Happy Place - Courtright Reservoir

Having spent 20 days on a freezing cold mountain in Alaska, I was more than ready to soak up some California sun. Teresa and I headed up to Courtright Reservoir for a mellow weekend of glamping and climbing on fine granite.

Courtright - Land of Domes and Lakes

 Courtright is one of my "happy places". Its beautiful, quiet and has interesting climbing. Its one of the places I rediscovered my love of climbing so holds a special place in my heart. The lack of grid bolting and a long twisting road to get there seems to keep most climbers at bay. 

Evening stroll to the dam

 

Even Penny likes Courtright

We camped at my favorite dispersed camping spot on the West side of the lake and enjoyed gourmet meals of backcountry pizza and vegetarian burritos. 

Backcountry pizza

 On this trip I made a point of only climbing routes I had not done before. Although Courtright is mostly famous for run-out face and slab climbs, we actually ended up climbing a lot cracks. Voyager Rock and Tiger Cage have a variety of trad routes we samples. I flailed and whipped on some 5.10 cracks. I think maybe I'm a bit out of shape after a month on a glacier.

Yummy cracks!

More cracks!

 

And more cracks!

Voyager Rock!

We also climbed on the West face of Punk Rock. We tried some tricky friction slab and TR'd a delicate 5.11 face climb. All very nice. We had the place to ourselves. I didn't see a another climber.

West face of Punk Rock

 In the afternoons we would have a siesta and beer in between climbs. In the evenings we would stroll down to the lakeside and take in the sunset. 

Evenings enjoying the lake

 Truly a great and relaxing weekend. I love this place.

Tricam in a pocket