Oct 29

Some notes from the last trip:

-Bus travel can be uncomfortable, without enough legroom. Rode on a couple different Greyhound buses, and the one with the 'improved legroom' wasn't enough due to my height (6'4"). Needed 3 more inches of room. If traveling by bus again, try to get aisle seat so that you can stretch. Inactivity made knee pain worse, and got jumping legs on the last day. 

-Gas is really cheap in Idaho.

-North 40 is a pretty cool store.

-Everying is cheaper up in Washington. Slower pace of life. More freedom, fewer people. I started to see the real America showing, something I miss. Los Angeles doesn't feel American. Not that it's a bad thing, just not my flavor. Lower population density seems key.

More later

Oct 21 - Lassen County

Taking the 395 north through Lassen County. Some neat rock before we got into Nevada. Mostly rolling hills with the occasional 50ft crag since then. A map board type navigation aide for the codriver would be a great idea for future trips.

Nothing else to report.

Oct 19

I took Justin P. up to CL Wall a few days back and I climbed the pitch above pitch 1 of Clown Syndrome. I bailed from this pitch last time as there was a lot of moss covering important smears and jams, and I wasn't confident I could climb it. I barely cleaned anything off in this ascent. The pitch would probably prove significantly easier if the moss was removed, but since I'm myself, I don't want to kill the moss just to have a pitch of climbing that won't be repeated much, if at all. That moss has been there for so long. A funny thought, seeing as I've done so much bushwhacking and gardening in canyons and elsewhere since I was very young.

The first pitch of Clown Syndrome goes at about 5.7 and ends at a ledge above the small tree. Instead of climbing left to the small ledge, continue directly up the crack to the view in the photo above. The climbing is about 5.8-9 until that little roof on the right. Delicate smears, decent stemming, and odd fingertip jams take you there. I felt the climbing was 5.10 passing the roof, with a 5.9ish second crux above to reach the belay, which is directly above the route on a 6" wide ledge on the left side of the dihedral. A #3 Wild Country Zero placement, a slung block (not 100% solid), and an inverted #3 C4 at your feet. I dare say a bolted anchor would be best. It would eliminate miles of bullshit and prove many times easier and more secure than what I had to do.

I'm not sure what to name it. It could just become the new second part of Clown Syndrome, and have pitch 2 of Clown Syndrome become pitch 2 of Butterface. That pitch sucks anyway. It would seem illogical to name it something else. I don't have a computer handy so I can't do stuff on Mountainproject, so it'll wait.

I also scope out some new routes waiting to be done. One in particular looks impressive and protectable. Starts up loose dirty ground, then you follow a small buttress with a blank looking slab on the right. Protection appears to be the usual tiny cams and nuts. It's very steep, just a little shy of vertical. This will likely be the focus of my next visit.

I went to Joshua Tree for Zach's party this weekend. Had a good time. I miss Zach. I hope we can climb more in the future. He is by far one of the best partners I've ever had. He saved my life once. We've done some really cool shit together. I would like to share a big route with him. 

We climbed on Atlantis Wall, in Hidden Valley. I don't know much about Joshua Tree. I don't know the areas, the climbs, or much of anything. I went offroading there a handful of times as a little kid, but my parents were not outdoors folks in the slightest, so the climbing knowledge would have to wait. I've not really enjoys climbing there in the past, but that is essentially entirely my fault, as usual. It takes me a while to grow and accept realities, like any mind. I personally am completely online with the ground up onsight ethic of climbing prevelant there.

I like to walk up to something, look at it from the ground, figure out what I'll need to protect it, and if I think I can climb it, just go up. I don't want names, ratings, beta, any of that. I want less noise in my head. Climbing for me, I've found, is a way to silence my mind and allow me to finally live. Shut off the doubts and static and move. Nothing else matters but what matters. I've used this ethic in putting up new routes, and I applied it here as well. I climbed the routes on the wall with no consideration towards beta, and I found it so much more enjoyable than being an accountant cubicle human creature mulling over numbers and data. Just climb. You're a good climber and you can do all kinds of things, if you just take that first step. Cast off without knowledge and you will have a real adventure, not something reduced to human gossip and measurements.

The climbing was pretty fun. I enjoyed the horizontal cracks, which made for excellent protection with flexible stem cams. I climbe some 5.9 to the left which I felt was miles easier than the new pitch described earlier in this post. More confusion within the rating scale. It was a fun route, with ok protection and easy reachy moves.

I became frustrated with the anchor situation on top of the wall, where I had to sling a block with someone's cord, which was kinky beyond belief. The cord would get stuck in constrictions around the block, making it impossible to equalize. Had there been another person,vthis wouldn't have been much of an issue. This, coupled with all the people and talking below pushed me over the edge and I lost my temper. I decided to untie, let the rope snake back to the deck, and walk away. I had to go away and take some quiet time. I really can't stand constant talking and lots of people. I compared this to soloing in my head, where you often have complete silence, and often just want someone to talk to. Maybe I'll bring headphones or something to put on when things get too noisy.

I walked off and took my break in some shade. I vented to the earth, nobody to talk to, until I got that out of my system and was able to relax a little. I walked back after 10-15 minutes feeling much better, if a bit embarrassed about my behavior. I'm still learning how to fight the battles within my mind. Obviously this is a never-ending process for all creatures. Overstimulation, compounded by being the guy everyone relies upon to set up routes for everyone to climb. A balance must be found.

That's all for now.

Oct 12 - BBWarz

I participated in Milsim West's The Kazakh Offensive. If you're unfamiliar with airsoft and milsim, a simple explanation is in order. Airsoft is a wargaming platform, much like paintball. The weapons are very close replicas of actual weapons you may already have experience with, and their functionality is often very similar as well. They fire a 6mm plastic BB on average between 300-500fps, and have an average effective range of 100-200ft. Milsim is short for military simulation, and the experience can vary quite a bit. Milsim West is run by a bunch of my friends who have varying degrees of military experience (key being Ranger and Infantry dudes), and the games they put on are the best I've experienced. One must find the balance between simulation and fun in order to keep so many participants from different backgrounds happy. They do an excellent job and I've nothing negative to say about the great memories I've earned from their games, not to mention friends made and memes created.

I filled in the position of a machine gunner in this event. As one of Task Force Privilege Aussie squad 4-1's MG's, I carried a 'Maximi', basically an FN Minimi (M249 SAW) in 7.62 NATO. I don't play often and never had the wherewithal to build a machine gun when I played, so I enjoy this position, having done it once before. I used to run around a lot, so fighting from rooms and fighting positions is a nice change of pace. I've been a gunner once before, and I rather enjoyed being able to lay suppressing fire as well as drill mofos without having to be too conservative with my ammo.

Day one involved setting things up and moving to our first patrol base. The AO (area of operations) was George Air Force Base (now Mojave Auxiliary Field or something) near the dreamy town of Adelanto in the high desert. We had a 2 story structure that I'm assuming was old Air Force housing. We had a Jeep with a .50 cal firing blanks to our east to cover the road approaching from the south, and a buttload of squadies covering every other angle (I hope). Day 1 went by smoothly with nothing crazy to report from my personal experience. We ran a night mission at some point, which was challenging for all involved. Many of our dudes had night vision, but that doesn't always help you see what you're about to step on or fall into, so things were pretty even. I mostly paid attention to where guys were shooting tracers so I could direct my volume of fire onto key positions in an attempt to wax fools. Not sure how well I did.

Fire watch was nice, as we laid down and discussed the evolution of humanity and yeti and shit like that while I scanned the southeast approach with a single tube NOD. Some kid from another platoon on our side got lost, and in the process tossed some flashbangs directly into our position, nailing one of our guys and nearly hitting me as I dove the fuck out of my trash hole, breaking the strap on my G-Shock in the process. Thanks, kid. We grilled him for that. Hopefully he learned.

We ran some patrols and did a little probing the next day. I got zipped a handful of times and I think I waxed some fools, but you can't always tell. I remember lighting up multiple vehicles and watching them completely ignore the large volume of hits and continue driving. Didn't do any hero shit. Opted out of the night mission, as I would've been a mess out there, blind and unable to really engage people in structures with a hot gun (high velocity). I chilled at the patrol base and made sure no Nancies snuck up on us to steal our shit or slash our water supplies. Some ruskie chode was slashing people's water. Not cool out in the desert. We were all chugging tons of water this weekend. Nothing much happened, just a few vehicles rolling by mostly ignoring us.

I mostly fought from the same position the next day, trying to keep fools off our side as we were a bit thin and poorly defended on our northeast side. I zipped Doug from a doorway at some point. My MG's last battery died, and a homie lent me his M320 (single shot 40mm grenade launcher). I had 3 40mm grenades (yes, they go far and go boom), one frag grenade, and two smokes. Despite this, I had a blast cleaning rooms with the boys. I would've had to shoot someone in the chest from about 10ft away with a 40mm.

Later on, I hopped into the Toyota Pickup with an M240 on top with Duckie and we rolled around providing support. I got killed a couple times, being the biggest target on earth, but I also zipped a handful of dudes and also shot a 40mm into a second story window, killing a Russian. The game ended shortly thereafter, and we headed back to the patrol base to clean up. Now I'm back on my ass writing garbage and dreaming of sneaking with an MP5SD6 zippin fools and clearing rooms with way too many grenades.

Adios

October 6 - New Routes

With gas money in hand, I booked it out of the city and into my hills to work on some routes I've had my eyes on. As I climb new lines up obvious crack systems and protectable ground on Crystal Lake Wall, I find slabs and aretes that require bolts for protection. As I don't yet know how to place bolts, I check out the lines and clean loose rock and dirt off.

On my last visit with Chris and Rula, I attempted to climb a very steep corner I'd had on my mind for a few months. I turned back about 40ft up when I couldn't find anymore good protection. I had placed some tiny alloy nuts and one small (.4) cam, which got me onto either dead vertical or slightly overhanging terrain. Lichen and moss covered the face, with only thin seams that barely accept fingertips to be found.

Today I was able to rappel down the line and scrub stuff off the critical holds, linking moves in my head for the climb. I was able to climb it on toprope solo on the first try, which surprised me. The route starts off as dirty 5.7-9 before steepening to 5.11a or thereabouts. Desperate feet on slippery lichen covered steep rock with counter pressure and liebacking moves at odd angles leads to a hard reach to a 1/2 inch or so ledge for fingers. Pulling up on this and smearing feet until you can get onto tiny holds, with a flaring finger crack to lieback from. Relief is in sight. Up and over a triangular bulge with a .5 cam on the right and pow! Easier terrain. You're about 50-60ft up here, and done with the lower crux. Moderate slabby ground up a bit until you hit the upper face, which is very balancey funky slab/face in the 5.10 range. A small .3-4 cam on the left protects the entrance to this section. Careful cleaning yielded some shitty holds followed by several difficult to decipher moves with outstanding holds, and a nice drop straight down below. Haul your carcass up top and you're golden. Another 50ft of 5.7 and easier ground to the anchor.

I've dreamt of this route for a while now, and I'm wondering if I can protect it sans bolts. If I fall in the first crux and the protection doesn't hold, I will go to the hospital. I'll give it a try. There's an easy way out above the first crux.

The second route (which I actually climbed first) goes up the face left of Fried Chiggin Buttress. It's very thin and balancey, with difficult to understand movement sequences and no gear. This would require bolts. The only possible gear I found would be shorty knifeblade pitons, which would need to be hammered from very unstable positions below a thin seam of unknown depth. The seams here are often irregular. They don't go straight in, so hard steel pins just bang into crystals and stick way out. No bueno. I took a fall on this section on my first try, and another later. Very tricky. A lot of it is linking very balancey thin feet with small wacky hand movements. I don't know how to describe it. 

The route were talking about goes up the shiny slab at center. It looks like a three-piece slab with some looser stuff on top. The 5.11a is the shaded roof on the left. You can climb the roof (5.9-10ish) or the face right and below it, which is more 5.9ish with some moving right then left to unlock an easier sequence.

I like these two routes, so I'll have to think of good names for them. I reckon their character will be vibrant on lead. Balance and confidence. 

I've decided on some new lines in the area, so my list will hopefully never run dry. I'd like a partner for some of these, as I don't always feel 100% lead soloing new routes. Sometimes I prefer it to having a partner, but sometimes it makes delicate moves more challenging.

I found I was having more friction feeding with the 9.8mm Bluewater I've been using. I often use a 9.5mm 70m Mammut something-or-other with the Silent Partner, but that rope is getting pretty fuzzy so I'm saving it for certain adventures. This new Bluewater or whatever it is has proven to be durable, though it got fuzzy relatively quickly. It was only $150, so I'm still quite happy with it as my general use beater rope.

Another gear note I'd like to leave myself is to bring the orange rope protector thingy. There is a friction point atop the hard routes that could benefit from the roll, even though the rope looked fine.

I'd like to climb the hard routes in the Five Ten Huecos, which have been my workhorse shoe lately. I climbed in Acopa JB's (John Bachar), which are stiff offwidth shoes. The Huecos are more sensitive. Might make more sense. Both have hard rubber, with Onyxx on the Huecos and Vibram XS Edge on the resoled JB's. I think I prefer these rubbers to Stealth C4 for the routes I've been doing. Less sticky, but they also don't ooze off the same way. They hold a small edge better, and seem to hold small sharp holds real well without shifting much. I like em.

-winter-

As winter approaches, I should pick a few objectives for winter climbing. More running is in the works for these objectives, regardless of what I pick. Having exceptional cardiovascular capability is nearly essential to enjoying these routes. Hours of plugging away up steep slopes.

I had the idea of linking all the steep faces around Baldy in a day, an enchainment that had something like 13 routes with 22,000ft of gain or something absurd like that. It's listed in the google earth file, which I cannot access. It would tackle the most dangerous route, Lightning Couloir on a Thunder Mountain, well before the sun was touching the top. Then, descend to the base again and climb Safety Dance. Down the southeast side of Thunder's south ridge to the west face of Telegraph. One Nut Wonder, then other stuff there, yadda yadda. Honestly it would be a bit much if conditions weren't just right. I'd just do the two on Thunder, and as much on Telegraph as possible. 

Other than that, I'm not sure what I'd wanna climb. The big east face of Baden Powell is dangerous as hell. I've attempted it twice, and canyoneered down it once. I don't know. It would have to be very cold to be safe. I can't say.

There are lines outside the range I'd like to climb, but that's a topic for another time. I keep climbing in the San Gabriel Mountains because they're very close. Affordable adventure. In doing so, I've learned a lot about them, and myself. There is great beauty in their character. They can be harsh.

Good night.