Joshua Tree! - Photo TR

Three  couples, two days in the desert climbing.  Good times!

Into the Southern California Desert

Matt crankin it on Sexy Grandma

Victoria's having fun!

Even Teresa seems to like the desert

Robin and Matt share a moment before launching onto the granite in the golden light

I think this is Wesley's favorite place in California

Matt's silhouette at the end of a day of climbing

Off-widths are fun. - Photo credit - Teresa Brooks

Can you see the terror in my eyes? Photo Credit - Wesley N.

Crux moves for me up high. Photo Credit - Wesley N.

I love climbing in the desert. I'm heading to the Himalaya for a month of snow and ice. I'll think of warm sunny days with friends and my beautiful wife when I'm cold and afraid.

Glow of the desert

Shuteye with Sue

The original plan for the weekend was to climb the Obelisk with Sue, but instead we ended up doing some fun cragging in Shuteye. 

First up was Wingfeather, a super-classic 4 pitch, 750 foot 5.8 up a granite buttress on Gray Eagle. i had climbed in years ago, but didn't really remember much except that it was a great climb! My memory was accurate. its an excellent moderate excursion with a but of route finding to throw in some spice. 

Looking up at the first pitch of Wingfeather

Sue and I swapped leads on this, with her getting the adventure/route finding crux, and me getting the technical crux. Sue did great, and is certainly a strong capable rock climber .

Sue is psyched to climb

Sue following pitch 1

The first pitch is a long (60 meter) crack that leads to some chicken heads. Pitch 2 heads straight up the buttress and is mostly protected my a mixture of gear and slinging chicken heads. Its easy to get lost up there...

Sue launches up onto a sea of chickenheads

The technical crux on P3 is a short reachy face which then leads to easy chickenhead pulling. Good times

Sue following P3

We didn't set any speed records, but certainly enjoyed ourselves on this quiet classic. We topped out on the buttress and found the rap line back to the ground. 

All smiles on the top of Wingfeather

Heading down after a great day on the rock

On day two Teresa joined us, and we headed over to High Eagle for some high quality sport climbing!

Teresa on the approach

We went to the main wall and sampled a variety of 5 star routes, from 5.10a - 5.11a. I didn't send a thing, and bailed off the 5.11, but it was all good fun! Defiantly my rock climbing has been suffering with all the preparations for the Himalaya. Sue did a nice bold lead up a steep 5.10a.

Quality sport climbing. Me on lead

Teresa gets ready to pull the roof

Sue crushing it on lead

Penny came along as well, but mostly napped.

Penny

The best route on the wall was a super fun 5.10c called Sweaty Betty. It was full value, 30 meters long, a spicy runout 5.8 section and a pumpy crux. Super good. 

Sue working Sweaty Betty

The sun dipped behind the ridge, and the temps dropped, so we packed it up and headed home. It was great to have Sue visit for a weekend of climbing....I love Shuteye...

Heading home

Goodbye Shuteye.... see you next Spring