On Saturday, we did White Punks on Dope - a "Sierra classic" which was indeed very nice. We knew where to start this time, armed with beta - unlike the last time, when we started up a different climb by accident. Karén led the first pitch which was quite entertaining for a "5.7" and led to the base of an overhang. I tried going directly up, but eventually figured out a step-across move to the left (5.8+ according to the book). From there, easy climbing on some loose blocks leads to a large chockstone (short pitch). Next, Karén grovelled through the chimney/alleyway, which was the only lame pitch on the climb. Afterwards is THE pitch: an awesome and somewhat intimidating dihedral/giant flake. Liebacking, jamming and stemming take you up most of the way (many blue TCU's for gear), where you place a large (4") cam and runout the last 30ft to the top. This last section is supposedly 5.6, but I found it a bit more exciting than that, no doubt due to the lack of gear. The next pitch is a 5.8 slab, 180 feet, with 4 bolts for protection. It looked intimidating, but once I started I relaxed and everything came together quite nicely. The last pitch has a couple of variations, the best one is a splitter finger crack on the left which Karén took, and it was quite fun, 5.9 probably. The descent is somewhat tricky, you go up to the summit, scramble down the backside and traverse skier's left to the Warlock/Voodoo Dome col, from where a scrappy trail leads down.

On Sunday, we headed to the other side of The Needles, and were hoping to do Thin Ice on the Sorcerer, plus Igor Unchained on The Witch. Somehow there were hundreds of bees/wasps everywhere, which was spooky. When we went to the base of Thin Ice, we saw they were all hanging out inside the crack: definitely not an inviting place for our hands! Somehow, they were attracted to the sun, and since Igor Unchained was in the shade, it was free of bees and we started climbing it. It's sort of a physical, Yosemite-style 5.9 with a couple of wide sections, but very fun. Unfortunately, the 3rd (last) pitch had a swarm of bees on it, since it was in the sun now... and we were feeling wimpy. We wanted to do the Airy Interlude variation, but next time - it looks gorgeous, if a bit intimidating.

Overall, another fine weekend enjoying the beautiful California granite! Karén let me drive his BMW back which was sweet, the road back to Camp Nelson is the windiest, funnest stretch of road I've seen in my life so far. Unfortunately, as I type this it is dumping rain/snow... fortunately, it's time to start getting stoked for skiing!

	The Needles from the east side	The Needles two weeks later - yellow leaves :)	Karén on the first pitch of White Punks on Dope

	Looking up at the "money pitch", 5.9		Getting to business and enjoying the fingerlocks in the corner

	enjoying a chimney rest	about to launch into the final 5.6 lieback (>7" gear, so runout and exciting)	Contemplating getting to the first bolt, still a little ways up

	The exciting 5.8 slab pitch		Karén on the final crack pitch leading to the summit (supposedly 5.8, but more like 5.9)

			This is the descent: scramble down the back, then traverse skier's left to the Warlock/Voodoo Dome col and take the trail down

	Interesting rock formation on our hike back	The ground in the Needles was covered with pine needles... coincidence?

	Day two, this is the upper part of The Witch, with Igor Unchained and Airy Interlude	The Sorcerer	Another view of The Sorcerer, with Thin Ice which we had planned to climb. There were dozens of bees coming out of the 1st pitch crack, so we went to Igor Unchained instead.

	overlay showing Thin Ice (5.10b)		Looking up the first pitch of Thin Ice: not so bad from up close

	Igor Unchained (5.9) goes straight up the middle!		Close-up of the 5.10b section of the first pitch of Thin Ice

		This face has a famous 5.13b climb. If you look closely, there is a bolt at the roof.

	Karén most of the way up the first pitch of Igor Unchained (5.9)	Me on the 2nd pitch of Igor Unchained, after battling the off-width

	There are some relatively thin moves here	Looking down the 2nd pitch of Igor Unchained

	Another view of The Sorcerer from across the way	The start of Airy Interlude (5.10a) which we wanted to do, but the bees were everywhere!?	An impressive-looking 5.11c crack

	Closer view of the 5.11c crack. Bees were the reason we didn't do it either ;-)

	Close-up view of Igor Unchained and Airy Interlude as we were hiking back	close-up at the crux of Airy Interlude w/ overlay	Party on the 2nd pitch of Igor Unchained

			Wild place for a fire lookout, eh! The top of The Magician

			Yours truly posing with the Needles in the background from the top of the Magician