Saturday, January 7, 2012

Joshua Tree





Spent a couple of days climbing at Joshua Tree before I start up classes again on Monday. All of the jumbles of rocks and Dr. Suess-like trees make it such an outlandish place!


Me on "Dinky Doinks" (5.8)






I had a lot of fun on some of the moderate trad climbs, like "Double Dog Leg" (5.7) and "Dinky Doinks" (5.8). 


Starting up "Mental Physics" 
Nathan on Mental Physics
Our second day we made the long trek out to the highly recommended climb "Mental Physics" (5.7), a long, consistent crack. It was an awesome climb, but it made me wish I had brought better crack climbing shoes: my snug bouldery shoes were starting to make jamming quite painful (note to self). 


Bouldering in the Outback

"Gunsmoke Traverse" (V3), JTree's mega-classic


Also did a bit of bouldering--it was cool to revisit problems I had worked on the last time I was there (a couple of years ago) as a reference point to how much stronger I've gotten.




The Cave of Wonders?



7 comments:

Brandon Chalk said...

JTree looks awesome! Would love to climb there sometime. Samantha, I have a few simple questions on Kosciuszko...would you mind emailing me at jbchalk@gmail.com?

Thanks, Brandon

Mercy Loizeaux said...

My name is Mercy. I am seven years old. I just learned about you and you are really cool. I want to climb Mt. Everest someday. I climb with my dad a lot too. I think you are very brave. How can I start training? Thank you.

Sincerely,
Mercy

Anonymous said...

That looks cool! I started indoor rock climbing some months ago, but never outdoor. I might try it later. Do you know any good areas to start?
Thanx, Lily

Samantha Larson said...

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments!

Mercy: I think that's awesome you're getting to climb with your dad. I would just say keep it up, and that'd be a great way to acquire the skills you'd eventually need to go on an Everest expedition. And spend time outside . . . I think a big part of having fun mountaineering trips is knowing how to feel comfortable when you're out in the elements.

Lily: If you want to start rock climbing outside, if there's a bouldering spot near you I think that'd be a great place to start. Rock climbing can be gear and skill intensive, but the beauty of bouldering is in its simplicity.

joncam said...

Hi Samantha
My name is Emma and I am 8 years old. At school we have to talk about an explorer or an adventurer and I decided to talk about you. I will be you in a "Wax musem" and people have to push a button and then I will talk about the seven summits. I read a lot of your articles, but I couldn't find one which said in which order you climbed them and which one was your favourite or what you found most challenging. I would love to know all this. I choose you because I think you are amazing! Emma

Samantha Larson said...

Thank you, Emma! How cool to know I'll be turned into wax.

Here's the order I climbed the 7 summits in:
Kilimanjaro (age 12)
Aconcagua (age 13)
Elbrus (age 14)
Denali (age 15)
Kosciuszko (age 16)
Vinson-Massif (age 17)
Everest (age 18)
Carstensz Pyramid (age 18)

Everest was the most challenging . . . it's much higher than the rest of them, which makes a huge difference! It's hard to choose a favorite, because they were all amazing climbs in their own way, but I loved the opportunity to travel to Antarctica when we climbed Mt. Vinson.

I hope you have fun with the project!

Samantha

joncam said...

Dear Samantha
thank you so much for your reply. I will use all the information.
Thanks, Emma