Hey folks, time for some penance from the political posts.
Gettin' toward mid-day for the turn-off of 395 near Olancha, got a little blowing sand storm near Olancha Dunes soon after this:
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Near the high point on South Pass road into SV, interesting how the frost is all accumulated on the south sides facing the sun. Must have been the prevailing cold wind pushing what little moisture there was:
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Blurry photos took in a hurry from the iPhone... they don't do zoom well.
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But they make quick and easy landscape shots. Panamint dunes poking out a bit at the head of the valley below, Telescope Peak with a good amount of snow:
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A little rock in the road, but plenty of room to get by:
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Can anyone spot the wide crack to chimney in this photo? (Bonus points if you are thinking "which one?")
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Oh, yeah.
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MisterE, JustTheMaid, Batrock, and I headed off to explore this side canyon, first visit there for each of us.
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A nice arete caught MisterE and JustTheMaid's eyes, but I was compelled to the area by the promise of thrashing.
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That perfect hand crack at the start is only about 10-12 feet high, and I soloed it up and down as part of the recon while Batrock headed higher up canyon. By the time he came back down I lured him up the hill with promise of glory beyond all reckoning. Nice views to be had:
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See what I mean? How can you say no to that?
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This is the part where I did a little less conversation and a little more action. About 10 feet into it I was thinking I bit off more than I can chew. Luckily I was able to get a #5 waaaay deep in and low in the squeeze, so I wasn't so worried about dying. But as I thrutched upward in unreasonably small increments, I was rebuffed by my patagonia stretchy mid-layer acting like the loop side of velcro while the rock grains acted like the hook side. This ain't no slippery Yosemite squeeze. I nearly blew my wad for 6 inches of upward progress, and then losing it all to come back to the stable foot edge out on the face. A few times of doing that and I realized I didn't have the arm bar brawn required to beefcake my way through this. I could sort of get a chicken wing but the friction of my shirt made it a zero sum game. I'm not gnarly enough to lose the shirt for slipperier skin (and lymph fluid/blood lubrication). A slinky kevlar shirt might have helped. But just when I was about to admit defeat, I patched together a series of inside heal-toes and outside knee to heel presses and hanging out to the waist to avoid friction, and a few critical edges from which I could yard upward a bit. Eventually victory was mine, with no rope hanging or gear pulling, and there was music in the background that I couldn't quite make out, but I think it might have been Queen singing Flash Gordon, Savior of the Universe.
After getting past the hard parts, there is a nice place to stand and rest, for a finale of back/foot chimney just a move or two, then an intimidating looking but actually pretty easy roof to reach over and get a bomber handjam, then next move a bomber finger lock. I think Batrock ended up bypassing the crack for the part after the roof, because when you commit you get good spots for your feet to reposition and hop up. So, a great start to the trip.
Gear beta: one #5, one #6 to push and leave at the crux, and one or 2 pieces in the 1/2"-2" range, plus whatever leftovers for a natural anchor and then a walk-off. One of those cam trigger puller things might be good if you get the cam back in there too deeply.
This pic shows Batrock heading up our next new route, and shows the first one from a different angle:
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This one is pretty moderate, more solid than it looked from below, another boltless lovefest:
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After I get up there, we enjoy a great view. Here Batrock is checking out JustTheMaid coming up that cool arete I was mentioning before:
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There she is. Too bad I didn't have a proper camera with a zoom:
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Beautiful spot:
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A pic for the selfie-shadow thread:
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Here's that arete, which they said was "the most crumbly thing they had ever climbed" or something like that. They have a license plate that says "I(heart)CHOSS".
Still, some good looking things to sample in this region, but not as long as the routes down the canyon. Good stuff:
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Day 2 began with my morning nature commune, and an assortment of tracks nicely preserved after a great winter so far:
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Alright, enough stalling, time for the morning commute. Our previous day's exploits are up the side canyon on the right of this frame. Today we are going to the normal spot down canyon:
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We got a bit lost in the Zen of gardening, and I can't rightly say exactly how long we occupied ourselves thusly. But it was enough that I felt like we'd already accomplished enough for the day by the time lunch rolled around:
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MisterE and JustTheMaid headed out that morning, and the night before we were joined by my buddy Dave that I haven't seen in a while. He's a lurker here, not sure I'd even recognize his posts if he ever has. More pics, less talking. Getting down toward the main wall area:
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A hippy-dippy scenic shot because I'm like that:
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We pondered a few options, which is hard because there are so many good looking things. We somehow ended up committing to one that some other folks recently put up.
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It's supposed to be 5.9, like just about everything established out there so far. I was a bit skeptical that fingers would fit all the way up, and didn't look like too many ledges to hang out along the way. The expression on Batrock's face tells me he was a bit skeptical too.
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He made short work of the first bit, and it gets a bit more serious but still pretty fun right about here:
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Right about here it is pretty damn desperate unless you are a 5.11 climber. That left wall is slick, the whole thing is pretty steep to slightly overhanging while the initially thin hands pinches down to first digit or tips liebacking.
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We eventually got up this, but let's just agree to not talk about style. Batrock at least crash-tested that the gear placements are good. He'll have a good rock rash on his kidney for at least a week or two. There is some wetness/slime just past the steepest part, and a bigger-than-a-breadbox chunk that moved and threatened to pop out when I got a hand jam behind it. Hard to reach past it without touching it, too scary to trundle when people below, and risk to rope chopping. Above that is another loose and bigger block, but it was stable enough I felt comfortable standing on it but looking quickly for a solid jam in case it cut loose. It's a looong pitch for a single 60m rope, thankfully with a bolted anchor on top, and I basically rapped off the end of the single 60m rope and held the end in my hand batmanning for the last 3 feet to the ground.
And then Dave was shredding the gnar on a highball boulder problem:
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Not much climbing this day, but I think we all felt like we got our money's worth. Even before we started the climb, I was cracking jokes and testing the water for an early departure to the hot springs:
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The nice thing about this place is when you feel like it is getting dark, it's not actually that late, and after the longish hike back up the canyon, you really do lose the sun over the Inyo's right about when you reach your vehicle.
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Pondering old adventures and future adventures:
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And a little more artsiness:
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Going to be some good food here in a few months:
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That's all she wrote folks. Just some soakin', stars, and wind rustling through the palms after this.
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Oh, and of course some donkeys too.
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