My First Trip to Joshua Tree

My friend Mario (aka Satan) is sending me fresh Joshua Tree photos but this will do for now. My first trip to Joshua Tree in Southern California, the desert, beautiful, peaceful, quiet, calming. The rock, stellar. First outdoor trip this year, first outdoor lead actually completed in at least two years, first 5.8 crack trad lead, first climb at Joshua Tree that same lead, my 2nd or 3rd trad lead ever I'd say. A really great comeback and start to the season.

Saturday: some interesting sorta highball bouldering on interesting i.e. sketchy rock. Very fun. Wandered around Barkers Dam: a lovely dark lake in the middle of the desert with water birds. My friends went to Coachella but I felt quite happy in the rocks as I see plenty of live music in San Francisco. Ok so I do want to see Sigur Ros but anyway...

Sunday: wandered around a bit trying to find the Thin Wall with the team: Mario, Tru, her boyfriend Eric, and our friend Nathan (aka Dracula). We found it eventually in Real Hidden Valley and watched a woman lead a 10a called No Calculators Allowed...it ended up being a great toprope...but the big excitement for me was A. following Tru up the backside of the wall to set up the toprope for that route which was scarier than B. my first 5.8 lead which was Butterfingers Make Me Horny. Good stances, great encouragement from my excellent belayer Tru and while I made darn sure my placements were good I was able to feel confident and move up the wall which was short, but plenty challenging. Most of my lead history has been bolts so trad is still new, fun, and exciting. And the windy walkoff was super fun, as anyone who has been to Joshua Tree can attest.

Monday:Wandered around the Barker Dam area again with Satan and Dracula and saw some cool stuff but did not really find anything we could do until we worked on Gunsmoke a 5.11 traverse at the Gunsmoke/Killer Cracks area. Nathan did super well for a beginner as he did on Saturday and Mario looked really strong on Gunsmoke. It was hot.

What a beautiful, peaceful place. More pictures soon.