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Lynsey on Stick to What

Dan mark II and Cam, the tweaker dog, showed up that evening, having left at some insanely early hour (before noon!), and getting an oil change along the way. Monday Dec 25 Monday was even warmer. Dan II and I teamed up, and headed back to Echo for some more slab practice, getting on Sticher Quits (5.7), Stick To What (5.9), Heart and Sole (5.10a), before upping the ante on Swept Away (5.11a) (you can rap right to the ground with just one rope). After lunch, we did a little crack practice on More Monkey Than Funky (5.11c), and some figure 4 practice on When You're a Jet (5.11c), though Dan didn't like my beta on that.

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Dan on Swept Away and More Monkey

Tuesday Dec 26 Tuesday was warm enough to climb in the shade, and was project day. We chose to warm up on Sphincter Quits (5.9) and Clean and Jerk (5.10c), then rigged a TR on Leave it to Beaver (5.12a) to work the route. Lots of fun, with a really hard lunge from a good jam to an insecure one, though Dan was able to work a knee scum to make it better. A couple of other good knee bars allow a full recovery higher up. The start is a bit run out, but it's pretty easy - no point putting in any pro 'till you get to the ledge. After running several laps on it, we cooled down on The Flake (5.8) on Intersection Rock, which was loads of fun, and watched the sun set from the summit.

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Dan works the crux on the Beav, while Cam guards the packs, and Charles stares soulfully into the distance.

After dinner, beers, and other intoxicating beverages, we ran up the Eye of the Cyclops by headlamp and moonlight, and hung out in the Eye until Cam got freaked out by the approach of other similarly minded silly soloists. Wednesday Dec 27 Wednesday dawned a little wet. It had rained during the night, and the masses of clouds blowing across the sky suggested more. A perfect day for a long hike up Queen Mountain, to try to find a few of the classics hidden back there. While Dan and Lynsey went into town to do strange things like shower and shop for cars, Dan and I ventured into the mountains in search of the Treasures of the Sierra Madre. For some reason, Dan had faith that it would be easy to find since I had been up there (in a completely different area) once before. I didn't mention the fact that we had gotten lost that time, and ended up at Upper Walt's Rock instead of our original destination of Lower Walt's. Cam the wonder dog led the way, running back and forth between point and Dan. This of course caused certain problems when I was in between those two locations, as he seemed to think that a) he could pass through matter in human form (me), and b) it wouldn't hurt me if I tripped over him and ended up in a cactus or fell over a cliff. Needless to say, we didn't immediately find the Treasures (as all good treasures are, they were well hidden), but we did discover a very good looking piece of rock that we thought was The Pearl. We could see a line of bolts going up it (several in fact), one of which was supposed to be 5.11a, so Dan bravely racked up and headed forth. Very quickly he discovered that the line he was on was a little harder than 11a, but an equally promising line looked a bit easier, so he moved over to that. He successfully summitted, and we decided that he had done Pearl Drops (5.11a). I followed, and decided to do the walk off instead of rapping down on some very dubious looking slings (with no rap ring). The walk off is trivial. After lunch, we wandered around some more, and eventually found the Treasure - it's on a side canyon left of the main trail as you're still heading up, before you reach the first ridge. It's a little hard to see, and you can't see the cliff band from the main trail - you have to hike up the canyon a bit before you come across it.

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That evening Dan went to Palm Springs to pick up Pascale, and there was much rejoicing. Thursday Dec 28 It was really windy and a bit chilly, so we decided to make it a bouldering day. We started with the usual trip to Gunsmoke, the Tube, and Streetcar. After a few warmup attempts, Dan pulled off Streetcar, and the other Dan got sufficiently far along to get addicted. I got a new high point, which isn't saying much, as last time I hadn't been able to really get off the ground. Lynsey made amazing progress as well, though her beta was very different from the rest of ours. In the afternoon, we moved over to Turtle Rock by Real Hidden Valley, and tried a bunch of problems there. As the sun went down, we played on Saturday Night Live, but none of us was able to send it. I took off at that point, and drove to LA, where I really, really enjoyed a long hot shower at my sister's place.

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Dan on Streetcar, and Pascale at Turtle Rock

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Lynsey on something, and Dan on Saturday Night Live

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Some guy about to take a big fall

Friday Dec 29 I picked up Melody at LAX in the morning, and we made pigs of ourselves at some nice LA restaurants recommended by my sister. Yum! Saturday Dec 30 Melody had never touched real rock before, so we got up early and did a day trip to J-tree from LA. It's only a 2 hour drive. It was beautiful and sunny when we got there, with only a touch of a breeze. So, what better way to introduce someone to granite than to get on a classic Joshua Tree slab climb? We started off with Double Dip (5.6), then played around for a while on Chips Ahoy (5.7), before spending a good deal of time on the super tricky Joshua Tree Lieback problem at the base of the Cyclops after lunch. We finished off the afternoon on Cyclops's Eye (5.6), and hung out on the summit 'till the sun was setting and it got too cold. Melody only said "I hate you" to me twice, so I consider the day a great success!

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Melody at Echo Cove

Sunday Dec 31 We drove back to SF from LA on Sunday, and made it in just four and a half hours. And no speeding tickets either! After getting home, and resting for a bit, we headed over to Rod and Vanda's for a New Year's Eve poker party. Amazingly, I was not the first to lose! Shows you that skill isn't everything! In the end, Jack won the pot, after Dan went all in for a number of hands. Thanks to Vanda for the tasty appetisers, and I apologise for the scorch marks on the ceiling from the liberal use of rum in the bananas flambée.

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