dagibbs | Day 11 -- a day of adventure in Joshua Tree National Park

Today was a day of adventure in J-Tree today. We got up early, as usual, but it was cold. Around freezing, sunny, but with a lot of wind making it quite bitter. So, we hiked around a few different cliffs, looked at some boulder problems, etc. Then we hiked around a short (1 mile) trail near Barker Dam, and noticed a very obvious (and unusual) dike down a wall off the trail. It looked pretty easy... so we walked over to it. We were both tempted to solo it, but decided we didn't know whether we could get off the formation it was on. So, we walked around and scrambled our way up to the top of the dike, then down again...got our climbing shoes... and free soloed the climb. It was mostly 5.0ish, with maybe a "crux" move around 5.2. Probably 30 or 40 feet high.

Then we set out for climbing on a rock called "The Blob". I led a 5.3 slab into crack that was quite long (about 60m/180'). After bringing Mike up, we looked for the down-climb. There was supposed to be a down-climb. We couldn't find anything either of us was willing to do, so Mike sacrificed some cord, and I sacrificed a quick-link, and we rappelled off. Then we did another climb to the top of the same rock, this one about 210', and then happily re-used our rap anchor.

Mike and I seem to be working quite well as climbing partners -- we seem in quite good tune about what risks to take, what not, what we like and don't. We were both looking at, and liking, the look of the free solo. We both decided we didn't like any of the prospects for the down-climbs from The Blob, and wanted to rap.