Mt Baldy

Snow Skiing 45 Miles from LA..... The weather in California has been pretty insane lately.  The San Gabriel Mountains that tower behind downtown LA are dusted with snow. Shoot the entire state, in a months time, has pulled itself out of a 6 year drought.  10 out of 13 of the states large reservoirs are above historical averages. If you compare that to a year ago; it was zero. This welcome change has been received well and it makes for some great skiing just a hour or so away from downtown LA.  

Harry and I geared up early Saturday morning and headed up to Mt Baldy.  Its such a retro place, stuck back in the 70's. The motto of the mountain is "Real Skiing; Real close" and its the truth!  There was no trail map, just ski lifts that take you to the top.  The only signage displayed was the "Expert Only", which we kept cruising past as I felt a slight sense of fear.  Harry is much more experienced than I, so I trusted his judgment and we crushed it.  Epic day, epic conditions,  SoCal skiing.. what can you say. 

Joshua Tree

Well this was a fun one.  On a weekend that Erika was working both days.. aka a "Black Weekend" as it's known in the medical world.  I decided to pack up the dogs and head out to Joshua Tree National Park to meet up with my buddy Harry.  Harry and I know each other from Austin. We met at the greenbelt one afternoon and bonded over a spliff while we sent routes at Gus Fruth.  Our plan was to continue our climbing adventures in J-tree, a world class destination only 2.5 hours from both of our newly adopted home of Los Angeles.

Camping sites in the park are a hot commodity, especially with all the dirt bag climbers living out of their vans gobbling up the prime times spots. I left LA around 1PM and drove East, venturing out into the damp conditions. It's been raining like everyday for the past 2 weeks, the atmospheric rivers this winter have been dumping copious amounts of moisture in the form of snow in the Sierras and rain in lower elevations and throughout SoCal.  There have been reports of 15 feet of snow in parts of the Sierras!! When I arrived at the town of Joshua Tree just outside the national park, it was soaked and the roads were flooded with water and granite.  I picked up some wholesome food from a health food store and headed  into the park. By the time I got to the park entrance it was a chilling 36 degrees and it was snowing in the park! Not unheard of, being that the parks elevation is 3000 feet with higher parts around 5000 feet. 

There is no phone reception in the park, so Harry and I had to take it back to the analog days and planned to leave a handwritten note on the message board at Hidden Valley Campground.  It was full, so I left a note that I was headed to Jumbo Rocks campground.  Driving through the park with snow covered peaks and low hanging clouds was very beautiful, mystical and pretty much magic.  Joshua Tree NP is at the intersection of the higher elevation Mojave desert and the lower elevation Colorado desert. At any transition zone geologically speaking, makes for a unique and diverse environment.  I started a fire with the help of the propane torch that I had conveniently stashed in the side panel of the Panzer, hoping to warm myself and the dogs while we waited on Harry. But he never made it.  I was thinking maybe traffic was too bad and he decided to wait to come the next morning.  I did meet and intereesting guy named Heath, who was a geologist recently moved back down south from his teaching position at Humbolt St University.  We had a great chat and bonded over the book I just read called "Wild Trees" about a professor Steven Sillett who studied old growth forest canopies.  I went to bed in the Panzer, and cozied up with Honey and Emma.  Hoping to see Harry truck when I woke up in the morning.  

Morning came but no Harry.  I went ahead and walked up to the campground registration area to make sure we secured the same campsite for another night because people were driving around like hawks just waiting for someone to suggest they were packing up to leave.  Right when I returned to the campsite I turned around and I see Harry rollin up in his 1992 Toyota truck.  Fuck ya,  there was a bit of suppressed excitement as the park ranger rolled by and told me to put a lease on Honey, so once he left we hugged it out.  Harry and Buddy, his black lab doggie, came bearing gifts in the form of a burrito from Del Taco.  We caught up a bit smoked a spliff, ate the burrito and developed a plan of action for the day of climbing ahead.  

I made sure Harry was aware of my lack of crack climbing experience, but as Harry does with his positive attitude and always encouraging demeanor, he said, "you'll be fine food".  Gotta love Harry.  So we sorted up the gear and loaded up the dogs in the back of the truck and headed to the Barker Dam parking lot, where we would hike about 1.5 miles in around the lake (which actually had water in it from the rains) and eventually hit the "let your freak flag fly" route. It was rated a 5.9, and I'll always remember the climb as it was my first lead baley and first top rope crack climb not to mention my first climb in Joshua Tree, and my first solo repel. I had to learn some crack climbing technique on the fly and with Harry's insightful instruction I made my way up the crack.  It's definitely a different style than I'm used to.  We then packed up and headed to a great sport slab climb, which had an absolutely gorgeous view once we got up to the top.  We packed our gear and raced the sun to get back to the trail, navigating enormous boulders and jumping seasonal streams.  As the sun dropped so did the temps and we smoked a celebratory spliff and headed back to camp for a delicious curried lentil bacon and veggie mix over rice.  Had a big ole fire to combat the chilling breeze and called it a night. 

After a restless nights sleep, one where Honey kept kicking me in the balls which provoked me to wrestle her into a more comfortable position, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise.  I cooked us some great breakfast while Harry planned out the routes for the day.  Coffee, breakfast, spliff, loaded up and went off.  This time we took both cars, because I needed to leave around noonish, to get back and see Erika and attended our dinner plans with the beautiful Danielle Graham.  Heading to our planned destination, Harry took a big U-turn and we ended up climbing two famous J-tree cracks on The Heart of Darkness wall.  The first one was a fist fight for me,  these were vertical climbs and I didn't have the proper tehnique in my arsenal, so it took me clawing tooth and knee to get up.  After the first crack climb, I jumped straight onto the other climb, getting no rest and had to give up about halfway up after sighing a rock down at Harry hitting him in the hand.  Not a great gesture to someone who had been so patient and encouraging to me this trip.  Harry of course sped up and down the climbs making short time so I could try and get outta there around 12.  

What a trip, kinda a long recap for a two day event, but it marks many firsts for me.  It was a very humbling experience. Doing new things, challenging myself, always learning, facing fears. These are some thing that I took away from this weekend.  Putting myself out there, being vulnerable, seeing how I respond. Ending on somewhat of a low note, but I promise I'll be back and return for the challenge, to grow and learn how I respond to adversity.