Sequoia & Kings Canyon and Needles, CA
October 11-13, 2008
Anxious to go on a 3-day climbing trip, we left the Bay Area around
8pm. After dinner at Casa de
Fruta, we finished the remaining drive to Fresno and
stayed in a motel there around midnight. The following morning we
finished the drive and went to climb in Sequoia & Kings Canyon,
although it was very cold. Finding the trailhead was slightly
tricky, and involved negotiating some rough logging roads in Karén's
BMW. We blamed it on Emily
for getting us off-route on the sketchy roads.
We ran into a bunch of hunters driving around in a Tundra feeling
all hardcore... the expression on their faces when they saw the BMW
wagon straddling the ruts in the road was priceless. Enough about the
driving - climbing was cold - so cold, that we wore all the clothing
we had brought... certainly felt like it would have been more
appropriate if we were holding ice tools in our hands instead.
That night, we hiked up Moro Rock, and we got snowed on. It was great
to see Castle
Rock Spire from there, and we admired the approach it
takes to get to it. After a (very) brief contemplation to stay there
another night, we decided to get the hell out of there in search of
warmer locales. This found us on the stretch of road between
Johnsondale and Kernville, in an area described by the guidebook as a
"great alternative to Joshua Tree in the winter". This found us
bushwhacking through manzanita bushes (ouchie) and then finding that
the cracks of these supposed 5-star climbs had 6-foot manzanita bushes
growing out of them. Mildly entertained by all of this, we were
disappointed as we wanted to sink in our hands into some cracks
already! Long story short, we got in a couple of climbs, but the day
was made better by finding some Mexican in Kernville that evening.
The third day we had a solid plan of climbing "White Punks on Dope"
(5.9, 6 pitches) on Voodoo Dome in the Needles. We drove up to a
campground and settled in for the night. Getting out at 7am was
simply brutally cold (probably 15 degF) and it took us a while to
convince ourselves we should still climb. Thankfully the day
warmed up, but then we started climbing 100 feet left of where we
were supposed to... oh well. Long story short, we found a way to
traverse to the right place, but was too late at this point to
continue, so we called it a weekend... next time we know where to
go. :)
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It was barely above freezing at this point - I was wearing long johns and two fleeces with a down jacket. But flip flops rule! |
Starting up a 5.7 slab, happy to be at the first bolt. |
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Karen on top of a 5.10a |
It was dumping across the valley |
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The clouds were getting meaner... |
This spire is 2-3 pitches long from the other side, and looks quite nice. |
Clouds are getting meaner, and the weather forecast doesn't look good :( |
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We went to Moro Rock, where we enjoyed reading this sign. |
Things really didn't look good for rock climbing. |
The trail up Moro Rock: note the snowflakes in the picture. |
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... and then there was light! |
The windy road down: like South America! |
We hoped to reach the summit through a different route, but the hike had to do :) |
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The impressive Castle Rock Spire |
A lonely death in a beautiful place.. |
Castle Rocks and Castle Rock Spire at sunset |
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In case you didn't know how to drive downhill in an automatic, here it is. |
Next day, somewhere between Johnsondale and Kernville |
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Trying to find a 5-star 5.10 climb among the bushes... |
Karen leading a 5.10a face |
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Seemed surprising to see this in rural California (Kernville, CA) |
This was a most welcomed sight :) |
Needles |
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The spectacular Needles, California |
Voodoo Dome, which we tried to climb. |
The correct start of our climb goes straight up the middle crack through the roofs, which is not the way we went :) |
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