rope. He was going to build an anchor and belay his friend up.

Meanwhile, Josh decided he didn't want to do the route after all, so I ended up following Matus. Since he had placed no gear, the fall would have been a pendulum into a rock. Fortunately, the climbing was fun and pretty secure, so I really enjoyed that pitch. I belayed up Joey (since I was wearing a harness) after Josh showed him the basics of tying in. After a dramatic fall (35ft or so according to Josh and random climber witnesses), all three of us made it to the ledge. For the next pitch, Matus suggested I lead. Oh yay. This was a great plan until I realized I had four pieces of gear total for a pitch I had never climbed and it was my second trad lead ever. But I liked the route so far so why not?

The second pitch was super cool. I placed one piece of gear just after starting up it and another about halfway up or so. Then I just climbed to the finish since it flowed so well. Yay good climbing! The route is cool because it includes face climbing on crimps, patina flakes, finger crack climbing, and laybacking. Anyway, I built an anchor, Matus came up to help me build a better anchor, and then Joey finished up the second pitch.

The hike down was harder for me than the climb up since we didn't just walk off like you're supposed to, but it was more fun and eventually we made it back to where Josh had been waiting for a looong time. It was Josh's turn to pick a climb which was some really hard but pretty awesome route that I don't know the name or rating of. It has an amazing mantle on an overhung section that Josh could do, but he couldn't quite stick the next hold. By the end he was getting very, very close though.

Its too bad Joshua Tree season is ending because I'd like to watch Josh work on that route more...the rest of it looks just as cool. He quit once it started getting dark, which meant we all went to go bouldering. Matus and Josh tried a couple of problems...one of which Matus had wired. By then it was really dark and time for Josh and I to drive back to LA, unfortunately. It was a beautiful night...perfect temperature...perfect breeze...clear skies. Painfully frustrating to not have our camping gear. Lesson learned for next time! The drive back was exhausting and we barely made it. It was worth it for a successful climbing day though. :)