California

Every year, the UAOC runs a trip to California.  They generally switch things up a bit every year, but it's always a hit.  The last few years, my family has always gone away for this time, so I've never been able to go on the California trip.  This year, though, I finally was free so I jumped on the opportunity.

On Boxing Day, I got a ride in to the University and hopped on the bus.  Then started the longest period of sitting I've ever endured.  My knees even started to hurt because of inactivity.  There were comfort stops along the way, but it still kinda sucked.  Luckily I slept for a good portion of the drive so it was alright.

After a stop in Las Vegas for a few hours, we pulled into Yucca Valley for grocery shopping around 5:00 AM.  I felt sick from being on the bus for so long, and so shopping didn't really go well.  It was tough to plan meals in that state, neither Erich nor I were very enthusiastic.  By the time we pulled into the campsite a couple hours later, though, we were feeling on top of our game and instantly went to start climbing.  We went over to Feudal Wall and set up a few lines.  The rest of the exec showed up and we sessioned these lines.  Nothing hard (I hadn't touched the rock shoes since September), I eventually led a two pitch 5.7 with Andi following.  That was a nice experience, it had a properly old school feel with a standing harness belay at the top of the route.  After, we headed back to camp where Justin and I walked a ways behind camp and scrambled up a little peak.  This was by far the funnest scrambling I have ever done.  Crawling under, around and over boulders with numerous short fifth class moves in between.  Pure fun and NO SCREE!!!!

Parking lot for Feudal Wall.  Didn't take any climbing photes... cause I was climbing!

Justin lower on the scramble

The scenery is just weird.  I could spend weeks in the area just dicking around like this, scrambling up all these cool little peaks.

Really good rock climbing potential, but I have a feeling at J Tree climbers are spoilt by road access.  Nothing further than 100 meters from the road is listed in the guidebook.

The view back to Indian Cove

Sunset in the desert

That night, we finally got to party and boy did we go!  Well, actually everybody went to bed super early and we closed out the party at 11!  It felt so weird, our internal clocks were screwed up from the bus ride.

The next day, we headed to Short Wall.  I climbed a big offwidth crack to the top and set up a toprope on a 10a.  I then went over to top rope another offwidth (I suck at offwidth and wanted to get better).  While being lowered off, I got dropped a couple meters, and ended up lightly spraining my ankle as well as shredding my back.  That sort of ended my day.  Everybody said that the 10a was a fun time, but all I could do was sit around and chat.  Not bad, but a bit disappointing.

Hanging around, doing stuff that doesn't require a lot of footwork.

Around 3, we got back on the bus and drove to Leo Carrillo State Park for some warmer camping near the beach, just north of Malibu.

The next day, I took a lazy group up to a 2000' viewpoint over the coast.  Good for my ankle, as it was still recovering.  We then went down to the tide pools and played around with the sea anemones and starfish in the pools.  Pretty cool to hop around the rocks, seeing all sorts of sea creatures.  I managed to piss everyone off my singing Rock Lobster and getting it stuck in everyone's head.  A walk along the beach was a great way to end the day, before heading back to camp for supper and some wobbly pops.

Hiking up from the coast

Hiking up to the viewpoint

On top, we played a serious game of Ninja.  There was probably a solid 5 minute battle between Will and Phil

Starfish

Sea Anemone.  Unfortunately, no Rock Lobsters were found.

Cool Mussels on the Sea Cliffs

Walking into the sunset

On New Years Eve, we went surfing at Zuma Beach.  I had an epic day, catching lots of waves and even managed to ride one all the way along the break, probably a solid 45 seconds of chill riding.  The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach, lounging in the sun and playing ultimate.  Unfortunately, I was getting too rad to take photos.  The party that night was something else.  Celebrating on the beach was awesome, then we managed to run into the same Americans that caused our campfire explosion the year before.  The next day, I became the running joke for waking up with Christine in my tent.  Thankfully, I found out that she had just crashed there due to the drunken state of her tent mate, and not due to other circumstances.  Nevertheless, Andi enjoyed recounting my reaction the next morning "What the hell happened last night?!?"

On New Years Day, we just hung around and napped.  For dinner, we walked up the beach to Neptune's Net, the restaurant featured in Fast & Furious.  Pretty good seafood there, but it was pricey.  After another day of surfing on the 2nd, we drove to Death Valley and pulled into the campsite at 11.

In Death Valley, Justin and I had planned an overnight hike to the Inyo Mine.  It involved going up a rarely traveled canyon and then navigating off trail to a small pass.  That pass would take us back down to a 4X4 road, which we would follow past the mine and back to the highway.  That morning, I ran over to the info center and managed to borrow a pair of topo maps of the area.  Then, all packed, we got on the bus.  Bruce dropped us off at the highway and took everyone else to go sightseeing in Badwater Basin and at the Ubehebe Crater.  The 13 of us shouldered our packs and walked a 4X4 road to "Hole in the Wall"  Here, we got off the road and walked over an allivial fan to where we could get into the canyon.  At the start of the canyon, a few falls provided a nice distraction and a spot for lunch.  After bypassing the falls, we worked our way up the canyon.  In this stretch, there were many small cliffs and falls that needed to be climbed.  These created bottlenecks for the group, and slowed us down a bit.  Some cruising up the canyon led to a 50 foot fall which we again bypassed, then finally we exited onto a high plane.

This high plane was very difficult to navigate on.  The peaks were all small, all cone-shaped and there were very few defining features to navigate from.  No sharp ridgelines, or rivers, or glaciers to give me hints.  For this reason, I got us slightly lost, too far West.  The sun was getting lower and lower, and finally I had to make a run for a high ridge to navigate from in the failing light.  Seeing the pass finally in the distance (the pass was invisible from ground level, just weird terrain), we slowly picked our way across the desert plane toward it in the dark.  We followed a drainage toward the pass, and when it finally turned West, we stumbled on the pass.  In the dark, we decided not to descend and instead made camp where we were, at about 5100 feet asl.  The stars were amazing, we had good food, by bribing the group with chocolate, I managed to keep morale up.

Hiking up the 4X4 road

This guy doesn't seem happy to see us

Hole in the Wall

Schist formations bounding an alluvial fan.  As I told the group, this is one place where you can accurately say that "The schist hits the fan"

Typical vegetation

Freddy climbing up the falls

Lunch time

Avoiding the falls on scree

Already gaining elevation

One of the little cliffs that had to be climbed

Avoiding the 50 foot cliff

Working around another pinch in the canyon

Group shot in the canyon

Megan and Sietske taking a break

The sun's going down...

At least sunset made a good photo

 The next morning, I got up a bit early and found a good way down the pass.  I then went back to camp, woke everyone up, and got us moving.  Down the pass we went, hit the road quickly and were at the mine in about an hour give or take.

Sunrise

This way!

Pretty high camp, considering that the night before we were below sea level

A snake nest.  Really creepy to stumble on if you aren't watching your feet.  You punch through and never know if something is going to bite!

Ben at Inyo

The Inyo Mine camp

I'm a NERD

Into the mine

Freddy being brave

More nerdy engine photos

A clutch

Old gas can

A view of the Inyo Mine camp, and in the background up on the hill, the entrance to the mine itself

I could have slept in the bed, if we hadn't gotten lost!

After an hour and a half at the mine, we picked up the packs again and pounded the miles down the road and out Echo Canyon.  Along the way, we stopped at the "Eye of the Needle", a rock arch along the canyon.  Finally, we walked to the highway and then trudged back to camp, right on time: a few minutes after five.

Ben in front of the Eye of the Needle

Looking through the arch

Nic with the remainder of Echo Canyon stretching out behind

Freddy makes it up

Ben working his way across the slab

Pounding miles

Out of the canyon, getting closer to the highway

Trudging along the highway

Back down, 5100' to -180 in a day

Looking toward Badwater Basin

That night was a great party with everyone finishing off alcohol, burning up the extra white gas, and partying with the bus drivers who were a hoot!  There were also skits and charades.  All in all a good time.

For our last day, we just showered and hung out at the Furnace Creek Ranch's pool.  It was nice to relax and get clean before hopping on the bus home.