young lusty climbing

Past weekend climbing report: one day trip to jtree with Johnnie, and only Johnnie. Fun little outing out that way - it was the first time she and I as a couple would take a trip together for camping / climbing with just the two of us. We tried inviting others to come along, but people either couldn't make it... or wouldn't make it. Oh well - romantic weekend!!!! (read: two people getting dirty, sweaty, cursing, cut up, pained, scared, concerned and otherwise tormented outdoors in the sun)

We both leisurely started our day with "Dappled Mare" - a 5.8 3 pitch climb on Lost Horse Wall. Johnnie had never done multipitch before and it was about time she got to see why all the communication, and climbing anchors were so important on something so committing as a 400' climb.

For the most part, the climbing went well. I took a lead fall on the first 5' of climbing (a humbling experience!). I forgot how committing that first move can be. The next 200' was pretty cake - some fumbling on my part about where to place the belay stations, but whatever. The last 200 ' was the funniest part of the route.

About 100' above where Johnnie was belaying me from a stony little perch, I pulled a little bulge and stepped out onto a more positive angled slope. I allowed my gaze to follow the crack in the stone before me higher and higher - 5', 10' 20'... 20' and my gaze stopped. Where's the crack?? "Shit - I didn't sign up to do any slab climbing! Damnit - I hate it when this happens!". Little did I realize that 100' below me, Johnnie heard my cursed mutterings and started to laugh. At least I was entertaining someone with my anxiety...

So I placed gear as well as I could, climbed past the 10 or 15' of slab, climbed through another crack to another slabby section. I looked down at my gear - 2 more runners that I could use to clip the rope into whatever protection I could place into the rock. I gazed up and noticed that there was probably about 30' of climbing or so - 15' of easy climbing to a vertical crack with possibly some last minute harder climbing. I decided to save my gear, climb past the easy section, protect the bottom of the crack and then protect the top of the crack before topping out and building my anchor. 15' of climbing later, I found myself at the bottom of the veritcal crack where I hastily placed a stopper and attached it to my climbing rope. "Just like I thought - a few moves of harder climbing and I'm done. Should be homefree" I thought. The tense moment came when just as I in the midst of a particularly tricky movement in this vertical crack, the protection I just placed popped out and slide down about 20' to my previous piece. "Shit!" I muttered (once again, Johnnie heard me from nearly 200' down and braced herself. Later she would tell me that she thought a) either I'm not actually falling or b) I was falling so far she hadn't felt the force of my fall after several seconds... not a particularly pleasant thought...). I knew I couldn't think too hard aobut my predicament, so I pulled the moves, found a solid stance, and set my last piece of protection into the rock wall in with a hard tug. Looking down, I realized that if I blew the moves, I was looking at a 40+ ft fall, hitting some slopey ledges on the way down... good thing I didn't mess up!

After building the anchor, I call for johnnie to follow up the route. I made sure, for humor purposes, to point out the 20' of runout and the potential 40' fall where I cursed. All she could do was look up at me, look at the potential fall, look back and slightly glare at me as she sternly told me "tell me these things AFTER I'm done with the climb". I thought it was funny. :) then again, I'm pretty dark that way.

After lunch, she and I made our way to Rock Garden Valley where I lead a multi starred 5.9 climb and then decided to top rope a 5.10c with a few stars that shared the same bolted anchor. We both loved the climbs out there and decided that since our light was failing, we'd have to come back out that way again. The funniest part of the day came when Johnnie looked up the names of the climbs as we drove home - she giggled and quickly slammed the guidebook shut. "What is it?" I asked. "Do you KNOW the names of those routes we just climbed?". "No - what are they?" I asked. "5.9: Young Lust. 5.10c: Lewd and Lascivious Conduct". I found the situation highly amusing - Johnnie and I on our first couple's weekend to joshua tree and we end the day getting on some Young Lust and following it up by doing Lewd and Lascivious Conduct. Hee hee...