• Category Archives Trip Reports

  • 2010 May + June Eastern Sierra Rock Climbing

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 2 Comments

    Where to start – an amazing trip – new climbing friends, new climbing areas, new climbing routes, new lead climbing breakthroughs, our first ever lead climbing falls (yikes!)…

    I’ll start by mentioning a few climbing mentors that have helped us so much, coaching us on climbing technique, style and confidence – Bob, Mat, Eric, Diana, Paul, Hunter, Ryan, Kyle, Peter and Karl – thanks!!! There are dozens of others that we’ve watched and learned from as well.

    Next, thanks to Serge and the Rock Rendezvous + “friends of RR” gang (Faith, Dirk, Don, Elaine, Kelly, Andre, Colleen, Chelsea, Jennifer, Liza, Susan, Tim, Drea) for motivating us to get out early before our Idaho friends showed up. We came away from the early Alabama Hills climbing session with a whole new (positive) opinion of AH rock.

    It’s always a pleasure to climb with Idahoans Diana and Paul and we’ve learned so much about outdoor climbing from them both. My favorite Diana-ism is “just stand up and believe the hold will be there” – she’s so right and doing so really opens up one’s climbing potential. We can only dream of having Diana and Paul’s endurance and enthusiasm for rock climbing.

    Big, big thanks to Carol for taking on lead climbs so that I could rest more and enjoy “toprope time”. We definitely get more climbing in with more than one leader.

    It’s hard to know how to organize a report from such a trip; this time I’ve decided to focus on the climbing areas and what we thought were the best climbs – hopefully to get my readers interested in them. All the climbs are sport or topropes; we never got the trad gear out on this trip.

    Alabama Hills (near Lone Pine)

    The Alabama Hills are just west of Lone Pine and are easy to find. The climbing crags are less easy to find because of the somewhat confusing network of roads. Once you find your crag, you can mostly gear up at the car and walk a few yards to your climb. A lazy climber’s dream.

    We had two sessions at the AH, one with the RR group, and another later session with Diana and Paul.  My guidebook lists 200 sport climbs and 70 gear climbs in the AH. I know there are more as we found and climbed one sport climb that wasn’t in the book in our short time there.

    Carol  lead climbs:

    • Tall Wall, Spur, 7, ***, Carol’s first ever 5.7 lead, but in fairness she did have two 5.6 leads under her belt to build that climbing pyramid…
    • Walnut, Honey Bunny, 6, * – a typical AH 5.6 face, thin hands and feet
    • Hoodgie Wall, Leonosphere, 7, **, face
    • Hoodgie Wall, Ankles Away, 8, ****, fun face
    • Truffle Tower, Escargot, 8, ***, fun face
    • Tall Wall, Bananarama, 8, ****

    Continue reading → Post ID 909


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • 20100402 Kernville Rock Climbing

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 5 Comments

    Guidebook: “California Road Trip”, Slater and Summit

    Click  here for all the pictures and then click “Slideshow” for best results – thanks to Mat for sharing his pictures, too!

    Ya gotta be prepared – after each outing, there are always the routine things to do to get ready for the next trip (cleaning, restocking, maintenance) and usually something breaks or needs upgrading (Carol and I disagree on the word “needs”) and those things need to be taken care of, too.

    So I felt good when Mat’s message “plans for the weekend?” popped up – and we were ready. Much back and forth having to do with weather reports and type of rock and kinds of rock climbs; how much time Mat had available, etc. – we settled on the Kern river gorge and Kernville as our destinations. Carol and I had done a little scouting on the way home from our last trip and were familiar with the area, if not the specific crags and climbs – yet.

    It all got a little intense – we were due to meet Steven at Planet Granite San Francisco for indoor climbing Thursday afternoon, then attend the premiere of a video Steven’s art was in Thursday night, so that left us needing to pack and prepare to leave home in a couple hours Friday morning. I know, boo-hoo…

    Thursday turned out to be quite the day – we’d not been to PG San Fran before; it’s pretty awesome – we’ll likely return. I’ll let you read about the day from Steven’s POV. Great time climbing with Steven, great time at the video premiere (a few logistical stumbles, but worth the wait); stimulating walk back to the car through San Fran neighborhoods; we got home late; crashed.

    Friday morning, up and packed, Mat arrived and we threw his kit in the truck then we were off. Our house to the first climbing crag in the Kern River gorge is about 4 ½ hours driving time. Between having to stop at Casa de Fruta and gasoline / humanity stops, we were climbing by 2 pm at “The Roadside Crag”, three miles up into the gorge. It doesn’t look like much, but we managed to put in three hours there, getting used to the feel of granite, practicing crack technique and enjoying the warm sunshine and scenery. Plus there’s a nice stiff arête climb that was entertaining more than once.

    We drove on to Kernville, stopping at the Kern River Brewing Company to fill one of my growlers with Just Outstanding IPA (again, there’s that “NEED” thing) and then went on to find “Kernville Rock”. Comparing the guidebook to the rock, there it is. Mat and Carol went on an evening scouting trip; I stayed behind to make sure the beer was fresh. We spent the night at Headquarters CG (pretty standard USFS type campground).

    Saturday morning, fed and geared up, we headed up the hill to Kernville Rock (Really? This is an amazing spot with perfectly clean granite and a lot of variety in types and grades of climbs, it deserves a much better moniker!) and spent the day on “Lieback”, “Initiation Crack” (I think), “Claustrophobia Crack”, “Dirty Dishes” (not in the guidebook; a local told us his name for it) and then “Mat wants to lead this two-finger crack” (Carol and I made that one up). A great day; this is a spot to revisit over and over. The rock is so clean and you can knock yourself out climbing cracks, liebacks, slabs – I didn’t detect a lot of face climbing, but then we only climbed a very small portion of the total opportunities.

    A word about “Claustrophobia Crack” – if you’re fairly large, like me, let’s just say it’s aptly named – but really cool and a don’t-miss. I spent some time resisting the inevitable by “squeeze chimneying” to avoid getting into the crack. At least I provided a lot of entertainment to my climbing partners, who were laughing it up as “encouragement”. Thanks, guys.

    Saturday night we went to the Kern River Brewing Co. for dinner and drinks; Mat scored a 6-pack of Klondike Crunch ice cream bars for dessert. Camped for the night, it’s colder than last night…

    Sunday morning we went on up the road to New Directions. We found it pretty handily, but no one seemed too enthused about humping gear up to the crags, so we walked further up the road looking for “Crank Start Crack”, which we finally found and decided to try out. Mat set a top rope and we spent the morning playing on this route. I had trouble with the Crank Start until Mat talked me into trying a finger jam; accepting the inevitable I tried it and after a few false starts, got on the climb. The crux is right off the ground (IMO, YMMV), the rest is pretty straightforward.

    Scraped up, tired but exhilarated, we packed it in for climbing. Mat and Carol hiked up to take a look at “Garden Party” and “Rusty Nail” (c u next trip!); meanwhile, I took a nap.

    We went down to the Kern river to find a little confluence, then headed for home, stopping once again at KRBC for lunch (only takeaway beer; long drive ahead) and then we were off. We hit the first rain west of Wasco and then starting in Pacheco Pass and then for the rest of the way home, it basically poured. Sunday night traffic in the rain – joy.

    Home, unpacked, pictures shared, Mat on his way home – another great outing.

    If you’re a climber – just go – we loved the area and fully intend to go back and climb everything we can find and are capable of climbing…

    Click  here for all the pictures– thanks to Mat for sharing his pictures, too!

    Namaste.

    ~Rick


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • 201003 Red Rock Canyon NCA Rock Climbing, etc.

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    Friends Diana and Paul from Northern Idaho invited us to join them at Red Rocks near Vegas for some early season desert rock climbing. Sure, sounds great, we’re in.

    Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner). There are a lot, but we went crazy on wildflowers…

    3/8 – Our biggest epic of the trip occurred on the first night out. Somewhere on I-5, Paul called to tell us the weather in RR was too wet to climb, so they were headed for Death Valley for the  next day. Thinking we might sneak in a climbing session in Lone Pine the next day, we headed north, camping for the night  at Fossil Falls. About 1 a.m., I woke to howling winds, rocking camper and Carol saying “Are you worried yet?”. Well, no, not yet, but as time progressed, I laid awake listening to the winds grow worse and worse. Finally, I became concerned that the wind might tear the fabric apart on the pop-up, so we broke camp and headed slowly up 395 looking for a more sheltered spot.

    A couple miles up the road we came upon a semi that had just been blown on it’s side by the wind – and the driver was still in the rig. We parked and started helping the guy down out of the cab – he crawled out of the driver’s side window and – wow – he was a big man. Carol and I were like “If he falls, he’s getting a belly belay (we’d push his belly into the top of the cab for friction), ’cause we’re not getting underneath him” (thanks, Malia, for the tip!). Once he was on the ground, he bent over and his cigarettes fell on the ground. Great, 100 lbs overweight and a smoker – we installed him in the back seat of the truck, dialed 911 and listened to him wheeze until a deputy sheriff arrived and took him off our hands. Not to be harsh, but man, I’m glad he didn’t have a heart attack and expire in our back seat. My handy stereotype of big rig drivers got reinforced that night.

    3/9 – Next day, cold and really windy, Lone Pine climbing off the table, we headed off for Vegas. Grabbed a campsite at the RR Canyon Campground (definitely not a favorite, but convenient), got a call from Nancy G. and wound up spending a nice evening with Nancy, Ellie, Nikki, Tina – and Randy, late in the evening. Best salad of the entire trip :).

    3/10 – The following  morning we met up with Paul and Diana, climbing still not available (we made our best effort to honor the “don’t climb on the sandstone until it’s had at least a day to dry out” ethic), we all went for a hike into aptly named Icebox Canyon. A nice little canyoneering adventure with pretty falls at the upper end, but it started snowing as we approached the falls, so we didn’t linger. It snowed on us all the way back to the parking lot. Later in the afternoon, Carol and I went on a short wild burro tour and hit the jackpot.

    3/11 – Next day, another “down” day, Diana and Paul took Carol and I to White Rock Canyon in Arizona for a hike down to Arizona Hot Springs. Enjoyable hike, nice hot springs, a great day. There is definite potential for a leisurely kayak trip from below the Hoover Damnation with a pullout / overnight at the hot springs. People have clearly enjoyed night time at the hot springs as there are candles on the rocks around the pool.

    Carol and Rick on Cat in the Hat3/12 – Finally, rock climbing! We headed out early for “Cat in the Hat“, one of the most popular climbs in RRC. We found one rope team ahead of us (their day started out great, one guy had forgotten his climbing harness, and after rigging a swami, figured out he also had no belay device), but  got started up the climb around 10 a.m. We split into rope teams, XX and XY, and Paul led off on the first pitch. Fun, easy climbing, great views and practically before I know it, I’m at the top with Paul rigging to rappel down. The last pitch of Cat in the Hat is awesome – intimidating to look up at, but relatively easy mixed climbing – crack, face, a little sketch slab – all the good stuff.

    After rapping to the top of the third pitch, the reality of climbing a popular route on a nice day sank in – it got congested. Climbers above us, climbers below us – lots of stuff to think about. In a world of social networking, I had the experience of physically meeting Liz H., one of my Facebook friends, at the anchor at the top of the third pitch. Hey, nice to meet you, yeah, I’m the energy bar guy, glad you like them, have you tried the homemade crackers, and so on, until finally Carol has rapped down and it’s my turn. ‘Bye, Liz, oh, there’s Chris climbing and at the bottom Lila waiting to climb. Hail, hail, the PNW gang is here.

    I went first on the next rappel and what a clusterfrick of rope management that turned out to be – our rope toss had tangled with another belayer’s rope down below, blah blah blah, but in the end we’re all on the ground with all our gear; the climb is complete. While we were packing we enjoyed the sight of the desert rodents feasting on some climber’s nut bag – that they had failed to secure – the rodents would dash in, grab a nut, maybe an M&M, and dash off thinking “I don’t have to hunt and gather for a month or two now!!!”.

    3/13 – No multi-pitch today, let’s go find a crag and do some “hard climbs”. Headed into the Calico Basin, in a stiff breeze, Paul or Diana noticed some climbers off to our left, we all went to chat them up and discovered The Existential Wall (which only appears in our new third RR guide book “Fun Climbs Red Rocks”), but they claim there are some good climbs on it so we set up two top ropes and while away the afternoon on some great climbs. Nice face climbs and a couple of fun roofs we all had a great time on.

    One small epic – I was reclimbing “No Exit” – about the 7th time it had been climbed that day – yarded on a big hold, and to my surprise, a 1 foot square chunk of sandstone about 2 inches thick peeled off and cartwheeled to the ground, smashing to pieces on impact. Diana was belaying and did not drop me; I did not fall, but that could have come out worse. A random fragment of sandstone did manage to find my sunglasses on the ground and scratch them.

    Please. Wear a helmet. At all times while climbing on or belaying near rock. You don’t know what’s going to happen – really.

    I’m also rethinking using a GriGri while cragging. Sure, it’s heavy and not “the real thing”, but those will be thin excuses if the belayer gets conked on the head and someone dies. I can replay the movie in my head of that chunk of rock spinning to the ground anytime I want…

    3/14 – Carol and I took a down day. Slept in, food shopping, showers, gear store, lunch at Diego’s.

    3/15 – Welcome to PDT – the time has changed but nonetheless Paul and Diana want to pick us up at 6:30 and head for “Johnny Vegas“, another popular multi-pitch climb. Carol and I manage to be ready and off we go. At the parking lot, oh boy, there are cars already. Fortunately, when we got to the base of the climb, there is only one team ahead of us, and they soon disappear out of sight. Once again we split into teams XX and XY. I psyched myself up, took the first lead and – it’s easy going. Climbing is easy, there’s plenty of opportunity for protection, the  morning is just gorgeous, all good. Paul and I switch leads and apart from a little route finding problem on my part leading the third pitch, all goes smoothly. If you climb Johnny Vegas, be sure to pay attention to the part where you’re to “step left after a small roof and follow easy climbing”; in retrospect this  must mean immediately after a small roof…

    We headed for Solar Slab; Paul led the first pitch and when I joined him we had a short discussion and staged a team XY revolt – we’re ready to head down – footsore and tired. This turned out to be a good decision, I think, as getting down was not trivial. Once again we hit problems with congestion, plus all those climber-friendly horns and cracks make for some really fun rope tosses, rope pulls and rope management. At the top of the last rappel, since we were using both ropes to rappel, we had 4 climbers in a small spot; we stacked Paul above the belay station while we rigged the rap.

    Everybody down, all the gear down, packed and off, back  at the parking lot with daylight to spare. Tremendously  enjoyable.

    3/16 – Another cragging day; we headed for Moderate Mecca as Carol and I wanted to work out the trick on “The Swinging Love Pen” which had defeated us many times before. It’s rated 5.9 and I was convinced it was just a matter of working out the footholds to get it down to that rating. We had a great day. Carol coached me on the easiest way to mount Love Pen; I finally found the feet for following the crack. We also worked out on “Valentine’s Day” and “Ace of Hearts”. The latter climbs taught me that not working on crack climbing was not making me a better crack climber. Duh. However, I was happy to be making progress on an outdoor 5.10d (Ace of Hearts); we fully intend to hit it again next month. Diana had great success on Ace of Hearts, making it all the way to the top. Awesome.

    In late afternoon, we all (Carol, Diana, Paul and I) met up with Tim R., Brad G., Chris D. and Bob M. of the PNW gang, and Tim (from Western Mass) and headed of for Archi’s Thai Cafe. Awesome food, and inexpensive to boot. Must revisit.

    Dessert at Coldstone Creamery, goodbyes and Carol and I are off for Death Valley – can’t spend another night in Crunchy Campground – found Slabby Acres and spent the first peaceful night in a long time…

    3/17 – Up on our own schedule, some breakfast, walking around and picking up garbage (if everyone who visited Slabby took away more garbage, pretty soon, it wouldn’t be exactly nice, but it would be clean), headed on into DV. Noticeable absence of wildflowers, but the desert pupfish are out doing their thing in Salt Creek, which always cheers us up. Only – it’s HOT – we decide to depart DV for Lone Pine.

    In Panamint Valley we ran into a couple of other pop-top-camper types that I noticed had good-looking wind deflectors mounted on the front. We turned around, started a conversation and learned all about how the deflectors had been optimized and how they were attached to the camper. I’ll have to try this out…

    3/18 – Good news, Tuttle Creek CG campers, the road in has been covered with asphalt, no mile of washboard and dust! We spent the morning plugging gear and building anchors, checked out the local wildflowers, took a shower and then concluded – we were tired, sore and ready to head home.

    I was all ready to jet home; Carol talked us into heading north of Kernville to check out the climbing areas there from our “California Road Trip” guidebook. This turned out to be a great decision, as we hit the wildflower jackpot. North of Kernville we found acres of wildflowers. After an early dinner at the Kernville Brewing Company (“Just Outstanding IPA”, indeed), we headed north looking for Needles. Oh, oh, road closed. We camped along the upper Kern river.

    3/19 – Headed toward home, decided to go down the Kern river gorge, hit the Wildflower Super Lotto. Unbelievable hillsides covered with flowers. We stopped at Lucas Creek and hiked up onto the hill and – the acreage of wildflowers defies description. We did our best to capture  the sheer scale of the bloom, but – there’s no way. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Late in the day, home at last, unpacking, laundry, showers – the usual drill. Happy, tired and fulfilled.

    Epilogue

    • Please. Wear a helmet. We like you the way  you are.
    • Diana and Paul, many thanks for inviting us to join you. We learned so much and had such a great time. Your cool competence on lead climbs was inspirational; Carol and I will have so much more fun in the future thanks to this experience. And we’re looking forward to our future adventures.
    • Nancy, Randy, as ever you’re great hosts, we’ll see you again in the near future.
    • Great to catch up a little with the rest of the PNW gang – Bob, Tim, Brad, Kay, Steve, Lila. Nice to finally meet Liz and to meet Chris. Thanks to our new mobility, we  may actually make it to western WA sometime this year – we’ll look y’all up.
    • We were so busy in Vegas we didn’t have time to find everyone. Catch you next time.
    • Last March I could hardly walk to the local coffee shop and back on my gimpy knee. This year is shaping up to be better!
    • “Do you guys even have a home?” Yes, we do; we’re home more than we’re out and about…
    • In case you missed it: Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner).

    Namaste.

    ~Rick


    Canyoneering Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • February 2010 Death Valley / Eastern Sierra

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 1 Comment

    Email from Ram: “Sir I am arriving at Death Valley around 4 PM on February 12th. I will be staying until the 21st and am available for canyons etc until 19th and social fun every evening. Wanna?”

    Sure, why not, we’re always looking for an excuse to take a trip. Meeting old friends / making new friends / tramping around in the outdoors on adventures – that qualifies as a great reason.

    Pictures – on the odd chance that you’re not interested in my ramblings (or, as I’d prefer to think, you just can’t wait to see pictures):

    Panorama of Convict Lake. Convict Lake is here, in the Eastern Sierra just southeast of Mammoth Lakes.

    All the rest of the pictures.

    02/11 Thursday

    Camper and truck groaning with food, liquids of various sorts, hiking and climbing gear, off we went, the usual long drive down I-5 then across through Bakersfield, Lake Isabella, Ridgecrest and sometime in the evening we arrive in Panamint Valley and set up camp out near the Panamint dunes.

    02/12 Friday

    Up at a leisurely hour (we always sleep so well in the lonely, quiet places), breakfasted, packed, off we go into DV proper. We decide to explore Fall Canyon, which is a nice hike with a little cookie of a slot canyon just past the dryfall that stops most people. We stopped to talk to a nice couple from Hungary (Julia and Tamas) whom we’ve since heard from. After a beer and a sunset, drove off to Slabby Acres (not even as nice as it sounds) to meet up with Ram and the rest of the gang.

    Intros around the campfire I remember: Ram, Steve, Ranger Bill, Denali Mike, Flagstaff Mike, Malia, Heather, Dan, SLC Carol, Brendan (aka Bender). More people came and went, but brain overload occurred. Continue reading → Post ID 909


    Canyoneering Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • New Year’s outing along the Big Sur

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    Feeling antsy from being shutins during the week before New Year’s (we came down with cold / flu symptoms), and wanting to put some easy break-in miles on our new BFT, Carol and I headed down Highway 1 along the Big Sur coastline.

    We pulled into the Kirk Creek campground ($22 / night; this seemed higher than I remembered but certainly worth it) in mid afternoon, and after a tour around the campground, converged on  a site that had a pretty good profusion of daffodils blooming. Blooming daffodils, views of the Pacific, what’s not to like? After setting up, we headed down to the beach for some recreation, staying until almost sunset.

    Next morning, we headed down the coast, stopping at Salmon Creek to hike in and see the falls (from the top and from the bottom). The falls had a good flow going and were pretty spectacular. Further down the road, we stopped to see the Elephant seals near Piedras Blancas; there was a lot of activity (“Gargles, grunts, snorts, belches, bleats, whimpers, squeaks, squeals, and the male trumpeting combine to create the elephant seal symphony of sound.” – indeed.) with seal pups and a pair of bulls having a bloody fight. The bloody fight was compelling, but at the same time pretty scary looking. Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the fight.

    Next stop – Cambria, a lovely little tourist trap with great restaurants, bookstores, little shops and man was it beautiful and warm. We started thinking about sunburn – seriously. After consulting with a a couple locals, we went looking for The Sea Chest (“best seafood on the coast”), wound up wandering down Moonstone Beach and then deciding we were going to be disappointed with The Sea Chest. We thought we were going to camp at San Simeon, but we pulled in and found that campsites ran $36 / night – wow, that’s almost crummy hotel territory there. Guess we now know what the big plan is to save California’s state parks – charge the hell out of anyone that wants to stay overnight. We left, stopping for an overwhelming sunset, then headed back into Cambria for dinner at The Sow’s Ear. Highly recommended.

    On down the road, we camped at Montaña de Oro State Park near Morro Bay. One of our favorite stomping grounds on the Central Coast, Montaña de Oro has tide pooling, beaches, high bluffs along the coast, mountains, wildlife, chaparral, it’s nice and quiet – lots of attractions.

    Next day, after a leisurely breakfast and a chat with our neighbors from Victoria, British Columbia, we headed off for some tide pooling and exploring along the bluffs. After lunch and a nap, we headed up Valencia peak. Pleasant climb along ancient marine terraces (Monterey Shale) and good views from the top. Back at camp, a beer, some dinner and – it’s dark by 6:30 PM.

    In the morning, the day’s agenda is to go south as far as we like then make our way home. We wound our way south, keeping mostly to the coast and happened to drive past the Monarch Butterfly Grove at Pismo Beach. Wow, was that cool – never seen so many monarch butterflies. We spent quite some time wandering and looking at all the butterflies – they were mostly fairly high in the eucalyptus trees, so we didn’t get pictures that give a real feel for how many there were.

    Heading home, we stopped and did some wine tasting (and buying) and north of Morro Bay spotted The Taco Temple along a frontage road. The best chicken tacos I can ever remember. On up the road we stopped in Harmony and visited the glass works. We got to watch a vessel being made all the way from the first dip in the molten glass until the finished product went into the annealing oven. They give glass blowing lessons there – I’m going to sign up – looks like a real blast.

    Short but sweet, but now the BFT drive train is supposedly ready for prime time, which to us means high passes and mountain roads – as soon as the weather is acceptable somewhere nearby!

    ~Rick

    P.S. – in case you missed seeing the pictures, click here…


    Trip Reports

  • Thanksgiving Week in the Eastern Sierra

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.”  George Bernard Shaw

    A couple months ago our friend Angela from Alabama e-mailed us – “What are y’all up to Thanksgiving week? I am trying to figure out something fun to do.”

    Um, we don’t even know what we’re doing next week, so – no plans, why, what’s up???

    Long story short, Angela flew in for the week, spent a day and a half in Oakland with a friend, then arrived at our house noonish Monday. After discussion (we still didn’t know what we were going to do together), we all four (me, Carol, Angela and the Droid, more on the Droid later) packed into the BFT and headed for Lone Pine, CA, in the Owens Valley and near the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada.

    We made it all the way to Casa de Fruta and stopped for dried fruit and nuts (this is California, after all; we embrace our fruit and nuttiness) and the first folly occurred. Back at the BFT, it wouldn’t start. Open the hood, look around like there was some big revelation awaiting, stand around waiting for it to cool some more then it fired off. I assured all that this would be a “one-time occurrence” – as if I knew – and we headed on down the road. Continue reading → Post ID 909


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Rock Climbing Snow Canyon

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 1 Comment

    We met up with Paul and Diana one morning in Snow Canyon State Park north of St. George, Utah. Carol and I have climbed at Snow Canyon a few times, but Paul and Diana found and climbed the best route we’ve ever done there.

    Carol and I first climbed a couple routes at The Circus Wall. One unnamed sport route and then The Barbarian, a relatively easy, but long, trad route. One nice twist to The Barbarian for us – Paul and Diana let us try out their twin ropes which Carol and I had never used before. One upside is that with two 60m twin ropes, it’s possible to get off The Barbarian’s first pitch in one rappel instead of doing a multistage.

    Climbing20091012151107-1 on the twins (that just sounds wrong) was pretty straightforward; I had no clipping problems and Carol didn’t tell me about any belaying problems she might have had. I did get a lot of rope drag, but that’s pretty normal for The Barbarian as I remember.

    At the top, I set up to belay Carol. As she climbed, I did what I thought was a careful job of flaking the rope. After Carol got up to the anchor, we started trying to get ready to rappel.

    Long story short, we soon had a bit of a tangle – enough that Carol overheard some people that were watching from the road with binoculars say “they’ve tangled the rope”. Carefully pulling out rope, we set up the rappel and successfully threw the ropes. I don’t know what might have happened if there had been a lot of wind, but  it probably wouldn’t have been good. We both got down and managed to pull rope without getting snagged – whew.

    I liked using the twin ropes, especially thinking about alpine climbing where it would be good to be able to rappel 60m with the twins, and to have a backup rappel rope if something happened to one of them. Redundancy is our friend. I decided that if I were to use twin ropes, though, they’d need to be stowed safely in a rope bag at all times to avoid the whole tanglefoot thing.

    While Carol and I were climbing The Barbarian,  Paul and Diana were off at the Aftershock Wall climbing pitch one of “Living on the Edge“. The route goes up over a big alcove with big apparent exposure. Diana led the pitch (what a stud climber she is) and Paul, Carol and I all got to climb on toprope.

    It was awesome. The highest rated outdoor climb Carol and I had ever done – and that’s cool – but  the coolest part was the climb itself. We probably used every skill we’ve learned, and the view past your feet once you were over the alcove was just too much.

    Meanwhile, Paul and Diana had gone off and climbed The Barbarian.

    20091012152511-1Back on Terra Firma, Carol and I pulled the rope, stowed our gear and went and found Paul and Diana. We were ready to pack it in (excepting Diana, who has no discernible limit when it comes to climbing, in our short experience) and hungry, so we headed into St. George for dinner.

    I took everyone to Marv’s, where we indulged in the traditional American way of looking death in the face – cheeseburgers and fries. I don’t even remember the last time I had fries, but Marv’s were hand cut, freshly cooked – and awesome.

    A great day, inspirational climbing friends, inspirational climbing – I have to go back and lead Living on the Edge myself now – can’t wait.

    Click here for PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    A note on the pictures – whoever was belaying was also taking the pics; our rule was that the climber had to be in a stable position before any photography could take place, so no difficult moves are captured. I think we can all agree “hands on the belay” trumps picture-taking…

    ~Rick


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Rock Climbing Zion – Aries Butte / Led by Sheep

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com Comment

    Arriving at Zion, “Zion Climbing: Free and Clean” guidebook in hand, Carol and I started scouting out climbs.

    We hiked in by way of Petroglyph Canyon (yes, we stopped and checked out the petroglyphs) and found the bottom of “Led by Sheep” fairly handily and decided, yeah, let’s try this one.

    20091007112336A few days later, Bob, Carol and I packed up early, headed out and scrambled up to the bottom of the technical climb, started gearing up and – oh-oh – that 20% chance of rain started to look more like 100%. Not wanting to be caught climbing wet sandstone, much less caught on top of Aries Butte in a lightning storm, we aborted and headed out.

    As an aside, it had nothing whatever to do with the fact that a certain person (yeah, OK, me, Mr_”Cotton_Is_Death_So_Don’t_Wear_It_In_The_Back_Country_Guy”) hadn’t brought a raincoat and was dressed in cotton pants.

    Somewhat  later, joined by new friends Paul and Diana, we again headed out early in the morning. Paul and Diana would be one rope team; Bob, Carol and I would be the other.

    Karma rewarded us for our three-times-persistence; climbing up to the saddle next to Aries Butte, planning to climb Led by Sheep, we encountered Desert Bighorns at the saddle. If that isn’t a hat trick, I don’t know what is. As we were gearing up, a bighorn peeked back over at us and decided the crazy humans weren’t leaving, and departed for good.

    I need to mention that SuperTopo gets a BIG FAIL for the beta on Led by Sheep – the guidebook suggests taking “10 long slings, and some parties may want a small rack” – there are no more than 4 bolts between anchors and if you climb it and find something useful to stick trad pro in, send me a picture. The rock is what I’d call barely cemented sandstone. A much better description of what you’re in for can be found here.

    20091010120931Paul and Diana geared up and set off; Bob, Carol and I started up as soon as Diana left the ground. I lobbied for lead climber; interesting stuff as it’s basically a big slab climb with little or no handholds (I suspect if there were handholds, they’d break off if one were to yard on them). Interesting for me as slab climbing is not something we get to practice much.

    The second, third and fourth pitches seemed much easier, either because they WERE easier or because I got used to slabbin’ it. We all got on top, had lunch, took lotsa pictures including one of a lightning-fried-tree (TOTALLY justifying our days-earlier decision not to climb in the storm) and then rappelled off.

    Fun day, awesome views, easy climbing – highly recommended!!!

    Click here for PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    Namaste.

    ~Rick

    P.S. Thanks to Bob, Diana, Paul and Carol for sharing pictures!


    Rock Climbing Trip Reports

  • Fall 2009 Canyoneering Zion

    Posted on by funintheslots@gmail.com 1 Comment

    Carol and I got our start canyoneering in Zion, and it’s always a treat to return. New canyons, familiar canyons, new friends, old friends, no matter – a great day out – assuming little or no rain – is pretty much always guaranteed.

    Late fall is an excellent time to see the canyons, with moderate temperatures for comfort and low angle fall sunlight  to maximize the results of ones efforts at photography.

    Behunin Canyon

    Steve L. arrived from SLC, UT on the same afternoon as Bob M. arrived from Spokane, WA. Steve only had one full day to spend with us, and after much discussion we converged on Behunin Canyon as our destination. Bob and Carol had never been through; I had been through once as my fourth canyon 6-7 years ago, but remembered it as beautiful and great fun; Steve was our veteran.

    Behunin route description here.

    Carrying two 60m ropes and a 60m pull cord, plus sundry rappelling gear, food and water, we met the first shuttle bus up canyon at Canyon Junction and were hea20091005085943ded up the West Rim trail around dawn. Those early hours are the best time to make the hump up to the canyon dropin, both because of the comfortable hiking temperatures and because you get to enjoy the early light in the main Zion canyon. Also the best chance of seeing mountain lions or UFO’s,  each of which are equally likely.

    Descending into Behunin canyon, one immediately feels dwarfed by the huge canyon walls. Proceeding down canyon, we soon found the first drop and geared up.

    All went well on the first rap, then after the second, I got engrossed with watching the rope stuffers at work and let the rope drop onto a bush. Oh, oh. Sure enough, it was a rope-eating bush. Fortunately I was able 20091005103429to get up to the bush via a mildly sketch free climb and when I got there, I found that the universe hates ropes. It was definitely an “are you kidding me?” moment. Rope freed, I used the bush (sorry, bush!) as a handline anchor to get down. For the rest of the day, I gave rope pulls all the attention they deserved.

    Big walls, big, easy rappels, beautiful temperatures and lighting. Steve and Bob set up a guided rappel over one really skanky pothole (thanks, Steve, for taking one for the team and going first – into the skanky pothole – and for being our second anchor for the guided), so we remained pretty much dry.

    20091005120722We took our time and stopped to enjoy along the way. Having started early and being fairly efficient at moving along, we had time to kill. Steve shared Behunin canyon lore with us; we examined plants and rock formations along the way; just a leisurely stroll, really.

    At the exit rappels, we took time to admire the creative webbing nests. Backup upon backup with some really gnarly knots (an overhand is not a water knot, people) and a total lack of equalization. Whatever, we jumped on anyway ’cause 24 pieces of we20091005144924bbing must equal safe, right?

    The last rappel to the deck was awesome – the alcove on canyon left was suffused with golden light from the mid afternoon fall sun. Didn’t want it to end. A few calories, gear stuffed and it was time to scramble down the watershed to the trail and out.

    Click here for Behunin Canyon PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    Thanks to Bob and Carol for sharing their pictures.

    Spry Canyon

    A personal favorite. Joined by new friends Diana and Paul, Bob, Carol and I set off on the approach. Diana, Paul and Carol had never been through Spry, so they were in for a treat.

    Spry route description here.

    20091008075615There’s not much not to like about Spry – the approach gets your heart pumping, there are fun down climbing problems and awkward rappels, the canyon is beautiful, the exit is easy – no wonder it’s popular.

    We made the trip interesting a couple times – a guided rappel over a water hole (less than knee deep; I think we did if for fun more than for necessity) and a sketchy traverse out on a ledge to find alternate anchors and avoid water at the “fluted rappel”. We put Diana on a belay before she went out to the anchors. 20091008133230Communications were a little off, so when I started off to follow her, I put a prussik on the hand line just in case. Someone called it overkill, I call it “living to canyon another day”.

    The alternate anchor is – wow – a couple of knot blocks and a piton. Sure, why knot jump on and rappel? I’d say it’s probably not worth it to avoid the water, plus now there are new rope grooves showing up.

    On down canyon, into the water course and exit via Pine Creek. Back at the spotted car, a warning from Steve L. is fresh in my mind – “The rangers are bored and looking for something to do” – so I made sure we knew where our permit was before Paul and Bob took off.

    Sure enough, within 2-3 minutes (it seems) of their departure, a Parks vehicle with two rangers in it pulled up – “can I see your permit” – sure thing. Five minutes later ANOTHER ranger pulled up – “can I see your permit” – sure, and how many more rangers can we expect to see? Ha. A few minutes later, the original pair came back through, stopped and “can I see your permit – j/k”. Anyway, thanks, Steve, for the tip that helped us avoid some discomfort or a night in Ranger Jail (no showers, said Mr. Ranger, “it’s Pugatory”, smiles).

    Great canyon, great people, great day – worth repeating.

    Click here for Spry Canyon PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.

    Thanks to Bob, Carol, Diana and Paul for sharing their pictures.

    ~Rick


    Canyoneering Trip Reports

  • Après-Labor Day Sierra Trip

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    A couple weeks after returning from our previous Sierra trip and some boring rehab on my back, we got antsy to get back out. We were planning to start our trip over Labor Day weekend, but the reality of the prospect of roads crammed over capacity dissuaded us from this plan at the last moment.

    We spent the time poring over our two new guidebooks:

    We thought we were Eastern Sierra veterans, but after reading these two guides, we’ve come to realize we haven’t even begun to explore. The author loves the Sierra – her descriptions of the hikes are thorough and compelling. There may be a few too many superlatives in her writing for some (meaning, too many for me…), but I choose to look past that to the love and enthusiasm. Buy the books – you won’t be sorry.

    Chocolate Lakes / Chocolate Peak

    For our warm up hike, we picked a route in the South Fork of Bishop Canyon. I have been on the main trial in the south fork at least half a dozen times, but was always headed for Bishop Pass and beyond, and had not done any exploring of the side drainages. It turned out to be a nice low key hike with great scenery. There is an easy scramble up to Chocolate Peak with outstanding views. We chose a more direct path coming back from the peak with a 200-300 foot descent over some very loose scree, but it wasn’t that bad. This lead us to a clear animal trail (we hope it was a bighorn sheep trail; the droppings were about right) and, figuring that animals don’t want to waste energy any more than we do, we chose to follow the animal trial back to the Chocolate Lakes trail.

    PICTURES from Chocolate Lakes hike

    In the guidebook, we learned of a nearby peak called Cloudripper, highest peak in the Inconsolable Range. With a name like Cloudripper, how could we not want to climb it? On the way in to Chocolate Lakes, we talked to a couple of other hikers and learned that one of them had already climbed Cloudripper. She told us they had approached the climb from Green Lake. Later, looking at the topo map, it looked like an approach from Thunder and Lightning Lake might work well too, but we chose to go with the beta from the hiker.

    Brown Lake / Green Lake / Cloudripper

    We got an early start and easily found the “pipeline trail” described in the guidebook that would save us 500 feet of elevation gain and loss. It was kind of an early morning balance check; the pipeline goes over ground where if you fell off, you could easily turn or break an ankle – this really helps with your focus and concentration.

    After a mile of pipelining, we found the main trail and headed on up. Easy hiking to Brown Lake, which was so tranquil it made a great reflecting pool. After a snack we headed on up to Green Lake, which is sited in a truly beautiful setting.

    Map and compass gave us our heading to Cloudripper and after circumventing a marshy meadow we were at the bottom of our climb. Talus. Much talus. Turned out to be 2500 feet or so of talus.

    We arrived at a saddle and, looking over the edge into the South Fork Bishop Creek drainage, quickly got oriented. We were looking down on Chocolate peak and off to our left was another big pile of talus that we had to get over to get closer to Cloudripper. We traversed to the left, quickly found that there was a cliff face on the other side of the talus heap so we had no choice but to go up and over. Arriving at the top, we discovered that – we were going to come up short. We didn’t have enough daylight left to make it to Cloudripper and back to the trail head, and the prospect of doing the pipeline walk with headlamps and possibly dew – nah.

    We climbed down off the peak (which we later found was unofficially named Vagabond Peak, 13,374′) and started looking for a way to avoid the talus downclimb. We found the bypass at the expense of probably a couple more miles of distance, but it was well worth it to avoid the talus.

    PICTURES from Cloudripper attempt

    I imagine we’ll return; the whole “Cloudripper / Inconsolable Range” thing is too compelling; we may choose to do it as an overnighter from Thunder and Lightning lake…

    Lundy Canyon

    We read up on Lundy Canyon in our guidebook – beaver works, giant aspens, several sets of pretty cascades, moderate hiking until you’re close to the upper cascade – what’s not to love. Heading up the trail – “Did you lock the truck?” – “I don’t remember…” – this happens all the time. Things I do on autopilot, without thinking, I can’t remember doing. Back at the truck (it was locked after all), there were a few clouds visible upcanyon, and, remembering discussions with Mat about late afternoon Sierra thunderstorms, I grabbed our raincoats. This turned out to be a good thing.

    Heading up canyon, we stopped to see the beaver dams, beaver lodges, cascades, flowers, giant aspens – all the good stuff. We hadn’t actually planned on getting to the upper cascades, but just kept hiking and soon we were on the slate scree approaching the bottom of the upper cascade. The way it works is, if you’re going to get weathered, it will happen when you’re as far from the trailhead as possible. Sure enough, it started to rain, so we cut over to get a look at the water, and while we were taking pictures, it started to hail as well.

    Thinking of all that nice slate scree getting wet and slippery (I know, wah wah wah) we turned around and headed back. It soon stopped raining and we took our time making our way down canyon, stopping at spots we’d bypassed on the way up. Somewhere about the second lake upcanyon, it started sprinkling; Carol asked if I wanted my raincoat – “No, not unless it gets worse than this.” I know intellectually I can’t influence the weather, but it sure seems like every time I say something like that, we’re in for it.

    The skies soon opened up, plenty of rain and then the hail started. It was really pretty; we were dressed pretty well for it (aside from my cotton shorts; once cotton gets wet it will dry about two weeks from never, “cotton kills”) so we were enjoying ourselves and the benefits of carrying waterproof cameras. At one point, though, in the open in hard hail, I discovered that a thin sheet of nylon fabric on my poor defoliated pate was insufficient protection from the stones, so I was hiking with my arms over my head to protect it.

    Back at the truck, we put on dry clothes and headed out to the Mono basin to camp. A thoroughly enjoyable outing, highly recommended, especially if you can arrange for the weather we had – ha.

    PICTURES from Lundy Canyon


    Trip Reports