Nov 26, Day 2 in Joshua Tree.

Sandy:

On Nov 25th we provided a climbing experience to Mark in Joshua Tree. This was his third climbing destination in 2023. Rick led four pitches up to 5.7+ and we followed. Rick had already done Dappled Mare, The Swift and Bird on a Wire on Lost Horse Wall in Dec 2022 so he was a bit unmotivated to lead it again. I started up on the route, but I was tired and not too excited about leading the bulge on pitch 2 after hearing that it was a heady move for Rick last year. I came down after soloing a bit on pitch 1 and we were almost going to bail on it when we saw another party coming for Bird on a Wire. Between soreness and saving reputation we always pick saving reputation. Rick linked pitches and we did the whole route on two pitches. The top of pitch two has bolted anchors, gear anchor for the rest of pitches. The rest of the experience is expressed in image captions.

Pitch 1 and 2: Easiest start is from directly below the flake and going right to the two-crack system. Rick did not protect any of this to not have drag for the bulge section. Rick is starting the bulge on pitch 2.

Pitch 2: Rick is above the bulge. The climbing is sustained for a few moves even after the bulge which surprised me. After that the climbing eases off and has a few more strenuous move before the anchor.

A closer look at pitch 2 bulge. Start with your right foot on the right chalked section and left foot on left chalked section with a half decent hand in the crack. This is an okay start but the three more moves above this are sustained and surprising. Rick has placed a #.4, #3 and a #.75 to protect the bulge followed by sustained climbing section.

Pitch 3: Downclimb to a slab on pitch 3 and place a #.3 to protect the follower on the traverse.

Pitch 3: Rick is starting the diagonal crack section. The crack is not very diagonal but the crack is only for the hands while both feet smear on the left side. Without this maneuver the climbing is very strenuous and awkward. It took me bit to figure out that I cant jam my right foot in the crack and climb comfortably.

View of the desert.

Pitch 3: Sort of diagonal awkward crack.

Towards the top of pitch 3.

Pitch 4: This bulge is not as hard as the last one but certainly spicy. I think Rick protected it with two hand size pieces.

Top of pitch 4 is the featured image. In the image above Rick is looking at the easy scramble descend.

After this climb we decided that we will not be driving to JTree on Nov 27th so we decided to do a TR lap on Coarse and Buggy which remains in shade all day. I wanted to TR it for the first time but Rick offered to place some directionals and as I watched him pulling off super strenuous moves (its JTree 5.11b), I was like lets TR it next time. Instead we drove to the Korean resturant in Yucca Valley and I got my hands on the fish cakes.

One more iconic picture before finishing this climbing log with my night time TR of Double Cross on Nov 25th.

For the remaining two days we enjoyed Canyoneering in Indian Canyon (flash flood can bring water level up to 10 feet in the cool oasis canyon) and ran the Cahuilla peak (5.28 miles, 1100 feet of elevation gain in 1 hour 32 minutes door to door from our condo).

Distance (miles)	Elevation Gain (ft)	Total number of pitches
23	4533	39 (Rick), 35 (Sandy)

After that kind of active vacation one can peacefully sit and focus behind a desk for a couple days :).