And so the saga continues…. All the experts disagreed with our self assessment of being ready for a first big wall. Further practice is in order they said. We decided that Joshua Tree would offer a number of opportunities.

Before climbing, the first chore was to practice hauling. We set up a 25 foot haul at campsite 1 at Sheep’s Pass. We used a wall hauler and an old backpack filled with rocks, for lack of a haul bag. Hauling the 60 lb package proved exceedingly difficult, particularly for Judy, being lighter in weight and with friction working against us both. With my greater body weight I could more easily counterweight the load to assist me in hauling. Both of us required significant muscle power in addition to the body counterweight on the hauling line.

The first endeavor was to check out the Lost Pencil (A1 bolt ladder) and Equinox (12c crack), both located near stop 5 on Geology Tour Road. The hike out was a nice ½ hour stroll in the beautiful desert terrain, laden with several ropes and a huge big-wall rack. As we approached Equinox it started to loom large above us. After some discussion, we decided that hiking to the Lost Pencil in the distance could help to further delay the inevitable first move onto the rock so on we went. When we arrived at the Lost Pencil, it was magnificent. A huge rock perched atop a hill reminiscent of a larger version of Headstone Rock. Approaching the base of the rock proved rather difficult. The book indicated that a free route at 11a was available, which we quickly spotted on the west face, towards the saddle of the hill, but where were the two aid routes? We hiked around the base of the rock, including more than a few 5^th class moves looking for an aid route. Finally, on the south southeast face we saw a line of ¼ inch bolts. Unfortunately, the bolts had no hangers. Seven bolts were visible, but only number 5 had a hanger; not sufficient pro for our limited abilities. We decided to head back to Equinox and do some crack climbing. (Upon later discussion with Ben Chapman, we discovered that the 11a free route had superceded the other bolt ladder. Ben indicated that he may re-bolt the aid line at some future date. It looks to be a beautiful line if bolts with hangers were available. It may still be climbable with self-installed hangers and nuts.)

After hiking back, we finally arrived at the base of Equinox, a 100 ft slanting, slightly overhung finger crack. Judy boldly volunteered to lead the first half of the crack and set a hanging belay. We were glad that we had decided to practice hauling at another time. We had racked up with numerous small pieces, with the limited knowledge that the crack looked small near the bottom, but larger near the top. Judy started off with an alien placement, hesitant to weight the first piece. Once the second piece, a medium stopper, was placed, she started to relax. The half pitch went relatively quickly at about 75 minutes or so. Judy placed a belay and clipped in the rope, shouting, "Tied off, ready to jug". I quickly readied myself to ascend the line and clean the gear. Ascending a slanting crack, while not quite traversing, is still less than optimal. The top ascender needs to be placed above the piece being cleaned. This requires removing the ascender from the rope temporarily. A short tie in and the bottom ascender (with an extra carabiner preventing it from coming off) provide the two remaining attachment points. Judy had used mostly wired stoppers for protection, all of which were readily cleaned. This took around ½ hour or so. When I reached the belay, my nerves kicked in and I set a fourth piece to compliment the three stoppers already comprising the anchor. The anchor was safe, my nerves were off. After exchanging the rack, I was ready to set off. Due to the narrow, single crack we were climbing, passing the belay was rather awkward. I found small cams preferential on the upper section. Several of the pieces I placed didn’t have full cam contact, but for body weight they held. The second half pitch took only a hour. Once I reached the top, I tied in the rope and yelled down for Judy to ascend. As soon as she weighted the rope, the top aid placement blew out due to the side load from her weight. Judy got up with another ½ hour cleaning. Altogether we spent somewhat over 3 hours on the two pitch crack climb (100ft). We hiked back to the road near dusk.

Back to bolt ladders, we thought. Willit Slab was the next practice run. We arrived at the bottom after a long and arduous hike from the car with our usual large rack (100ft hike). The first placement was a machine bolt in a drilled hole. Since that made me nervous, I placed backup cams in slightly lower cracks. Knowing that a blown piece had cost Gerry a broken ankle on this same route made the beginning moves exciting. Once past the first few placements the route went fast. Halfway up, just before attaining a large ledge, I tested the bolt and found both the bolt and hanger to be loose. This certainly caused consternation. I kept going with nervous glances at the loose bolt. Stepping out of the aiders mid-pitch to free climb on the almost flat ledge felt difficult; the aiders security blanket was no longer available until the next placement. After crossing the ledge, a second shorter bolt ladder led to the top. This was quickly dispatched. The whole pitch took less that 1 hour. Judy cleaned the pitch in 15 minutes or so. The downclimb from the top is very exciting, including several low 5^th class moves on hand hewn foot holds with poor hand holds. Judy’s lead of the route was routine. She experienced much of the same nervousness I felt at the bottom. Knowing the injury history of a route doesn’t make it any easier. When Judy arrived at the loose bolt just prior to the ledge she realized that the move onto the ledge is much more difficult if you can’t reach any of the holds. She stretched and stuck it out and made the move in spite of this. After a scant 45 minutes the pitch was done. I ascended and cleaned the gear in about 15 minutes. 3 hours for two pitches, downclimbing and snacks, not bad, we’ve improved a little even if it’s only a bolt ladder.

The most recent escapade includes climbing More Funky Than Monkey (11c overhanging crack). We set out to climb this roof early Saturday morning. Hanging fully suspended under a roof was very different from normal aiding – there’s nothing to push against. As I hung below the roof and reached to place the next piece I quickly realized how much help it was to have a wall to lean against. Staying in balance was difficult. The other major difficulty was pulling up high enough to place the fifi hook in the daisy chain. This proved rather strenuous. Once I achieved the edge of the roof the real difficulties began. Moving upwards without the wall to push against was even more difficult. After strenuous pull-ups to raise myself the few feet up past the roof edge, the climbing became more normal and I proceeded rather rapidly. The climb took over two hours, even though only 50 ft long or so. I tied off the rope and downclimbed to watch Judy clean the pitch. She chose to re-aid the route for the roof section, hanging from the pro, rather than using the aiders. This strategy worked well, except where I had placed the pieces to far apart. Reaching back to clean a distant piece proved very difficult. After a little more than an hour she was done. Success!

Judy rapped down and had a few chocolates, readying herself for the lead. Thus fortified, she set off. Under the roof she elected to place several fewer pieces than I had, quickly crossing the roof once she got her balance. Judy had less trouble turning the roof. It went very smoothly. She climbed on to the top, completing the pitch in less than 2 hours. I was quickly ready to clean and set off. Cleaning the pitch proved to be my undoing. With the sparse placements, I found reaching the pieces for cleaning very difficult and requiring exceptionally good balance. Nonetheless I continued to clean. After a strenuous ½ hour I arrived at the top.

Next, we decided to practice more hauling. Using the set-up Judy had perfected during the week at Santee, we were able to haul up our rock pack haul bag. Judy had figured out a system for us to use to take the weight off the wall hauler for controlled lowering. We used a second pulley with an ascender to unweight the wall hauler, while disengaging the brake on the wall hauler. Also the ATC is attached to the rope on the side of the pulley away from the bag for control. We tested this system with 60 lbs and then 100 lbs. It didn’t make hauling fun or easy, but it helped some. The absence of friction during the free hanging sections was a major blessing. Friction is the enemy of hauling. We also tried some free hanging ascents using the jumars. This proved to work well. By the time this was done the day was almost shot, then a group of bay area free climbers came up to do the route. We watched a hang-dog ascent and hiked back to the car by dusk. Two pitches in a day, including hauling followed by exhaustion – we’re definitely ready for a wall now???