Ascents in Joshua Tree National Park having Beta

FWOAR!!! I can't climb crack!!!

I think we were doing a harder start, or maybe just J-Tree stuff, but way harder than 5.7 start. Took a few hangs, then got rest easily.

Classic climbing. Stiff difficulty for the grade, in my opinion. Several places where leader needs to protect second from swing. If you're not careful, you can quickly get off-route on first two pitches.

I'm a burgeoning 5.7 trad leader and I found a couple moves on this one pretty heady. The crack is flared and I honestly found a couple of the placements kind of tough.

lots of easy climbing with a few sketchy slab moves, rested twice

a few sketchy slab moves, rested a few times, placed yellow and blue in cracks on easily-walkable floor, just in case

The OW portion of this one hurt me in my soul. First OW experience for me and it was TOUGH. Just barely scraped up, grabbing the #6 once to advance.

Fell once in a crack.

Another tough start, a little overhang

TRied and tried an couldn't reach. Maybe with a little more dynamic beta or leaning more.

two moves from the top!

two moves from the top!

Managed to get into the stemming position but can't work out how to get high enough to top out!

This is a very good problem. Come back to it. I was able to go to the left arete, but no further.

Awesome heel hook traverse.

Felt hard for the grade, making progress though.

Shack at the end of the day but gave it a bash, making some progress.

hmm...

N.W.Arete (11)

Had a fair few goes at this. I could do everything in the roof and had excellent linkage there but the final move is truly a show stopper for me. Kind of like V6 into another V6.

A fun series of really unique moves

Very very hard.

Very sadly punted off the last move. An excellent boulder.

Completely nails. People trying this as a run and jump has made the feet at the start so glassy you can barely stand on them. Very unfortunate. Still a classic line up a classic feature though.

A fair few goes in the snow, at night, and very drunk.

A very hard slab.

Totally punted it. Spent way too long hanging upside down in the roof trying to figure it out and pumped myself to oblivion. Fell off the last move.

I tried very hard on this but ultimately the top out was much too scary for me. No one sent. Excellent rock climb.

Tried and tried and tried but I suck at dynos.

I couldn't quite mantel onto the slab above. As usual, my first attempt was my best.

Very nice problem. Come back for this one.

yeah....couldn't even start this one on the far left end and I didn't want to cheat by starting in the middle. I am anxious to work on it some more.

Gotta get some more tourqe

Super nice traverse. Deserted when I got there alone. Couldn’t get past first crux. Did first crux and third crux (corner) in isolation, though. Did not really try second crux.

Half-hearted attempt

I couldn't do the mantle, but this was a really fun problem (my first boulder problem). I will be back!

Got to the last move but endurance failed me sadly, next time…? Whenever that is

how?

Turtle Face Left (12)

Potentially good, but the top layer of the rock is crumbling off in many places, so I decided not to try again. Quite well protected by bolts apart from the lower part where I was also not so sure about my placements because the rock didn't seem particularly solid.

Very nice route. Tried in lead once, but finding out the beta after the third bolt was too hard in lead for me, because I fell every time in the crack below the small belly. Two tries after that in toprope.

Scary, because the outer layer of the rock is crumbling off in many places, decided to go back down at the third bolt

Thought this was Serpent Scales. Bailed after a few scary attempts to get past first bolt.

got absolutely nuked on this. everything went wrong, had a fat trad whip, the works. Ended up walking to the top, belaying my second up and rapelling down the sport route climber's left.

I tried it. Tried about 3 different starts until I found one that worked -- actual described start was way too hard for a 5.5 (Miramontes rating). Found the gear not confidence inspiring, the rock crumbly with lots of gravel. I made it about 3/4 of the way, before finally bailing, hiking up, rapping in and recovering my gear.

Not recommended as a climb.

Excellent overhanging sport route. Good holds in the lower part and up a crack, then the most difficult part: a face climb on small holds, which are also a little sharp. It got quite windy on my second try and I was just too cold to climb the route. Third and fourth try were still cold but at least not windy. Fell at the absolute last hard move because my right hand slipped off the hold.

Protection by bolts is okay, but there is a scary (at least for me in the onsight) mantle about one and a half meters above the last quickdraw. The holds are quite sharp. One try to put in the quickdraws where I didn't really try the moves (confidence a bit low after the last route), and one try on toprope where I actually did every move on the first try, so it's definitely doable. Might come back later

Bolts are a bit rusty, but they held all my falls, some from more than a meter above the quickdraws. The crux is a single, far move to get to a hold next to the third bolt (at least the way I climbed the route). Nice climbing in the last third of the route on jugs in a vertical face.

Crux from second to third bolt. Somehow had no endurance at all today and just couldn't climb it from the ground, was out of breath after just a few moves. Quite a nice route, though.