Multi-Pitch Trad in Joshua Tree – April 4th, 2011 “I can do this,” I said out loud. There was no one who could hear me. Perhaps the two flies buzzing around me heard, but if they did, their only reaction was to buzz me again. I idly swatted at them, while simultaneously thinking that I…
Continue ReadingDespite a stomach sinking prologue to my trip, I was excited to go out to Tuolumne again and this time to add a stop to climb near the Whitney Portal. The Plan was pretty complicated, aside from two nights outside of Tuolumne, Peter and I were in charge of procuring a campsite for a number…
Continue Reading“You’ll have too much drag!” Dave shouted up to Luis, who was scouting around a round cap formation near the top of a trad climb on Chimney Rock. As his belayer, I was standing in a position about 50 feet below and to the left of Luis, unable to see what was going on. I…
Continue ReadingMy only expectations were then centered on me following routes, putting up some sport/ top rope climbs and maybe doing repeats of trad leads I had done but Peter hadn’t. I also expected it to be very cold, day and night, for the entire trip.
My weather expectations were a little off, it was cold at night and in the shade but on Saturday it was so warm that the guys took off their shirts and Nicole and I went down to tank top / short sleeves layers.
My climbing expectations were also exceeded.
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