How was Joshua Tree?

How was Joshua Tree? Hot. Very hot was Joshua Tree. Truth be told, to tell the truth, our climbing was wisely escourted to the pre-sun and practically post-sun hours where you would find shaded boulders whose holds weren't all greasy-warm! But there's more! We met Kevin! Oh, How was Kevin? Impassioned. Very impassioned was Kevin! Kevin was so impassioned that his first outside climb was a 5.8 trad route on the Peyote Rock! He did not give up, not after scrapes on his leg, or a blood-rousing hand jam during his mantle fest! While we're on the Kevin topic, I'd like to say that watching Kevin climb is very inspiring. He does not give up and approaches each problem equally: with a never-dimming optimistic and determined outlook. During this brief trip to JTree and beyond with Kevin, he had already mastered hand jams, foot jams, smearing, knee-bars, heel hooks, toe hooks, and last but his favorite: mantles! I think he cut his work out for himself! I can't thank him enough for staying with us and providing such lovely entertainment during the trip.
Here's Kevin on his first trad climb... Victorious! It was a hard 5.8. Shoving gear in felt quick and fine, but the crack technique felt a little distant! Anyhow, after this we bouldered the next morning, on July 6. At 5:30am. 5:30am. 5:30am. That's what I was thinking, looking blindly as Kevin suited up with his shoes, smiling and laughing at me for gazing dumbfoundedly at the huge flake of rock that he wanted to conquer. Kevin's a Crusader. Not in the bad way, though. He's mostly a crusader with respect to rocks and feats of power.
If you meet Kevin Wilcox, try and play the game where you take turns making rap- and/or sound- and/or beat-sequences, after which the other person playing this game must try and repeat exactly. It's hecka-fun! Gosh darn gee willickershucks! What fun! And how! But what of Rastafarian, my project in JTree? How was Rastafarian?
Very fun. Very fun was Rastafarian, 5.13b by the book. For those of you who think I'm talking about a high-ball V3 called White Rastafarian, right now I am, but only to say that I'm not projecting that boulder problem but the rope climb called simply, concisely: RASTAFARIAN! I like the name. I like the boulder-problem start. I like the tread-carefully and barely breathe for fear of slipping off the foot-edge triangle-shaped midsection where, as pictured above, you can get a no-hands rest by pressing your back up into the roof! I like the traverse and swing out past the roof, and the fact that the first lead-clip is then, after 20-or-so feet of tricky, get-your-heartbeat-up climbing. That's just to the first clip! I also really love how immediately after that first clip, I crux out. I make a move up to a crimp gaston, and mantle with my left hand, heel hook now turned heel-toe cam in the horizontal crack, and then match feet, cam with left, and put the right under the roof to bicycle. And the hard part is now, every muscle bulging and crying out, where I have to let go of the mantle and lock off with my three-finger crack crimp gaston and cross far up and right to a sliver of a crack that I just can't reach to get anything out of it. Next time! It's fun! But did we stay in JTree?
Sadly, no pictures of fried eggs on rock in JTree. But we probably could have. Instead, we felt like we were wasting a lot of time in the shade that we could find. FYI, we transferred shade stations a bunch thanks to the fact that the earth moves wrt the sun. So, given that Flagstaff, Arizona has lots of great climbing and isn't really really hot, and it's only a 5.5-hour drive from JTree, Kevin said OK and off we drove the next morning. Here's Kevin leaning against a Flagstaff Police car with a dummy-cop in the driver's seat. It was parked on the side of the road. We pulled up alongside it, hoping to find directions to an awesome climbing area called Priest Draw that is still kept pretty well-hidden thanks to poorly-labeled streets, non-climber locales, and bad directions online. Instead, a dummycop! What a prank!All in all, and an all-in-one for one and all, we're all for one and one for all once and for all! Stay tuned for an excellent update for Flagstaff, AZ. That is, if you think we lucked out and think the 10-day forecast - that we ignored - calling for thunderstorms every day in Flagstaff was wrong and we were right. That is, if you love climbing... and good fun... and silly hiking trips to boulders that are really airports... and stinky feet... Which reminds me!

There was a crow. In JTree. And every 30 seconds it would BARK. In the morning. Our last morning? It was timed and cruel and unusual punishment. We're still wondering why the crow did what it did. But it at least gave us a fun noise to make at each other whilst we hiked our many miles in Flagstaff, AZ. Wait! That's next blog entry! Gotta Go!

-Your JTree summergoer landescaper, - N8