J-Tree Videos

Ringing in the New Year w/ a fat slice of humble pie

Happy New Year!!

Young Stunners

I’m sitting here in Kate’s apartment preparing to spend an evening on “the strip” in Vegas, eagerly anticipating the in and out burger that I’ve been told is one of Vegas’ best kept secrets. Right now my thoughts are focused on the past six days, most of which were spent enjoying the wonderland of rocks known as Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree National Park is a climbers’ paradise and is widely regarded as “the place” to be in cooler months, as the Mojave Desert’s climate tends to offer up warm temperatures during the day and bearable temps in the evening.

Stuart, Kate, and myself had planned on hitting up Joshua Tree for New Years eve, figuring that we could enjoy a few days there before returning to Vegas where Stu and I had grand plans to climb some of the long traditional routes in red Rock Canyon just West of the city. So it was that Friday afternoon we loaded up Kate’s truck and headed to J-Tree intent on proving ourselves at one of America’s crown jewels of climbing…

Kate Following Boussonnier

A few hours later I was about 40’ up an easy climb hanging on a piece of gear whimpering and feeling sorry for myself. Unfortunately my strep throat had returned with a vengeance and the Dayquil and amoxicillin cocktail I’d consumed had yet to kick in. Uncertain if the shakes were from my fever or my fear, I slowly made my way to the top of our first route and wondered if I was going to enjoy climbing at this place. A rather technical (a.k.a don’t fall) down climb through a chimney ended the day and we headed back to Jumbo Rocks intent on celebrating the coming New Year with some good beer and a meal around a campfire. I won’t get in to too much detail about that evening but I will tell you that the three of us mastered the art of the auto-tune and are looking to sign a record deal w/ Lil Weezy or T-Pain in the near future.

On our first morning in Joshua Tree we awoke to a beautiful light that we came to learn was the norm in the high desert. After a fantastic breakfast Stu and I drove Kate to the J-Tree Saloon so that she could watch the Alabama/Michigan State game. Stuart and I made our way back to the park and spent the afternoon bouldering in a place known as the outback.

This ended up being a great call, as we were able to focus on enjoying J-Tree’s climbing rather than worry about the beat down that had been handed to us the day before. On the back-end of the day Stu and Kate climbed a classic route at trashcan rock while I met with a potential future employer to discuss specifics about a position in the area. More on that later…

Our final day of the weekend proved to be the highlight of the trip. We made our way out to a cliff called the thin wall and climbed a number of classic routes there (see the photos below) before heading out to climb the classic “Sail Away”. This route was fantastic offering up great exposure, wonderful movement, and engaging climbing on a spire-like feature. The climb was the perfect way to end a wonderful New Year weekend.

Kate atop Sail Away

I intended on providing ya’ll with a much more interesting post, but figured it was better to get this out (a week later) rather than keep you all waiting. I have more to write soon, though I’ll need a good night’s sleep and a strong cup of coffee before that happens. In the mean time I hope everyone is doing well.. Keep your eyes peeled for my next post, J-Tree Part II: When Red Rock Weather Stinks.

Me Leading Sail Away

Kate following a route on ThinWall

Blog on the way..In the meantime, check out these pictures!

Howdy Folks,


I am generating a blog post that will strive to capture the past week or so. That said, it's taking some time so I offer these links as a sort of  appetizer and hope they will inspire you to read the blog post that should be up in the next day or so. I hope all is well wherever you are.

New Years Eve and Initial J-Tree Visit

Joshua Tree- Part 2ttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=600294&id=572250523&l=32e17b2059

"We're off to the red river valley..."

Stuart and I leaveAmarillo with the Quebe sisters’ unique brand of Texas music blasting and warm memories of the best hospitality this side of my parents’ own home on our minds. A snowstorm is currently dumping upwards of 12” of snow on much of northern Arizona and New Mexico, necessitating a new plan for our drive to Las Vegas. We are now heading ~21 hours from Texas down south to Las Cruces, NM then on through Tucson and Phoenix before getting to Kate’s house. The last 24 hours have been amazing, as Mr. and Mrs. Binkley (Bink and Cindy) provided us with fresh showers, home cooked green chili stew/margaritas/tamales/breakfast, some fresh laundry and some great conversation. Before delving into that, here’s a replay of the past 48 hours:

-       -   Left NC at 10 p.m. after picking Stuart up in Charlotte, hitting Gary and Deanne’s for coffee and a vehicle swap, and then leaving town with the intention of hitting Amarillo early enough to spend an eve w/ tres and get a good night’s sleep. In hindsight this was a smart move, as we’re now looking at a much longer trip than we first thought

-      -   4:30 P.M: 19.5 hours after leaving, we arrived in Amarillo to the above-mentioned green chill stew/tamale/enchilada meal and some great hosts in the form of Tres’ parents. The evening continued w/ a tour of the city and ended up in a bar called the Spotted Pony. The spotted pony is a local dive most famous for being the site of many a fight and a recent shooting that left an out of towner dead. Thankfully our experience was rather benign, save the story Tres’ friend Josh a.k.a “True Grit” told us about flushing rattle snakes out of their dens w/ a weed sprayer full of gasoline! Some lone star beer in a can rounded out a great eve and we were sacked out by 12 in need of some sleep

-       --Woke up this morning to some French press coffee, poached eggs, bacon and homemade apple-pecan waffles! After breakfast we made our way out to the beautiful Palo Duro canyon..The spot is amazing, reminding me of the western slope of Colorado, save a slightly smaller cliffline. Photos above and on my facebook page speak to the beauty of the canyon. After leaving the canyon we visited the “Cadillac Ranch” a place that is best described in picutres, as words cannot do it justice.

 N    Now it’s about 5 p.m., Stuart is driving past a particularly rank cattle farm and I am holed up under a blanket in a vain attempt to write a blog post that will keep everyone entertained. I’ll try my best to do so, though Gary’s Honda Element is currently being wind blasted and it's hard to concentrate..also, Stuart just ran over a cat so I'm bummed.

Christmas, the birth of Christ and of new beginnings

Well folks, I am back to blogging again. The phenomenon of me sharing thoughts, photos, ramblings etc. is usually spurned by some dramatic life change or event that I think might be of interest to my friends and family...and this is exactly what's happening. Check it out:


       - In January of 2007 I left the USMC, went climbing for two months, then made my way to Boone, NC the place that was to be my home for 3.5 years

      - Two weeks ago I completed the circle when I graduated from App and set off on a month long climbing/living trip that will include Joshua Tree, Las Vegas, Southern Arizona and a number of places in between

Recent happenings have added an additional layer of excitement to this journey that was supposed to end on Jan 21st with me heading back to Boone. For those of you who aren't already in the loop,  I am moving to California in Feb. for a job. This is exciting as my climbing trip will now serve as an introduction to both the town and state that I will be living in for the next three years. I'll give details once things become more final.. In the meantime, join me, Stuart, Kate, Gary, Ben and others over the next month and I'll promise to post amazing photos, long/boring rambling posts, and perhaps some things that'll make you laugh. Cheers!

Laura's Visit/Final Week

In lieu of words, I offer a video. Yes I (and Laura) am too lazy to type any more than this.

The Harding Icefield

So I just returned from a BIG two day adventure out on the Harding Icefield. I left with anticipation, excitement, and bit of nervousness, and returned with a sore body, exhaustion, and a sense of contentment.

The Harding Icefield is a 700 square mile field of ice and snow that feeds all of the 30+ glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park. It is a vast desert of snow and crevasses, broken only occasionally by beautiful nuntaks (mountains that rise out of the snow). I was invited to accompany my co-worker Deb and her boyfriend Ernan over the 4th of July weekend and I quickly said yes, partially because my alternative option was staying here in Seward with the extra 27,000 drunk people who descend on the town for the holiday. We met up on the evening of the 2nd to talk logistics over Alaskan IPA, and on Saturday morning we were off.

The trail to the edge of the icefield sits at sea level and rises at about 1,000' per mile over the next 4.2 miles. The hike is gorgeous, as you begin in a dense forest teeming with orchids, birds, and bears and gradually make your way to the alpine where you are afforded beautiful views of the exit glacier. Our packs were quite heavy and I was psyched to put skis on my feet rather than carry them on my back. We arrived at the icefield with some good time to spare and made our way out onto the ice, carefully choosing a route that would lead us around the dangerous icefalls as we made our way to the nunatak where we planned on camping for the evening. The skiing was quite easy, though it began to get eery when fog descended on the icefield and we were forced to navigate in white-out conditions with only the GPS for guidance. Every once and a while a long narrow crack would appear in the snow, reminding us of the hidden dangers that we could encounter. Skiing in the whiteout was crazy, as the ground, sky and horizon all looked the same. I've been told that people sometimes come down with vertigo in these situations and can believe it because I couldn't differentiate between land and sky myself. After a few long hours of skiing we began to question our coordinate, so we decided to sit on our packs, break out the map, and grab a new one. We sat down to do so when all of a sudden the fog lifted the slightest bit and revealed our nunatak about 100 meters in front of us! Everyone's spirits lifted and we skied up to set camp for the evening.

The following morning I awoke to one of the more beautiful vistas I've seen. The fog had lifted in the night, affording us spectacular views of the ice we had skied across, the nunataks in the distance, and many glaciers in the distance. After a quick breakfast we broke camp and began skiing towards Lois' Spire, a rock route that sits atop of a nunatak, and one that we were eager to try to climb if the weather allowed...Which it didn't.

About 2 hours later we were skiing beneath a large nunatak that had deposited avalanche debris with pieces as large as refrigerators. It was a bit disconcerting but was necessary given the huge crevasses that loomed farther to our left. As we made our way beneath this peak and towards the spire the fog returned with a vengeance, obscuring everything from our sight, and eventually forcing us to follow our tracks back towards our camp in hopes that we would find sun and clear skies there. When we arrived back at our nunatak Ernan mentioned that it would be cool to kite ski, so that is exactly what we did. The wind was ripping in the direction we needed to ski to get home, so we grabbed a tent fly and some trekking poles, fashioned a sail, and let the wind carry us a few miles back toward home! It was super fun and our laughter was all that we left in our wake. A few hours later we were back on the icefield trail heading back to Seward, where I took a well deserved sleep and began writing this blog. I have posted photos of our trip on facebook, and would be happy to provide more exciting details if anyone wants to call/e-mail me. Enjoy the video I took when I woke up yesterday!

More Pictures Here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=455830&id=572250523&l=2672d66249

and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=454869&id=572250523&l=5a9d0a2bf6

Cheers,

Mike