Ski Southeast Messageboard

Figured I would throw up a TR from last week during my lunch hour, as I watch the skies darken for MORE snow in the DC area. This has been an insane winter.



Took a business trip to the San Diego area last week, but luckily my boss is a pretty hardcore climber who almost went the route of climbing/ski bum vs. ONR program manager, and we had a researcher to visit who lived in Indio, right down the road from Joshua Tree. We pushed our meeting back to the afternoon and made the pilgrimage to park, which is a climbing mecca and a pretty spectacular place.



CACTUS!

















YUCCA!





Cholla Cactus Garden:



















Jumbo Rocks area:















Boss with crash pad in tow:







Moar roks:



















Bouldering in orange blaze steeze:







Headstone rock, which has two pretty prominent routes up it, one 5.6 and one 5.8, both of which feel super exposed even when you are standing at the start. The 5.6 goes up the outside, right facing corner in this pic:







The 5.8 goes up the face thats in the light- if you look closely you can see a hanger in the lower left:







The backside of Headstone rock:







The rest of these pics are from the Hidden Valley area, where natural rock walls served to enclose the valley and trap moisture; this led to a natural non-spring oasis of plants and animals.



An actual Joshua Tree in the foreground:







Joshua trees are just a large variant of the yucca:







Midday light sucks, but I tried to play with shadow as much as I could:











CACTUS!







The valley:







You could spend years (or maybe a lifetime) finding and climbing new routes in the park:











For some reason almost all of my pics ended up being composed vertically. I really need to figure out more horizontal compositions; I liked this one:

Tough dynamic range:











Yucca in partial bloom:







Cool natural features in the rock:







More trees:







Boss trying to get a heel hook set in non-climbing shoes:







That be all. Was a cool trip, got to spend 2 days of meetings (at Scripps Institute of Oceanography) with this view:







If you want to see big versions, go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrobstory/ ... 373300472/

Did you encounter the ghost of Graham Parsons? I can see why that place has a reputation -- and I don't just mean for rock climbing



Great pictures and a cool change from winter time and snow

Hey ECer, which part of the park did you go into? The main entrance from the town of Joshua Tree?



My sister lives in 29 Palms (but is moving to NC on Thursday), literally a 5-min walk from one of the campgrounds down the road from J-Tree. The climbing and photography possibilities in that area are plentiful, that's fo' sho'. Great pictures.

the chollas bring back painful memories.... thats one mean plant.



great pictures, i would love to go that area one day.

@EastCoaster 207300 wrote:Figured I would throw up a TR from last week during my lunch hour, as I watch the skies darken for MORE snow in the DC area. This has been an insane winter.



Took a business trip to the San Diego area last week, but luckily my boss is a pretty hardcore climber who almost went the route of climbing/ski bum vs. ONR program manager, and we had a researcher to visit who lived in Indio, right down the road from Joshua Tree. We pushed our meeting back to the afternoon and made the pilgrimage to park, which is a climbing mecca and a pretty spectacular place.



Moar roks:









Nice pics! Sounds like a fun boss. How big is the gap in these rocks?

I enjoyed the pics! Looks like a very cool park. Thanks for sharing.

Did you listen to U2 while you were there?



Nice series.

@KneeDeep 207305 wrote:Hey ECer, which part of the park did you go into? The main entrance from the town of Joshua Tree?



My sister lives in 29 Palms (but is moving to NC on Thursday), literally a 5-min walk from one of the campgrounds down the road from J-Tree. The climbing and photography possibilities in that area are plentiful, that's fo' sho'. Great pictures.



We came in the south entrance that takes you through the heart of the desert, then into the main park area and out the town of Joshua Tree exit.



Shame she is moving- would be nice to have a base of operations in 29 palms. A week out there with some alpine starts and late evenings could result in an amazing set of images for the portfolio.