Joshua Tree Bouldering Classics

My brother is often an inspiration to me. Sometimes that's hard for me to say. I find that more often than not, he just motivates me to do activities with him and inspires a new obsession. In May of 2000, he invited me to go to a rock climbing gym in the Seattle area. My birthday later that week he got me shoes, chalkbag and a a harness. Since my 21st birthday, I've been a rock climber. Soon we took a glacier mountaineering course so we could ascend Mt. Rainer, a looming volcano over Seattle. The summer we climbed Mt. Rainer, I discovered slacklining at my brother's gym. Slackline, perhaps the one thing I inspired him to learn and do, was a nice sideline activity for rock climbing. I moved to SoCal where my brother had moved a year earlier. Soon enough we were climbing and slacklining all over SoCal. My brother, sensing a lull in the hobby department, started filming our adventures. First was the camcorder with DV tape. It proved to be cumbersome to him and he quickly got a HDD video camera. Now the video editing and uploading was streamlined. In a rush of film excitment he uploaded a few baker-dozen videos to YouTube. I was of course intrigued and soon purchased my own video camera with what little monies I had. I started with slackline video. Then I shot some video of a friend climbing a personal favorite climb in Joshua Tree NP. My video editing software was crap. I had very little ability to affect the outcome I wanted to see. With some birthday gift money, I upgraded my software and here is where story begins...

With my filming set-up up to snuff, I felt as though I needed a criteria for what I should film. My brother was losing interest in filming our rock climbing, slackline and skiing. More accurately, we just weren't going out to do these activities as much. Most of my climbing partners had left the SoCal area for bigger and better. I was alone to climb, film and adventure. I stumbled across a book my brother had recommended to me. Mary Gingery's Joshua Tree Bouldering, second edition. In the front she lists all the J-tree bouldering classics. This was the spark of climbing inspiration I needed. I set my goal, to climb and film myself on all the classics I could. I thought that when I finished the project, I would bring them all together into one video I could burn onto DVD. So to make the video have some continuity, I will be wearing the same or similar outfit for all the problems. In my guess, there are about 27 problems I should be able to do (with more or less effort to 'send them). To date, I have done, filmed and posted 8 videos. These are among the easier problems. This season, I'll have to focus on some of the harder and higher problems. Betty Jo Yablonski, White Rastafarian, and Slashface are all very high. Around 25 feet of underwear staining rock. Many of the remaining problems are V2. I have only 'sent one J-tree V2 and it was very hard for me.

It's time to get on these problems and 'send, film and post them.

Big Picture Climbing

A friend of a friend contacted me through MySpace.com to arrange a day to climb locally. There was a time that I was climbing two and three times a week. It seems more and more as of late, I climb once every two or three weeks. I've almost completely stopped climbing out of doors. What is the point of living in SoCal if I'm not climbing year round? Let me list the "local" climbing areas.
1. Riverside Quarry: true to its name, it is a quarry full of all the rotten rock you can guess it would have. The plus side is it's proximity, only 20 minutes door to crag. The down side is the insane heat most of the year. The graffiti, trash and used condoms are just a nuisance.
2. Tahquitz and Suicide: these offer the big wall routes and some great single pitch routes. They are at higher altitude and tend to be cooler in the transitional months of spring and fall. The altitude can make me suck wind, but the air is clean and the views are great (usually).
3. Joshua Tree NP: J-tree is about 100 miles from my front door. It is a boulder playground. With little more than shoes, chalkbag and a crash pad, a lot of climbing can be done. I've done some amazing sport routes there (not the best to be had though) as well as some great trad routes with as many as three pitches. The rock is generally unforgiving of soft hands and the weather can be extreme. Hot summers and cold winters. Over 5000 routes of quality. The commitment of the driving time and gas often put me off.
4. Coastal crags: Several areas with modest crags are near the coast. Malibu Creek, Stoney Point, Tick Rock and more. The drive is usually too long for such mediocrity.
5. New Jack City: New Jack is nice for free camping and some impressive sport routes. It's high desert and a bit of a drive (about the same as J-tree). It's great for a road trip involving more destination climbing.
6. Red Rocks: What isn't there to love about RR? My first REAL big wall. Epinephrine 2000 vertical feet of 5.9. Chimneys, face, crack and a gnarly decent in rock shoes. It took us 12 hours car to car. RR has some decent bouldering, really nice trad and sport areas, and the multi-pitch is a tick list for any grade of climber.
7. Bishop Area: Buttermilks, Happys and Owens River Gorge. I've really only climbed ORG. It was hard then in 2002. I climbed my first 10b by wiring the first moves (the crux) and top roping it. That was a good day to remember. I didn't know the grade at the time, which make the revelation that much sweeter.


Since I work a very physical job for the phone company, I tend to be pretty tired at the end of a day. The result is that I don't keep up my weekly climbing. In turn, the weekends aren't as fruitful as I tend to hope for. If I have a new climbing partner, I hope to keep on the regimen of climbing regular. I really hope to climb J-tree this weekend. I can film some new boulder problems on my tick list. It's time to focus on who and what I am. A climber.