Cochise, Nov 22-29 2008

Thanksgiving in ummm, Cochise - what could be more natural? Chris and I headed down on Saturday, and after making one desultory sweep of hidden valley, which surprise, surprise, did not reveal an empty site, found a spot with only one car, and after chatting up the local residents, crashed there for a night. We got up early the next morning, and cruised the campground, waiting for party to leave, and without too much work secured a site. After a quick breakfast, during which a very bold bobcat calmly strolled through the site, we racked up for a little clambering.

Sunday

In order to get back into the j-tree mindset, we started out on a couple of 10-ish slab routes in the middle of the campground: Chalk Up Another One (5.10a), and Pumping Ego (5.10b) The first was a bit spicy at the second bolt, but not to bad. The second was downright scary, and I spent quite some time trying various alternatives before sucking it up and going for it. Definitely a very, very ugly fall if you blow the crux. Properly humbled, we broke for lunch, then wandered over to the Rollerball formation where we led Rollerball (5.10b), then strung up a TR on Roller Coaster (5.11c). The guide lists it as a TR, but there are 8 shiny bolts on it, and it would be an excellent lead. An awesome, if rather tricky route, but well protected. We finished off the day in Steve's Canyon on Super Roof (5.9).

Monday

After sitting around the campsite for a while, trying to decide where to go, we finally decided on checking out the Grey Giant/Fortress area in the North Wonderland of rocks. This was a bit of a mistake, as it's a 2 hour approach. A lot of the trail is on a sandy wash, which slows you down, and the last half hour is spent scrambling over boulders. Luckily we didn't make any mistakes direction finding. If you plan on going there, check out Google Earth to get a sense of which washes to take, and when to start boulder hopping. The coordinates for the Grey Giant are 34° 3'50.47"N 116° 9'5.47"W. We did make a major mistake of trying the S-Crack (5.10c). Well, the guide lists it as 10c, but let me assure you it's not, and the gear is down right scary. The bolt at the start will probably not hold body weight. The piece that protects the first crux (blue/green alien) is a blind placement in a tiny pod. It blew out the first 3 times when I tested it. It's a very strenuous and insecure lieback for most of the way, with poor, thin gear in rock that's very crystalline and friable. Your pieces are very likely to shatter the crystals and blow if you whip. It took me an hour to lead this pitch. And the belay at the top is a hanging one. Luckily there are some (old, questionable) bolts nearby to rap off from. There's another climb there, Heaven Can Wait (5.10c), which finishes at the rap bolts, and it is very fun. A delicate undercling to start with, then some fun crack climbing. Very worthwhile. I wish we had started with this one! It was pushing 4PM by then, and we didn't want to have to navigate the boulder field in the dark, so we called it and headed back.

Tuesday

There's quite a bit to do on Rusty Wall. First there's O'Kelley's Crack (5.10c), and Wangerbanger (5.11c). But there's also a fun line just to the right of O'Kelley's, with one bolt, which makes for a scary lead or a great TR. We chose the TR. There's also a bolted line to the left of Wangerbanger, which looks like it might be fun, but in reality isn't. It's not in the guide, but feels like a hard 12 or 13. Stay away. We spent the day running laps on various routes here, getting thoroughly tired. Here's a fun stop motion animation of me climbing Wangerbanger

Ed and Vivian showed up that evening, with a HUGE load of firewood. Huge in both quantity, but also in the sizes of the individual logs. Way to go Ed!

Wednesday

It started raining Tuesday night, and the precipitation continued into Wednesday. Luckily, this was our rest day, and we spent it in town, hanging out in diners, coffee shops, walmarts, stater brothers, nomads, and the like. We also removed our stink, temporarily at least, at the Coyote Corner.

Amy and Aaron showed up late Wednesday evening. More like Thursday morning really. They got pretty wet.

Thursday

On Thursday, it had cleared up sufficiently to climb, though we got to a late start as it was still fairly damp in the morning. And we were lazy. We went to Jimmy Cliff area behind Lost Horse, which was new to me, and proceed to spend the day in the shade and wind, as it was cold. We worked our way across the wall, with The Harder They Fall (5.10a), a fun finger crack through a roof, Fiendish Fists (5.9), which is not really a fist jam, Friendly Hands (5.10b), which is neither friendly nor hand sized, and The Dike (5.10c R) which is really a one move wonder right off the deck, before you get any real pro in. Not a good place to blow it. In the late afternoon, we went in search of some sun, and ended up at Arid Piles, where we explored a cold and dark corridor, but discovered 29 Palms (5.11d), a very hard but fun stem problem in a slightly overhanging and very smooth dihedral. We top roped it as we didn't have the gear (lots of #2 nuts) or balls to lead it.

No turkey for thanksgiving, but loads of other tasty stuff, including some great stuffing courtesy, veggie stir fry, sweet potatoes, and a pecan pie. Yum! Oh, and a smoky fire.

Friday

We hadn't had enough hiking on this trip, so we decided to explore the hinterlands on the east side of the park - the Oz area. An hour plus walk and a bit of boulder hopping brought us to the Emerald City, high up in the hills, but facing the sun. A good selection of climbs were to be found among the crystalline rock. Amy and Aaron started off on The Rattler (5.11a), while Ed and Viv racked up for In The Green Room (5.9). Meanwhile I geared up for Snake Book (5.11b), and interesting looking stem problem in a dihedral. After a careful inspection of the route, this gear was revealed to be 10 #3 nuts, and a yellow alien. Since I had only a couple of nuts that would fit, the prospect of running out a pure stem problem for 50 feet caused my testicles to shrink by two sizes, at which point I said "f#ck it", grabbed 5 draws, and did Is That A Munchkin In Your Pocket (5.11c), which goes up the arete next to it. It, at least, is well protected, and the crux is short. We set up a TR on the dihedral, and spent the rest of the day running laps on the various climbs. We also tried Yellow Brick Road (5.11a), but it looks like a bunch of holds (thin flakes) have broken off, and is way harder. Amy was the only one who was able to make it to the top. The Rattler, btw, is an awesome climb. Late in the day Aaron, Ed and I went over to the Oz Towers, and tried out Sonic Temple (5.11c), which was pumpy with incredibly sharp crimps. Ed "improved" the start a bit, making it somewhat less scary. We hiked out in the twilight, where we finished the day with some welcome beers that Aaron had secreted in the car.

Saturday

For Chris and myself, unfortunately it was time to pack up and leave. After a tasty breakfast of pancakes, we broke camp. The rest of the gang was staying for another day, and made for Conan's Corridor. Chris and I had plans for Imaginary Voyage, but all the parking sites were full by the time we got there, so we put plan B into effect called for laps on Big Moe (5.11a) 'till our hands bled. Plan B was successfully executed.

A long drive back, with stops for junk food and gas, returned us to Oakland, but at least we missed the horrible thanksgiving sunday traffic. And we found a cool radio station somewhere on the 5 that was playing music from the 40s.