Jtree season comes early

Back from yet another weekend at Jtree. Yes - that's three weekends in a row. Yes, the climbing was good. Yes I love it that much. Yes - the season has come early.

**Warning: long blog ahead **

So after frantically scrambing for a partner this week, I headed out for jtree friday night with Tina. Who is she? That's exactly what I wanted to know for this weekend - all I knew was that she's an undergrad with yosemite trad climbing experience. Chatted with her for a few minutes waiting for some free hot dogs one day outside the climbing gym (a sign she's a climber - or a student... or both - free food!!!!) and she seemed cool enough. Since Johnnie was going to LA for ballet with Dan, Dan was going to ballet with Johnnie, Robb was in Davis, Larry was busy with "work" (seems work always entails riding his motorcycle... but whatever...), Tina was next logical person to climb with :)

So anyways, we drive out to Jtree in the middle of friday night and arrive to the entire park being PACKED. Crapstix. It's a 3 day weekend for people who think that Columbus was awesome for getting lost ("look guys! India!" "no sir, this is not India" "well... I discovered america then!" "dude - you took us to the carribean islands - you didn't even hit the friggin continent!"). Anyways, I pulled the ol' "hello, take pity on a pair of sad sad climbers. Can we sleep at the edge of your campsite friendly sirs-and-ladies?". The people we found were really nice - they were setting up their tent at 11 pm and said they didn't mind having a coupld people sleeping by the cars. Good thing too - I don't think Tina would have enjoyed me using plan B: "hello, take pity on a pair of sad climbers. Would you like to have an attractive young lady and her climbing partner sleep in your campsite with you guys?".

So anyways, since my thermarest is out for repairs, I brought my MONDO crashpad. yes - it's as big as a mattress. He he he - perfect for car camping! pulled out my sleeping bag and went straight to sleep.

I woke up in the mornng feeling a bit chilly. "Odd" I thought... I'm in a 0 degree bag. I opened up my bag, sat up, sleepily looked all around me and realized that I had a layer of FROST on me. I looked carefully at my crashpad next and realized that there, before me, lay a perfect outline of my sleeping bag IN FROST. Hmm... guess it got below freezing. Tina was a "little" cold <---- extreme understatement.

So we both got up, ate a quick meal by the car and noticed that the neighboring campsite was being packed up. Delighted by the sight, I talked to the people in the sight and confirmed they were leaving. After getting their permission, I left behind a 7 gallon water jug on the firepit to mark the site as "taken" and headed out for Hemmingway Buttress.

I had assumed the day would quickly warm up - afterall, last weekend it was so hot I was climbing shirtless IN THE SHADE. Hemmingway is mostly shady during the day. Man, I was soooo wrong.

Climbing that day, we had an extra incentive to get to the top quickly - a reward from God if you will. the entire wall was in the shade after 10 am - Tina and I were typically cold if we stopped climbing. But at the top, we could bask in the warm glow of the sun. And that was how the day went: freeze, climb, bask and re-warm our extremities, loathingly do a rappel and repeat. At least the climbs were fun enough to motivate us.

So for my climbing friends - what did we climb? We did White Lightning, Feltonean Physics, Overseer, Prepackaged, and the Importance of Being Ernest. With the exception of the Importance of Being Ernest, I lead all routes. I was able to onsight I.B.E. - jtree 10c/d! woo hoo! I also had an epiphany - the moves on this route roughly did feel like a V1 black mtn problem. The thought gave me a warm and encouraging feeling that this season I'll be able to lead harder and harder routes than ever before (either that or it was the sun hitting my back as I sat on the top of the wall...).

When we returned back to camp to rest and recoop, we discovered that the site we marked was snaked out from under us. A large tent, bundles of firewood and "stuff" littered the area. With my water jug as the central piece to their "stuff". Crapstixxxxxxxx!!! I was half expecting this to happen - locals and regulars know that things like firewood, water jugs, etc that is left behind marks a site as "taken", but with the influx of non-regulars in the Park this was bound to happen. Forutnately, I talked to the people whose site we stayed in the night prior and they were more than happy to give us one of the 3 sites they were staying in.

Now here's another milestone for me besides having climbed strong that day - I was confrontational with the people who snaked our site. When i saw them return, a small rag-tag motley crew of 20 something year olds (probably up to no good that day snaking others' sites!!!! yar!), I glared at them as they noticed the water jug was missing and moved to the table Tina and I were eating at. Then I walked up over to them, greeted them, and introduced myself as the guy who used to have the campsite they were staying in. Seriously - I just went up to them and said "good evening. So, you know that this site was already taken? That's what things like water jugs or firewood usually means around here. Yes I know you thought it was empty - fortunately, those people over there were nice enough to give us a site so no worries this time around. Just let it be known for next time. Good night". I never act so confrontational but something in me decided that I didn't want to act timid (especially after leading my first .10a of the season that day with no effort). 'Sides, it's better if people knew how etiquette worked around jtree.

So after a less-freezing night of sleep (didn't dip below freezing that night), Tina and I packed camp and went to Hidden Valley Campground. Tina was feeling intimidated by the jtree ratings / climbs despite having some Yosemite experience (I guess Jtree is rated harder than Yosemite... strange considering it's the same people putting up the first ascents...), and wanted a nice lead to challenge her for the weekend. I put her on the Bong - a standard Jtree 5.6 climb to be lead by novices to the Park / leading. She cruised it with only 3 pieces (she warned me she might free-solo it... kind of a strange comment considering she said she wanted to "lead" something...) placed.

Sated with the leading, we walked over to Hands Off in HVCG where it was significantly sunnier (and warmer!). I racked up and lead it. what was it rated again? oh yeah 5.awkwardly-fun!!! Really strange moves with technical footwork - after crusing up all the leads the previous day, it felt strange for me to doubt myself on a single 5.8 climb - but I was glad I protected it in the places that I did - I was reading some posts online about the climb and apparently a couple of people have had shattered ankles from not taking the climb seriously.

We broke for lunch and I discovered that Tina's shoulder "popped" out the previous day on White lightning and had been bothering her. After hearing this, I realized it was time to come home... which is where you find me now. Home. typing. at my comptuer. The end.