1st day at Pine Creek Canyon

Pine Creek Canyon Day! We wanted a nice leisurely trad day doing a couple of multipitches.

Michael ran over the middle of the snake with the Camry and the dumb thing survived! 

We attempted two multipitches today and completed one. The first one I led was called Racing Lizards, a three pitch 5.7 (300ft) . I hadn't climbed trad or led a multipitch for over a year now, so I was REALLY nervous climbing today. I thought 5.7 piece of cake but pitch one proved terrifying. I don't crack climb, neither does Michael, halfway up pitch, bam... beautiful hand crack with NO feet. I plugged as many pieces in as I could and almost took my first trad fall, but managed to stay glued to the crack. We finished the rest of the climb with no more problems.

Michael at the start of Racing Lizards 5.7

Me sitting at the bottom of the hand crack. 

Pitch 2 of Racing Lizards.

The view at the top of the Racing Lizards of the White Mountains. 

Michael attempted the next multipitch of P.S.O.M. pinnacle, a 5.8 three pitch climb. Pitch two Michael's foot blew and he fell landing on his heel. We retreated after pitch two. Now with a heavily bruised heel its time to spend two or three days healing for Michael. Seems I'll be leading any slab pitches and Michael says he'll stick to the overhung or vertical pitches.

5/28/2012

5/28/2012 - Another day at the Owens River Gorge we only climbed two routes. A stellar 2 pitch 5.10c climb, the two pics below are of Michael pulling the roof easily. In my case I huffed and puffed all the way up. The big flake above Michael's head is the second pitch. A slightly overhung pitch of strenuous liebacking.   I was wore out after two pitches of superfly, but Michael climbed another one called Grindrite (5.11b).

Pitch 1 of Superfly (5.10c) 

It looks a lot easier than it was!

After climbing we drove north to Hot Creek Geologic Site near Mammoth Lakes, CA. I was super excited, Michael not so much. I wasn't allowed down there either. :(
                   

Hot Creek Geologic Site

                           

Cute caterpillar we found while picnicking at Hot Creek geologic site. This one is for you samantha.
Were not trying to being mean, but we can't help but think of you every time we see one now.

Land of fruit and nuts and.... snow?

Well, Vegas was a bust. We wanted to climb at Red Rocks but 55mph gusts, heat, and lack of cheap campground facilities forced us to to climb elsewhere. 

   So to the Hoover Dam. It was quite uneventful, windy and the Asian tourists were flocking with fanny-packs and cameras. So we took a few pictures and bailed west.

 To the Eastside of the Sierras!!! Passed through Death Valley National Park on the way to Bishop, CA. When we arrived here it was in the 30's with storms over the mountains dumping snow. But luckily we're only at 3000ft elevation in the desert so no snow for us!

Michael getting warm at our campground "Pleasant Valley Pit".
The views are amazing to the west and east.

We finally found an affordable campground near all of our climbing spots. For two bucks a night we get picnic tables, bathrooms, recycling, and a flat spot to sleep, pretty sweet deal.
   Our first two days of climbing were at Upper Owens River Gorge. (there's also a lower and middle gorge) The entire gorge is bolted for sport climbing with every type of climbing from huecos, cracks, dihedrals, face, and slab climbing. Not to mention a river running down the middle to boot.

Upper Owens River gorge

While hiking we learned getting pricked by nettle is not fun. Feels like getting bit by a fire ant. Being Texas climbers were slightly spoiled by getting climbing crags to ourselves most of the time. Not here. Everyone comes to the gorge except the Asians. But they might invade soon enough. We got to the gorge around 9am this morning hoping we'd beat the locals... boy were we naive. First wall and climb we lead, I look down from the anchors and a group of 14 people are swarming on ONE wall within a HUGE gorge. WTF? Dogs , portable iHomes, and guided groups?? I though we were where all the dirtbag climber's flocked to. We move to another wall in the gorge, more people swarmed there. Tomorrow we're getting to the gorge super early. Don't get me wrong, Michael and I like hanging out with people but not obnoxious tourist groups. We're hoping after memorial day weekend the crowds will be gone. I think either tomorrow or the day after we're heading to Pine Creek Canyon to start practicing on easy trad and maybe some hard sport multi-pitch.

Me flailing on the first move of Pick pocket (5.11a)

View up the Gorge (the gorge is made out of welded ash deposits?) Makes for great climbing

Me fixing to get my lunch eaten by the impending crack above
at Slackjaw (5.10a)

Michael making it look easy at O.R.G.asm (5.11a)
This was our favorite climb yet.

Sin City

We started the day early at beautiful Zion National Park, where we paid off our National Park Pass, it was $25 per vehicle to enter the park! 

The court of the Patriarchs

 After Zion we drove down I-15, down to Las Vegas. We found a hotel room at the Palace Station for $17 but ended up being $34 after "resort fees", but was totally worth it. We wanted to cook some lunch/dinner at a local park, so we searched google navigation and it sent us to what was "Freedom Park." Pulling into Freedom park we see prison grade barb wire fences. hmmm... that's funny. Turns out google navigation sent us to a Nevada Correctional and Detention Facility, so we opted to cook at the hotel because were that cheap.

 Our next door neighbors in the hotel happened to be the same asian tourist group that we saw in the Grand Canyon and Zion. They're following us!! Not to mention they yell at the top of their lungs through paper thin walls here 24/7. Michael said that's the norm overseas.

 We thought well if we're in Vegas we might as well go see the strip. Our first casino was the best.... the Wynn and Encore resort. We gambled on the penny slots with a dollar and turned it into $3.10 and got some free gin and tonics while we gambled! We tried the ghostbuster slot machine once, had no idea had to use it, but we ended up winning more money, then cashed out!

Michael near the Bellagio

Glass flowers at the Bellagio foyer
                                               

Three hours on the strip was plenty for a lifetime I believe, do we ever want to come back...? Probably not. Were ready to go climb at Red Rocks!

5/23/2012

      Were both convinced Flagstaff has bad voodoo.  Too many unfortunate things have happened in the past two days, that we thought it was best to leave the area. Besides Meg and Justin though, Thanks for letting us stay for the past two days, it was great, you two have a blast in Turkey!

      Early in the morning, we climbed at the Pit (a limestone sport crag right outside of Flagstaff), Michael made me lead Mr. Slate (5.10b) which was an awesome climb, but also had bad voodoo. Two people had died on that same route for well…rookie reasons. 

(Mr. Slate, 5.10b)

Panicked to clip I ended up biting my hand trying to pull rope up… rookie mistake. Michael ticked a short 5.12a yesterday, after 3 and 4 routes a piece we were wiped. Easy to say were both out of climbing and hiking shape.

                                    

We learned yesterday that all the ambulances, fire trucks, and Forest service personnel we saw at Pine Creek Vista (5/22) in the Grand Canyon, turned out to be a death. A man either jumped or accidently went over the side of the canyon and fell 180m to his death. CRAZY

    We hung out in downtown Flagstaff for the afternoon said farewell to Meg and left for Zion national Park. We crossed over the Colorado River (AWESOME) 

Michael at the Colorado River

and drove into Zion pretty late, with the campgrounds full, we pulled into a pullout and sleep outside. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen stars like last night. 

Day 2... of unfortunate events

Arizona wasn't so good to us today....

   We woke to this...

 The time.... 6:30am. We had no idea it was this early. Michael looks pissed from a flat tire? not really the car fell off the jack two times and then after taking all the lug nuts off, one of them was welded to the bolt.

that's the screw we ran over... unfortunately. On the up side we got 4 brand new tires for the Camry after going to Big O' Tires, this morning at 8:00am.

But the day turned out.... Grand Canyon National Park with MEG!

                                     
                                      
                                      
Me and Meg at the top of the canyon.

 The last picture was at ooooh Aaaahh point on our 3 mile round trip hike. Minutes before I had sent a spot coordinate, then Not so oooohhh Aaaahh after I accidentally catapulted the Spot GPS device from my backpack over a huge cliff. Sitting down Michael watched the SPOT hurtle through the air parallel to the shear canyon walls. Easy to say, the SPOT will not be returning. So I will be purchasing one to replace it soon. I literally kicked a SPOT device into the Grand Canyon, dumb luck. Afterwards Michael's mom text him and said she got the coordinates from the SPOT and I didn't have the heart to say the spot now has a permanent home in the Grand Canyon, although not a terrible resting place. I'm sorry Laurie!

First day of the trip

Scenes from yesterday... first day of the trip. Had a slow drive to Flagstaff, AZ, visited Petrified National Forest, purchased a National Parks Pass and made sure we DID NOT take any petrified wood out... the park ranger asked us several times if we did. Outside the park people offered it for FREE.  We learned the petrified logs are Jurassic-aged and were created after being buried under silica-saturated water and the organic materials in the log were replaced with crystals to become what they are today.
 

                                                  

At the end of the day, we stayed with our friends, Meg and Justin, and had a great late-night dinner outside.

 

Day before

Packing the car up the day before, super surprised everything fit into the small Camry. Only half of our stuff is pictured!

Driving route

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