{"id":5627,"date":"2022-02-10T19:51:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/websterart.com\/wordpress\/?p=5627"},"modified":"2022-02-10T22:20:22","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T22:20:22","slug":"january-in-joshua-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websterart.com\/wordpress\/2022\/02\/january-in-joshua-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"January in Joshua Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dave and I headed south mid January towards St. George.  I’m putting the photos gallery first,  while the more narrative storytelling is below the gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My son with his family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Along the way we met Fletch, Sam, Garret, Anni and Brian. I’m of the ‘more is merrier’ way of thinking. As long as everyone can lead and is vaccinated, it usually works out. It’ll be funny to read this in ten years when we’ve all forgotten about Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first stop after the 26 hour drive was a 10 minute walk to a cliff in downtown St. George, right above a soccer field. We were so close we could hear the children kicking the balls. Dave led Wide Boy<\/a>  and Deface Crack. The rock quality was surprisingly close to Indian Creek. We felt lucky to have nailed the warm weather after that long drive. I struggled from jet lag, but it would be fun to go back when I’m warmed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fresh off the drive from Seattle in St. George, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We crashed on BLM land near Prophesy Wall<\/a> for the next few nights. It was deserted up there with only a herd of cows wandering around. I was woken at dawn by an odd rhythmic sound, realizing later it was cows grazing next to our truck. We only saw one other van and Dave left his tent up with no problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snow Canyon is shady in the morning so we climbed a 5.8 crack on the sunny side then at noon followed the sun to the three pitch 5.8  Just Deserts<\/a> and a couple other harder lines. Pictured below is me rapping off Dave’s sketchy 5.10a. The route went up the left arete above the huge cave. The moves felt like stepping on air. By the third morning the sun was gone and the weather was overcast. We woke up, looked around and bailed for Vegas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me rapping off Daves 5.10 at St. George, Snow Canyon, Photo by Dave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we got to Vegas we had enough of an afternoon left to climb Physical Graffiti<\/a> and the first pitch of the 5.9 sport route Big Bad Wolf. Someday I want to lead the top two pitches on that one, they look great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We slept at Skid Row and rose at dawn to climb the 5.8 six pitch Purblind Pillar<\/a>. Dave really stepped up to the plate to cover my weak leading skills. I only led two of the six pitches this time.\u00a0 For some weird reason I was ‘off my feed’ for the first week of this almost 3 week trip. With a few exceptions, I was climbing so badly I didn’t even recognize myself. I knew there was a real climber inside my head somewhere…but I couldn’t\u00a0 make him come out to play. It was only after we got to Jtree that I started to climb normally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dave pitch 5 Purblind Pillar, Vegas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After finishing Purblind in the dark we decided I was too slow for long alpine routes in winter. Dave had wanted to do another long one the next day…but after thinking it over we decided to bail for Joshua Tree. It was a good excuse to do some night driving instead of sitting around the propane campfire. Simultaneously I had heard that our Indian Creek friend Sam was in Red Rocks. I regretted not calling her because she told me later that she had been climbing with boulderers and would have enjoyed some multipitch trad. If you don’t know bouldering…it’s rock climbing, but without ropes. And yes, it’s as dangerous as it sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We crashed in the desert on the way to Josh. There is\u00a0 a ton of BLM land coming into 29 Bombs from the North. In the early morning we parked at Intersection Rock and did “the walk” around the full campground, making friends and admiring all the fancy rigs. Not finding a campspot, we decided to cook breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave (hereafter called Chef) appointed me sous-chef and began teaching me how to prepare Egg McMuffins. He denies ever working at McDonalds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n