I recently climbed at the Needles with my friend Jon Hanlon and his fiance. We climbed for a day at Demon Dome together, then Jon and I bagged "White Punks On Dope". There was nobody else there! We expected a line in June. We saw one party on pitch 5 when we were got back to the car. After Needles, and Pizza Barn, I then proceeded to head to the desert and bouldered at Wagon Wheel. Here are a few pics if you're interested.

This pic below is from day one at Demon Dome, one of the most user friendly of the Needles. Fairly well protected routes and only a 30 minute hike. This is probably one of the top 10 single pitch routes I've ever done. It's called Devil Worshiper 5.8 and it just blew Jon and I away it was so rad. On your right is a 50' drop off, then the face is all knobs and scoops. Bitchin'. Bring some extra cams to back up the bolts (4 bolts, not 3 as it is in the guide). Rated 5.9 in the Vernon guidebook, but we were thinking 5.8.


P1- This is a shot below of pitch one on White Punks. 5.7 and very good. What a way to start! Mostly 2-3" hand crack. Good feet for some rests. Belay below the roof if you have a 60m, and you'll end up with a more comfortable belay.


P2- This (below) is sort of a combinationn of pitch 2 and 3. After I lead the "roof" I just kept going. It's one burst of 5.8+ energy, then it's over. The only pitch we didn't get a shot on was Pitch 3, the chimney, which turned out to be 20' of 5.7. But Jon and I tip-toed through the bowels and managed not to knock anything off. The roof pitch is really a one move wonder (bold, but short!) and Pitch 3 was also tame with only 20' of real climbing.


P4- This is the business (below), the 5.9 dihedral, most all the pro was finger sized, and it was very sustained. The dihedral just heaved over you like a wave. Totally wicked. I belayed below the roof and was able to get some really good pictures of Jon coming up, otherwise you'll miss this! From here, you do a 5.6 undercling and then lieback easy 5th to the true belay, where you start the face pitch.


P5- This pitch was also the business, with 20'-40' runouts between bolts (4 on a 190' pitch!), 5.8 with lots of thought provoking 5.6 meandering between dishes and small knobs. Go Jon! Not totally hard, but the first bolt looks waaaay up there.


P6- This is the last pitch, and one of several options. It was easy, 5.5 liebacking, but turned out to be very high quality, fun, and a great way to finish the route. The 5.8 finger crack also looked good, but short.


This is me (below) at Wagon Wheel at sunset. Jon and Marni headed home from Needles and I trekked over to Ridgecrest to boulder a bit. Vast. Kind of like a Cat Box filled with kitty litter with huge stone cat turds sticking up out of it all. Then sprinkle in some crazy OHV nuts whizzing about, and there you go. After this shot, the desert winds picked up my large crash pad and deposited it 80' (no joke) away in some bushes. That was it, I was done, time to head home.


All in all, we enjoyed White Punks (I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars) and liked the variety, a good adventure, and we totally nailed the approach and descent after reading horror stories about it online. Car to car in about 7+/- hours. The breakdown: a 75 minute approach, 4.5 hours to do the route, and an 80 minute descent. We were in no rush, and stopped plenty to take it all in. Marni was over on the Magician watching us from the lookout through binocs and a telescope! Very fun. Of course we ended it all with a pizza feast at Pizza Barn. And if you haven't been to Demon Dome, go. Wagon Wheel... only if you're forced to go to Ridgecrest for some strange reason.

Hope you enjoyed the TR, pics are also on slatervision.com if they didn't come through for some reason :)

Post a pic!