We arrived too late to set up camp that night but arriving the next day (on a Sunday) made it such that we actually got a campsite at the very popular Hidden Valley Campground. For those of you who haven’t been, Joshua Tree National Park is amazing; you’re in the middle of the desert surrounded by giant granite boulders and fields of the coolest looking desert plant ever. It actually looks unreal – like you’re on a movie-set or at an amusement park. Well I suppose one could argue that it is a bit of an amusement park for climbers considering how much climbing there is (about 2000 boulder problems as well as 8000 trad routes), and how accessible it is (we actually had to walk through campsites to get to some problems).

It was fantastic to be camping (finally!) and climbing in this beautiful place. Unfortunately, while the temps were perfect on the day we arrived, they quickly shot up to the point where it was really too hot to climb! We chased after the shade from the moment the sun rose (sauna-fying our tent) until late afternoon, at which point we had to basically run around and climb as much as possible before the sun disappeared. This was far from ideal but we tried to make the best of it. We managed to tick a few easy classics (and I use the term “easy” very loosely, as the grades in J-Tree are notoriously sand-bagged), such as The Chube and Gunsmoke, enjoyed a couple great crack problems (see photo), which seemed fitting for the area, and got our asses handed to us on other “easy” classics, such as Stem Gem (our new friend, Nick, came the closest – see pic). So, with much disappointment, we decided to end our stay in J-Tree quite a bit earlier than planned; we just weren’t able to climb enough in those conditions. However, it was definitely worth the trip. We were surrounded by beautiful landscapes, interesting wildlife (road runners! – see photos), and gorgeous night skies (see photos). And, once again, we were in great company! Long-time friend Marie-Claude drove down with her friend Nick from San Francisco to hang out and climb with us and it was fantastic to catch up with her, introduce to her the new addition to our family, enjoy her gourmet camp food, and get to know Nick.

Leaving early from J-Tree meant that Nick, Marie-Claude and the three of us all had to improvise the next leg of our journey…which will be the subject of our next post, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out the photo album from our time in Joshua Tree.

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It was a great time with family, an enjoyable and (if I do say so myself) much-deserved rest, but when the week came to an end, we were both anxious to get back to the serenity of the wilderness and back on the rocks. Next stop was Joshua Tree National Park – an amazing destination for both climbing and photography! Stay tuned for pics!

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After a month-long stay in Bishop, we felt – yet again – that we were leaving a new-found “home,” and right when we had peaked in terms of our climbing. As usual, we had to leave problems behind (un-tried ones are easier to leave than those un-finished and Mig and I each have a problem that we came *painfully* close to sending – “something to come back for,” they say). We also left behind new friends (who actually live in Bishop – not just fellow transient climbers). Finally, we left behind the lovely little mountain village that is Bishop, with its famous Dutch bakery, climber-filled cafes, the Mountain Light gallery, cheap motels, the airport Thai restaurant, happy hour at Whiskey Creek, the Pizza Factory and Holy Smoke BBQ!

All good things come to an end, though, and our time there was definitely a good thing. We climbed with so many awesome people! After the Reeves left, other friends from Toronto (and surrounding areas) showed up: Cassandra, Dennis & their little girl, Keith and Kaska, and the Durago brothers came with Loic (who basically sent everything in sight) and G6 marketing director, James Koka. So much fun! And then there were all the other Canadians, many of whom we already knew from comps and other climbing trips, a few Kiwis, some Americans, and “Leo, from Japan.” A big thanks to everyone we climbed with for making the Bishop-leg of our trip amazing!

In terms of climbing, the idea was to switch gears and try some harder stuff. It’s definitely not easy on the morale to come back at the end of the day without having topped anything out, but it was really fun to sample a bunch of awesome, tough problems (some of which felt doable and others not so much)! Thankfully, stepping up our game paid off; we each walked away with a personal best! Mig did an amazing send Acid Wash Right and I sent Water Hazard & Aquatic Hitchhiker. Projects aside, ee also had a fabulous time on other classic Bishop probs, such as: Jedi Mind Tricks, Cue Ball, Mr. Happy, Karma (new!), and Fly Boy Sit.

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Last week, we spent another rest day walking around the beautiful country side of California. This time around, we visited the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, near Bishop, in the Inyo National Forest. The forest is host to the oldest living organism on earth. The trees are anywhere between 2,000 – 4,700 years old! I’ve wanted to visit this place for a long time, after having seen amazing pictures of the trees. I was really excited to finally make it happen. Here are some of our favourite shots from the walk. Enjoy!

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On a recent rest day we drove up to see Mono Lake with Dennis, Cassandra et al. This is a popular tourist and photographer destination because of the rare and surreal looking “tufa towers” (calcium-carbonate spires). We went shortly after a mini-storm so the towers were still covered in snow, which was beautiful but also concealed the interesting quality/consistency of the salt towers. Rather, it gave the impression that they were perhaps just trees or rocks. Nevertheless, quite a few of the photos, some of which I (Bonnie) took, turned out really well. Check them out below.

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On our first day, my feeling was that Bishop climbing was going to be harder and maybe not as fun as Hueco climbing. The change of rock and style is extremely noticeable and I wasn’t feeling it at first, personally. But later in the afternoon, something kicked in and I ran around and ticked 2 fun moderate problems and 1 harder one and that boosted my confidence and my psych. Since then, my two favourite problems would have to be: High Plains Drifter and Fly Boy. High Plains is a problem that I had my eye on way back in 2001 and never tried (maybe didn’t feel strong enough) and it was high on my tick list in 2009 but I couldn’t try it then either because it was covered in snow. So, I showed up this year with 11 years of anticipation built up! Thankfully, it did not let me down; it is a *rad* problem. I worked it one morning with Adam and a couple other people and as soon as I figured out the subtlety of the drifter move, it went down – despite, I must add, the miserable conditions (major gusting winds, which didn’t make the high-ball top-out very enjoyable!). Anyway, it was major fun and long-awaited tick. Fly Boy (see video) was super cool because it finishes with a big jump. I’m definitely going back for the sit-start because the upper moves are locked in now and, well, the sit-start looks like the better, more obvious line. Otherwise, I’ve done a lot of moderate things here already from previous trips, so this time I want to play on some harder stuff and see if I can get anything done.

Mig’s Bishop days have been awesome so far. He’s proven just how much stronger he is now than he was in 2009 with numerous sends of problems left behind! Two of the most impressive problems ticked: The Hulk and Seven Spanish Angels (see photo), both done in super style. (Interestingly, I can not do either of these problems – yet, I suppose – and he has yet to do High Plains or Fly Boy; clearly he and I have different strengths!) Also, Mig sent his hardest problem to date: Gleaming the Cube! So cool. Other than that, Mig still has few “old” problems to do but he, too, wants to push himself a bit more and have some goes at harder stuff.

People

We were lucky enough to spend our first week here with Pam and Adam from Toronto, who also have a baby girl! It was really cool not only to share the experience (and work) of cragging with babies, but also to hang out and get to know them better. They are awesome! We will remember fondly (among other things), our little girls having secret conversations, Pam and Mig’s giggle fits, and Adam sketching-out on the down-climb from 7 Spanish Angels.

Photography

At the moment we have the pleasure of hanging out with Dennis, Cassandra and their daughter (yes, a lot of baby girls born into the Toronto climbing scene recently)! This is particularly fun for Mig because he has a partner to get out at the wee hours of the morning and night for various photo shoots. He was able to share a couple sun-rise photo sessions with Adam, and now he has a partner to shoot the Bristlecone Pine Forest, Mono Lake, and other sites. Bishop is situated in one of the most picturesque parts of California, surrounded by mountains, lakes, trees, rocks, etc. It’s a photographer’s dream. See the photo gallery for some of his shots so far!

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The second day was supposed to take us to Southern California but we decided to take a detour to see the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam (Mig hadn’t seen either before), which took us through Vegas instead. We stayed at a hotel just outside the park so we could make a couple of trips, (1) to see the Canyon at night (see photo) and (2) to see the sunrise, which was amazing! Here are a few photos from the classic Mather viewpoint. This route also took us via the Hoover Dam, which was fun to visit (although it’s extremely touristy).

The third day was craziness. In New Mexico and Arizona, we had seen a few road signs that read “sandstorms may exist,” which we thought was kind of funny – as if their existence was questionable. But in case there was any doubt, Mig and I can now verify from experience that sandstorms do exist as we drove right through a serious one on the way from Vegas to Bishop (see video). At one point, Mig had to actually pull over because neither one of us could see the road at all, or anything for that matter (like oncoming traffic for example…)! You have to clear a mountain pass on this supposed 4-hour drive, which is normally quite pretty. But, because of the storm, we had the pleasure of driving through a squall of sand on the east side of the mountains, snow on top of the pass, and more sand on the west side! Not to mention the howling winds that got up to 90 km/h. Needless to say, it was far from a relaxing drive, but we finally made it. We were exhausted and our car was (and actually still is) literally covered with dust (the thule is filled with sand too we’ve discovered), but we were in Bishop, so we were psyched.

So we’ve now seen a total of 39 different U.S. state license plates (one of which was Alaska!), 5 different Canadian province plates, we clocked another 21 hours of driving (total of 56), covered 4 more states (11 in total), and survived 1 major sand-storm! Stay tuned for updates on life and climbing in Bishop, California!!

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Leaving Hueco was extremely hard! For one, we left many problems behind (mostly untried, but a few unfinished). Second, we left behind new friends (and their dogs!), whom we already miss a bunch! Basically we left a place that had begun to feel like home (in more ways than one). I think this is common; there is something special about Hueco, and there are just too many awesome problems to ever feel “done.” Thankfully, though, Mig and I both finally started to feel in decent shape and so we take with us a great tick-list of classics, as well as some individual proud sends. Actually, considering that we have a baby with us and that we had only 3.5 weeks, we’re pretty darn psyched about everything we did.

People + Climbing

Many people contributed to our good times. Jesse – a rad dude with a positive, chill yet psyched attitude – was awesome to climb with for a couple of days. He got the send-train going for me on ‘DDD,’ and his flash of ‘Rudy’ (along with Rocco’s beta) inspired me to bite the bullet and send ‘King Cobra’ from the proper start (both hands on the undercling). Also, more Montrealers came through. I believe we mentioned Dom, Geoff and Phil, but we also got to climb – even if briefly – with Claudia and Eveline, and then on our 2nd last day, with Cloe and Fred. Toujours le fun de voir et grimper avec nos amis du Quebec!

Also, we were joined for a week by our friend Omar, and fellow Joe Rock-heads, Siu and Robin. We had a blast with these clowns! In case some of you were wondering, yes – Omar can still be his angry self when climbing outdoors. But, he is also motivated, hilarious, generous, and all-around awesome. It’s true, his send of ‘Mexican Chicken’ wasn’t pretty but he deserves serious props for not letting go at the top after cutting loose that often. We didn’t know Siu and Robin very well before this trip but we quickly learned that they are both very kind and super funny. We also learned that Siu will never stop climbing despite being broken in numerous places (cf. Loic) and that Robin is a dyno master.

Our tour to the East Spur with these 3 dudes and beta-master Rocco (a.k.a. the conductor) was definitely a highlight for us. Climbing-wise, Mig finished off ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ as well as (the unfortunately named) ‘Better Beat Your Sweeties’; I took down a problem that I had had my eye on called ‘Better Eat Your Wheaties;’ we both flashed the ultra-classic, amazing line, ‘Moonshine Roof;’ and Siu sent ‘Uncut Yogi’ (essentially 3 times) in classic Siu style (i.e. with desperate screams) (see photo). We all finished off this great day with dinner at the famous Texan steakhouse: Cattlemans (drool).

Oh, and we also have to mention Scott. This guy is psyched! He also happens to know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, so he’s very interesting to have around. He kindly came out on his rest day to make us feel very important by taking photos and shooting video on our last climbing day, which was on East Mountain (with Rocco, Mary, Ian and Leici – more great peeps!). Thanks to him, Mig and I each have video footage of our last sends of the trip (Mig on ‘Ventral Fin’; Me on ‘Something Different’), which were both very proud.

Rock Art Tour

On one of our rest days, we went on a “Rock Art” tour (led by Mary) and checked out a sample of the native art paintings in the park. It was very cool to learn about the (conjectured) history of the inhabitants of Hueco Tanks as well as how the rock mountains were formed (hardened lava inside a giant limestone “mould,” which eroded away over time).

Video

Thanks to Scott Strong for shooting video on our East Mountain tour. Here is a video of Mig on ‘Ventral Fin’:

More photos…

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This is just a brief post to share some photos of the beautiful Hueco Hacienda, where we’ve been staying. It’s fully equipped (including a washing machine, which is key when you’re traveling with an infant), just 10 minutes from the boulders and run by the awesome hosts and Hueco veterans Rocco and Mary. We’ve really enjoyed our stay here!

One of the best aspects of being on the (climbing) road is the amazing scenery! Hueco’s desert landscape is truly stunning and Mig and I both are inspired every day to take pics. Another fabulous part of being on the road is the people you meet. Climbing destinations like Hueco attract climbers from all over the world and from all walks of life and we’ve been fortunate to meet a handful of awesome folks already. We’ve also noticed that there is a special community here – people who come back year after year as much for the climbing as for the extended family. That said, though it’s our first time here, we have felt quite welcome. Even having a baby hasn’t scared people away (as far as we know anyway)! In fact, we’ve met two other traveling climber families, which is really nice because (a) it’s a clear indication of the growth of the sport, and (b) it confirms for us that we’re not insane to bring our daughter on the road (or at least we’re not alone in our insanity)!

The Hueco Tanks park from the Ranch.

So we’ve decided not to camp on this leg of the journey after all and rather split our time between The Rock Ranch and The Hueco Hacienda. Apparently the Ranch can get pretty rowdy during peak season, which wouldn’t have been super good for us, but it was perfectly chill when we were there. Not only did we enjoy hangin’ with the employees and other residents there, we were treated to a quint-essential Texan brisket, dutifully watched over by Brett (a.k.a. Mogli) as it smoked for 14 hours. It was fantastic! The owners of the Hacienda are awesome, too, and we’re psyched to be staying here for the next 2 weeks. This auberge is really gorgeous, clean and spacious! And while it’s a more pricey accommodation than we would normally stay in on a long climbing trip, it’s seriously hard to move to a campground once you’ve spent a night here!

climbing

We’ve had some somewhat humbling climbing days since we last posted: falling off the top of problems and feeling our lack of Heuco-style fitness. This is what we were expecting actually, but we had a false sense of confidence because of Mig’s strong send on day 2 and my pseudo-send on day 3 (turns out King Cobra starts one move lower than where I started it; what I did is known as “Queen Cobra,” and goes at V5). It’s all good, though. We are getting in shape, slowly but surely. And with our remaining 2 weeks, we hope to go back and finish some of the fun problems we’ve been playing on and maybe get on some harder stuff if we have time! So most of our climbing shots are of other people, but there’s one of me on Jigsaw Puzzle (sent 2nd try) that I did at the East Spur yesterday!

Alex working the moves of ‘Too many martinis’ V14/15. Not too shabby!

Left: Bonnie crushing ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ V5.
Right: Rocco working ‘Sub-zero’ V11/12.

Video

Here is a quick video of Dom cruising ‘Choir Boys’ (V7) on his first try of the day. He had worked his beta previously. Dom left Hueco today with a very proud tick list, including Fern Roof V9 (see pic below) – way to crush buddy!

More photos…

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