noddy's adventures

My first taste of rock on this trip to America was at Joshua Tree. Its an amazing location, with hundreds of routes scattered throughout the desert.

I had to endure two and a half days on a bus to get there but it was well worth it. I climbed there in July which was probably not the best time of year due to the intense heat but some good climbing could still be done in the evenings and early morning. In LA i met up with Constance who i had arranged to climb with and we drove into Hidden Valley campground, popular amongst climbers. Waiting for us there was Dwayne an old school hippy who had set his fair share of the routes in the area "back in the day".

For the next couple of days he took us on a few of the classic routes, along with Matt and Sarah, an american couple we climbed with. The climbing consisted mainly of steep trad, cracks that were slightly sandbagged (harder than claimed) and destroyed the skin on your hands!

It was my first time back on rock since leaving the UK and i had a great time climbing with some excellent people. Its definately somewhere i want to revisit but perhaps in the cooler months! The highlight of the trip had nothing to do with climbing but was actually when Constance got her truck stuck in the sand and we had to be pulled out by a Harley!