The Mother Lode

Standing atop Aguille de Joshua Tree (more of a novelty than a route).
Easy climbing, but don’t fall.  If I look a little tense it’s because of the 30mph wind gusts!

Last weekend Blake and I spent four days climbing at Joshua Tree National Park (a.k.a. “J-Tree”).  This was my first visit and I was not disappointed.  With a least 7,000 established climbing routes, J-Tree may be the world’s largest climbing destination.  When climbers first visited the park in the 50′s and 60′s they must have thought they’d found the mother lode.

Climbing Double Dogleg.  Don’t let the sunny rock fool you – it was cold!

We sampled 9 different walls and climbed 22 pitches.  Our pitch count wasn’t huge (we usually shoot for 10 pitches a day) but we had short days, non-ideal weather, and we moved around a lot.  Temperatures ranged from the 30′s to low 50′s each day and it was very windy for most of the trip so we spent a lot of time shivering during belays.

The Great Burrito – one of countless stellar climbing walls at J-Tree.
The dark horizontal gash 2/3 of the way up the wall is the crux of Kemosabe and Tonto.

I hadn’t been trad climbing in months, so I felt a little rusty.  That plus some sandbagged ratings resulted in me taking more leader falls than usual.  That’s the thing about rock climbing – just when you think you’re good it finds a way to humble you.

With easy access and an unlimited number of multi-star routes, J-Tree is the perfect place to hone trad climbing skills (I just wish I had the time!).  Here’s our tick list.  We stuck mostly to routes that received at least two stars in the guidebook.

Friday:  Lost Horse Wall and Intersection Rock

• Dappled Mare *** (5.8, 3p) – One of the longer routes in J-Tree.
• Bird on a Wire *** (5.10a, 2p)
• North Overhang *** (5.9, 2p):  The crux move is a burly step around an overhanging, exposed corner.  Not only is this route sandbagged (I.M.H.O.), it’s also especially difficult to onsight because you can’t see the feet until you begin the powerful crux sequence.  Humble pie was served.

Saturday: Conan’s Corridor, Jumbo Rocks Area

• Gem ** (5.8)
• Colorado Crack **** (5.9) – Blake and I agreed that this route was the highlight of the trip.  From below it looks much harder than 5.9 but the route reveals itself move by move.
• Boulder Dice ** (5.10b)
• Spiderman *** (5.10a) – This was probably my best lead of the trip.  The general consensus online is that this route is harder than 10a.  I had no problem with the overhanging crux but the the sustained offwidth at the top felt desperate (probably because I have poor offwidth technique).

Sunday:  Rock Garden Valley, Freeway Wall, and I.R.S. Wall

• Double Dogleg ** (5.7)
• Rock Candy *** (5.9) – Nice route.  Felt Stiff for 5.9.
• Split Personality ** (5.9)
• Smithereens ** (5.8)
• Cakewalk ** (5.8)
• Tax Man **** (5.10a) – Beautiful crack line.  The crux is the first 15 feet and it felt more like 10b/c to me, maybe because my sausage fingers didn’t fit into the thin crack.  I just missed the onsight.
• Aiguille de Joshua Tree* (5.5x) – This is a short novelty climb.  It’s an unprotected free-standing pillar in the middle of the desert.  Standing on top with high winds was a little hair-raising.

Monday:  Dairy Queen Wall and The Great Burrito

• Leap Year Flake ** (5.7) – Fun, Yosemite-like route.
• Leap Erickson * (5.10b)
• Stood Up * (5.8)
• Kemosabe and Tonto * (5.9) – Deserves two stars and a 5.10 rating.   The crux is an overhanging wide hands crack with no feet.  I pulled the strenuous move, then realized I had z-clipped (dumb mistake) and down-climbed.  By this point I was pretty worked so I climbed an easier crack a few feet to the left.

Before this trip, I would have told you that I could onsight pretty much any route up to 5.10a.  After all, I’ve ticked a lot of 10′s in the past year and am starting to push into the 5.12 range in the gym.  This trip was a great reminder of two things:

• There’s no substitute for training on real rock
• “Old school” ratings are a b%tch

2011 Cycling Report

My favorite ride of the 2011 – Levi’s GranFondo

Cycling is a great sport for numbers geeks.  We ride with computers that track speed, distance, cadence, power, heart rate and more.  Then we upload all of that information to Strava, which is sort of like facebook for athletes.  Sometimes reviewing the numbers after a ride and talking trash with other riders is more fun than the riding itself.  It’s also fun to look at your totals at the end of each year.

Compared to 2010, I spent a third less time on the bike.  There are a few reasons for this.  The biggest one is the weather.   We had the hottest summer on record this year and since I don’t do well in extreme heat I hardly rode at all.  Also, I did far fewer organized events (a.k.a. “t-shirt rides”) which are great for piling up miles.  Finally, I was generally less motivated this year to get on the bike.

So here are my final stats for 2011:

Total Rides:  98 (down 38% – less than 2 rides/week!)

Total Miles:  3330 (down 33% – only 64 miles/week)

Time on Bike:  277 hours (down 34%)

This is not a recipe for becoming a stronger cyclist.  Most of the guys I ride with log two or three (or even four) times as many miles.  But cycling is their primary sport whereas my first love is climbing.  However, somehow I did become a little stronger in 2011.  My times on routes I do regularly are faster, although I have far less endurance for longer rides (60+ miles).

Hopefully I’ll be able to do more riding in 2012.  As they say, I’m not getting any younger…

The Forgotten Crag

I wrote an article for the January 2012 issue of Rock & Ice (the awesome photos are by Merrick Ales).  The subject was an obscure state park near El Paso called Hueco Tanks.  Few people (even Texans) have never heard of the area, but to climbers it’s one of the premier destinations in the world.  However, most climbers visit Hueco to boulder rather than climb routes.  The article is a reminder that Hueco Tanks is still a world class crag – especially for weekend warriors like me.

Click on the photo thumbnails below to view larger images.  Or click here for a more readable version.

Side Note:  The picture on the first page of the article is of me (and Alex) on the classic Indecent Exposure — but the photo caption refers to me as “Keith”.  There goes my 15 minutes of rock climbing fame. (I was also called “Keith” by the minister at my wedding so technically I guess I’m single).

My New Addict-ion

My 2011 Scott Addict R1 (the seat post and stem shown in the photo are temporary)

For the past year or so I’ve had the itch to get a new bike.  There was no good reason for for me to upgrade — the Kuota Khan I bought in 2008 still rode great.  But cycling is a gearhead sport — we’re always looking for something better and faster (and sexier).  Initially I had my eye on the new Cervelo S5, an aerodynamic road bike with some compelling science behind it.  But after an unimpressive test ride, my attention turned to the Parlee Z5 SL, which rides like a dream and has a minimalist aesthetic that appeals to me.  The only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger was the price tag, which approaches the cost of some new cars.

Then I stumbled across an eBay auction for a 2011 Scott Addict R1 in my size and at a price that was about half of retail.  I’ve heard good things about this bike and liked the way it looked so I took a gamble and this is the result.  Since I got such a good deal on the bike, I decided to bling it out with aftermarket components, most notably custom carbon cranks  and super-light brakes.

Custom Lightning Carbon Cranks with KCNC Cobweb Chainrings

EE Brakes – 80 grams lighter than Dura-Ace 7900

There are only four ways to make a bike faster:  Less weight, better aerodynamics, more stiffness, and better geometry (allowing the rider to be more aerodynamic, more comfortable, or generate more power).  This Addict represents a significant improvement for me in at least 2 of these categories.  At just under 14 lbs. (with pedals, bottle cages, and relatively heavy wheels), the Addict is 3.5 lbs. lighter than my Khan and it’s a lot stiffer (just ask Mark Cavendish).  And with longer cranks, I’m hoping the geometry may allow me to generate more power.

I decided to try 190mm cranks based on a lot of research I had done about optimizing crank length for taller riders.  There’s a lot of debate on this topic, but it makes basic common sense that taller riders with longer legs would need longer cranks.  Adding 1.5 cm to the crank length may not sound like much, but it feels very different.  You’re turning a much bigger circle and your feet travel 8% further with each revolution.  I’ve only done one ride on the new bike so the jury is still out on whether these cranks are going to make me faster or slower.  I saved the 175mm Dura-Ace 7900 cranks just in case…

For fellow gearheads, here are the complete specs on the bike:

• Frame: Scott Addict R1
• Fork: Scott Addict / HMX NET
• Wheels:
  • Training: Mavic Ksyrium SLR Black
  • Racing:  Zipp 404 Clydesdales with custom decals from Taigraphx
• Crankset: Custom Lightning Carbon (190mm)
  • Chain Rings: KCNC K3 Cobweb (53-39)
• Pedals:  Look Keo Blade (Carbon / Ti)
• Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 (11-28)
• Chain: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
• Brakes: EE Cycleworks
• Handlebar: Ritchey WCS Logic Curve
  • Bar tape: Lizard Skins DSP
• Quick Releases: KCNS Titanium
• Seat Post: TBD
• Seat: Fizik Arione CX
• Shifters: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
• Stem: TBD
• Front Derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
• Rear Derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace  7900
• Bottle Cages: Arundel Mandible (side note:  I live about a quarter mile from Arundel Avenue, and ride with the founders — they make great products)

A Week at Tuolumne

Climbing Pine Line on El Capitan with 3000 feet of granite looming above

Just got back from a week at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.  I’ve spent at least 30 days climbing in Yosemite Valley (it’s my favorite place on Earth), but I had never been to the high country.  It was a fantastic week — we climbed 42 pitches and didn’t see a cloud until the day we left.  We spent four days at Tuolumne and two days in the Valley since my partner, Blake, had never been there.  Our tick list with some pics is below.

Tuolumne has the same pristine white granite that makes Yosemite Valley the world’s premier climbing destination, but the similarities end there.  While the Valley has glacial-cleaved faces and soaring towers with routes that tend to be steep and crack-riddled, Tuolumne features massive rounded domes (the highest concentration of granite domes in the world) so the rock tends to be lower angle with a mix of crack and face climbing.  Also, because most routes were put up on lead, runouts are common on face pitches.  Over half of the routes in the guidebook are rated R and even the non-R-rated routes tend to have runouts on easy sections.  This adds to the mental challenge (and danger) of climbing at Tuolumne.  Finally, Tuolumne Meadows is around 9,000 feet above sea level, with some peaks soaring thousands of feet higher, giving Tuolumne an alpine feel.  Alpine climbing always feels more serious.

Given all of these factors and the fact that my outdoor climbing has been pretty limited this year, I had to ease into the week.  The cruel irony of these trips is that I usually start feeling strong and confident when it’s time to pack up and head home.

Saturday:  Flew from DFW to Reno and got picked up by Blake, who had already been climbing in the Tetons and City of Rocks for a few weeks.  He was fully adjusted to altitude and in peak shape — I smell pain.  A motel in nearby Lee Vining was our base camp for the trip.

Sunday:  13 pitches of climbing on Stately Peasure Dome and Mountaineer’s Dome

• West Country (5.7, 4p) — Cruisy route to shake the rust off.
• South Crack (5.8R, 6p) — Nice route with big runouts (30+ feet) near the top.  Welcome to Tuolumne!
• American Wet Dream (5.10b R, 5 pitches) — We did the first 3 pitches including the crux pitch.  Man, 5.10 feels hard here!

Blake cruising on Stately Pleasure Dome with Tenaya Lake below

Monday:  6 pitches of climbing on Daff Dome

• West Crack (5.9, 5p) — Follows a continuous splitter crack for 400+ feet.  Nice!
• Cooke Book (5.10a, 5p) — Good (and intimidating) looking route but we only did the first pitch because I got off route and was a little spooked.  We had to leave gear to get down ($$$).

Tuesday:  We intended to do Fairview Dome but when we arrived at the base another party was on it and moving slowly.  So we decided to drive to Yosemite Valley for some cragging on El Cap.

• Pine Line (5.7, 1p) — The first pitch of The Nose route.  Cool!
• La Cosita, Left (5.7, 1p) — Overhanging 5.7?!  Good route.
• Little John, Right (5.8, 3p) — Nice little route but our rope got stuck on the rappel.
• Little John, Left (5.8, 1p) — Burly.  5.8 offwidth feels a lot like 5.10 to me.

Wednesday:  Bagged Cathedral Peak via the Southeast Buttress.  4-5 mile approach followed by 700 feet (5.7, 5 pitches) of perfect alpine granite to a dinner-table-size summit.  Classic!

Approaching Cathedral Peak.  Stunning!

Blake pulls over the summit block at almost 11,000 feet.

On the summit.  Eichorn’s Pinnacle in the background.

Thursday:  Another day in the Valley.

• Central Pillar of Frenzy (5.9, 5p) — 5 stars isn’t enough for this route!  Definitely one of the top 3 routes I’ve ever climbed.  I had climbed this route a few years ago and it felt really hard to second.  It was rewarding to lead the crux pitches this time — they actually felt pretty cruisy.  As an added bonus a bear and her cub wandered by the base of the route sniffing our packs for food.
• Bishop’s Terrace (2p) — Perfect hand crack.  Often referred to as one of the best 5.8′s in the Valley.

Mama Bear and cub at the base of Central Pillar of Frenzy

Friday:  6 pitches on Meldicott Dome

• Shagadelic (5.8, 3p) — Ahhh, well bolted face climbing.
• Excellent Smithers (5.10a, 3p) – Nice route.  Feet felt like they had been through a meat grinder.

Blake soaking his feet (and catching up with the wife) after 42 pitches of climbing

Saturday:  Pack up and fly home… and start planning the next trip.

Back to the Organs

The  Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM

In February Blake and I spent one day climbing in the Organs.  We were so impressed with the little-known mountain range that we decided to go back for more.  So last Thursday we flew to El Paso (Blake from Fort Worth and me from San Jose) and drove to Las Cruces.  Due to flight delays, we got to the hotel at about 2am.  So much for resting up for a big weekend of climbing!

Saturday
Our plan was to climb on The Tooth, a clean 500 foot wall containing some of the Organs’ best routes.  Like most walls in the area, The Tooth is guarded by a lengthy and steep approach.  Just getting to the trail involves driving on an extremely rough mining road.  We had a 4×4 Ford F150 pickup and still only made it about a quarter of the way up the road.  Once we parked, it took almost two hours of hard hiking to reach the base.  Between the long hike, warm weather, and lack of sleep we were already pretty worked.

Our objective for the day was Tooth or Consequences, considered by many to be the classic route in the Organs.  It’s definitely a good one.  The climbing felt really sustained with exciting and committing moves on every pitch.  The second pitch, described on Mountain Project as the “best known and perhaps most feared” involves 100 feet of thin, insecure slab with just 4 bolts for protection.  The climbing was well within my limit but the runouts took a mental toll.

After climbing and rapping the route, we had a quick lunch.  We considered climbing a couple more pitches, but decided to cache the packs and gear (for the next day) and hike down.  Good thing we did because about halfway down the hike I started feeling really dehydrated.  All said, our car-to-car time was about 8 hours.

Saturday
I spent much of Friday night cramping and alternating between shivering and sweating.  Not sure if it was just dehydration / sunburn or a bug of some sort.  Given my condition, the idea of of another big day in the Organs didn’t sound too appealing (or prudent) so we decided to head to Hueco Tanks.  But first we had the little matter of retrieving our packs, which were still cached a few thousand feet up the trail.  Blake volunteed to go get them and did the round trip in 2 hours – impressive.  After than, we drove to Hueco and did a couple of routes before the park closed at 6pm:

• Window Pain — Blake’s nemesis, but probably my favorite 5.10 sport route anywhere.
• Alice in Banana Land

Starting the Second Pitch of Uriah’s Heap at Hueco Tanks

Sunday
After a night at the Hueco Rock Ranch, we knocked out 5 pitches before catching a flight back home:

• Uriah’s Heap (2p)
• Rainbow Bridge (1p) — For a few years I’ve had my eye on a route called The Snake, which combines the first pitch of Rainbow Bridge with the last two pitches of Deliverance.  This time we did the first pitch of that linkup and I agree with Mountain Project that it may be “the most fun 10+/11- on the Front Side.”  I’ll be back to do the rest of The Snake.
• Sea of Holes (2p) — A fun route but with just 7 bolts over 2 pitches it’s a little runout for my taste.

Overall, we didn’t get to do as much climbing as we have like to, but it was a great trip anyway.

Raging at Red Rocks

Blake near the top of Rob Roy, Alcohol Wall

Blake and I spent four days at Red Rocks to kick off Spring Break.  We had great weather and managed to do 29 pitches plus 8 or 9 hours of hiking (and one foot massage).  Here’s the tick list:

• Amber (4p) — Good route.   The second pitch is the “money pitch”, with a sustained chimney/crack section.
• Triassic Sands (2p) — Five stars isn’t enough for this route!  Maybe my favorite at Red Rocks.
• Hot Fudge Thursday (6p) — Decent but not particularly memorable route.  Has an adventurous feel to it.
• Diet Delight (2p) — After climbing Hot Fudge Thursday, we hiked around to the East face of Windy Peak and did the first two pitches of this nice route.  It made for a big day.
• Ginger Cracks (7p) — My second trip up this route.  It’s worth repeating!
• Power Failure (1p) — After Ginger Cracks I only had enough juice for the first pitch but the the second and third pitches look great.
• Black Magic (4p) — An OK route on Lotta Balls Wall.
• Bruja’s Brew (1p) — The first pitch is probably the best on Lotta Balls Wall.
• Rob Roy (1p) —  Bold lead.  I’ve tried it before and backed off.  This time I pushed through the technical and somewhat runout start and it turned out to be a fantastic and long pitch.
• Gin Ricky (1p) — Another fantastic pitch on Alcohol Wall.  Very close to my trad lead limit!

Pitch 3 of Hot Fudge Thursday

 

 

Blown Away

On top of Southern Comfort Wall with Lesser Spire and ORP in the background

One of the nice things about the desert southwest is that you can climb year round.  Hueco Tanks in particular is famous for its winters.  However, planning a trip in February is still a dice roll.  It could be 75 degrees and sunny or it could be 20 degrees and snowing — or both!

After a fantastic weekend of climbing at Hueco in January Blake and I decided to return for more.  This time our plan was to climb two days and Hueco and spend one day checking out the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM.

Day 1:  Hueco

We decided not to repeat any of the routes we had done a month earlier (although we made one exception).  We didn’t tick as many pitches as usual but it was still a solid day.

• Return of Cakewalk (2p)
• Head Fox
• Show Me
• Short Hands
• Window Pain

Day 2: Organ Mountains

The Organs aren’t well known but contain many fantastic routes on high quality granite.  Neither of us had ever been to the Organs so we decided to start with Southern Comfort wall, which contains a dozen or so one and two pitch routes.  When we got to the wall, the scope and quality of the place dawned on us.  We’ll be back for more.

• Black Velvet
• Margaritaville
• DWI

Day 3: Blown away

The forecast for Sunday was chilly with high winds – and by high I mean gusts reaching 50 to 80 mph.  Forecasts are often wrong, but not in this case.  By 9am the wind was already blowing a steady 30 mph and the entire town of El Paso was enveloped in a cloud of sand.  So we decided to head home early, and I’m glad we did.  We had to wait on the tarmac for a break in the wind before we could take off.

Ticking the Classics

Next on the Agenda:  Castleton Tower

Climbing Magazine has a great list of 38 classic moderate climbs on their site.  I’ve ticked six of them so far:

• Snake Dike, Yosemite
• Bishop’s Terrace, Yosemite
• Whodunit, Tahquitz
• Sea of Holes, Hueco Tanks
• Dark Shadows, Red Rocks
• Yellow Spur, Eldorado Canyon

I’ve got a trip scheduled to Moab in March and plan to add Kor-Ingals on Castleton Tower to the list.  Over the next couple of years I think I’ll add another 6-8.  Just posting this here so I can keep track…

Roped Up at Hueco

Blake cruising the crux section of Fox Trot, Hueco Tanks

This weekend Blake and I went to Hueco Tanks (about 30 miles from El Paso) for three days of climbing.  If you’re a climber, you probably know that Hueco is the world’s premier bouldering destination.  But most people don’t know that Hueco also has world class roped climbing, with dozens of stellar one to three pitch routes and potential for dozens more.  I’ve been to Hueco about half a dozen times and I can only remember seeing one other roped climbing party.  It’s too bad because in my opinion the route quality at Hueco stacks up against any place I’ve been including Yosemite, Red Rock, and Eldo.

We flew to El Paso on Thursday and stayed at the Hueco Rock Ranch, which is basically a big house and campground for climbers.  Climbers (mostly boulderers) from all over the world stay at the Rock Ranch — often for weeks or months on end — to climb at Hueco.  It’s amazing to think that people travel halfway around the world to visit a small state park in the middle of nowhere.  Blake and I stayed in the bunkroom, which sleeps up to 7 people.  It wasn’t luxurious (think hostel) but it’s close to the climbing and more importantly came with passes to North Mountain (the park only allows 70 visitors per day — it’s a long story).

Overall this turned out to be one of the best weekend climbing trips I’ve done.  The weather cooperated, Blake and I climbed well, and we met some great people.  Here’s our tick list — a total of 21 pitches or around 3,000 feet of climbing:

• Cakewalk (2p)
• Alice in Banana Land
• Malice in Bucket Land
• Divine Wind
• All The Nasties
• Uriah’s Heap (2p)
• Hueco Syndrome
• True Grip (2p)
• Window Pain
• Sea of Holes (2p)
• Indecent Exposure (2p)
• Hueco Syndrome (2p)
• Fox Trot
• Fox Tower Indirect (2p)

All of the routes were so good that it’s hard to pick a favorite, but a couple stand out.  I climbed Indecent Exposure for the third time.  It’s one of the wildest and most intimidating routes I’ve done and even though I’ve become a better climber over the years it always feels hard and a little scary.  We did a route called Fox Tower Indirect for the first time.  I doubt it gets climbed much but it’s a fantastic offwidth corner with technical stemming.  It feels very much like a route you’d find at Red Rock.

Kevin starting the second pitch of Uriah’s Heap

We’ve already hatched a plan to return to Hueco soon (maybe next month) to do a few routes we didn’t get to and also sample the roped climbing on West and East mountains, which requires a guide due to access restrictions.