New Jack City - Sport Climbing in the High Desert

One of the coolest things about living in California is the seemingly endless places to go climbing. This weekend Teresa and I headed out to Barstow to climb at "New Jack City". I have never been there before, and was psyched to check out a new area

The place is a canyon of volcanic rock blobs located out in the middle of the desert. It has over 300 climbs, many of them in the 5.10-5.13 range. Perfect!

New guidebook - new area - fun times!

We opted for some luxury and stayed in a very cheap motel in Barstow.  Saturday morning we headed into Sawtooth Canyon, for some well protected sport climbing. 

 climbing time

The canyon itself was an old OHV area that ha now been converted into a protected area by the BLM. The local yahoos were likely upset, but it makes for a much nicer place to visit than it probably used to be. 

Trump supporters might not like the new rules. But I do!

Blobs of volcanic rock - fun!

Having fun!

Hey buddy!

We cranked out a bunch moderate (5.7 - 5.10b) sport climbs and a really tough (5.11) TR. The climbing was both technical and burly, really good stuff. We broke for lunch and moved onto another area in the canyon.

would you like some salsa?

We found a nice sunny wall in another part of the canyon and climbed a bunch more. We did more than 10 route in the day. Perfect!

More rock blobs

Teresa crushing a fun steep 5.8

We found a core shot in my poor old rope. That's actually the first time I have ever done that. I guess it speaks to just how much climbing I have been doing in the past couple of years!

exposed core on the rope.

We cranked out a bunch more climbs in the afternoon, before taking a walk in the desert with the poochy and then heading back to Barstow to sample to local cuisine.

stroll in the desert

Local fare

On Sunday, we checked out another section of the canyon. This area was located on a ridge, so actually required some hiking and scrambling. It had the added bonus of being extremely quiet compared to the rest of the crags in the canyon and had the best rock in the whole place! Climbers are so lazy, won't walk 15 minutes for the best climbing in the whole place. 

Steep and fun!

Penny needed help on the approach

We climbed 4 fantastic route in the morning (5.8-5.10c) before packing it up for the long drive home. I will definitely have to come back to this area. It would be a great place to find some projects and work on sending some harder climbs. Less busy than Bishop, and closer to home. 

Fun times!

car kisses. safe driving?