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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 14, 2009 - 01:35pm PT
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I climbed in JTree thru the eighties and lived there, on and off, for another six or seven years in the nineties. I try to get back every year or so. I missed last season-- this year we got 2.5 days stretched over a week of family, driving, and work.
The first day I usually run around hitting old favorites. The main event is repeating-- or attempting to repeat --the original route on Caveman. We have no pix of this day, as my photographer tells me that I'm always a bit obsessive on Day 1 and that if I can't do Caveman I can get moody. This trip I could still do Caveman, so all was well with the world, especially after a bunch of laps on easy solos to cool down. In case you haven't seen Caveman, here's an old pic to keep you busy:
Day Two I hurt so bad I could barely tie my shoes, so we picked a destination that involved a lot of hiking and scrambling. We slogged up to Little Egypt, a place I hadn't seen in at least five or six years. The hike in is sunny and warm and the cactus and plants are pretty rich. W e couldn't identify the small green leafy deal next to the barrel:
Little Egypt is a high, grassy meadow (in spring), with stacks of big Pinyon pines and really good patina by Josh standards:
The first time I went there (mid 80s?), this roof already had chalk on it:
Still a lot of wild life. The prints don't show well, but there's old Bighorn and fresh Ringtail cat:
Three feet above the entrance to the Cat burrow, we found this tasty relic:
I always liked the rock and the setting at LE, so I went back maybe a dozen times over the years, working out variations and exploring down the hill. My favorite problem was up over the meadow, on an exposed ridge and next to the biggest Pinyon Pine. Classic, scary highball on weird solution pockets and bullet stone. I had trouble finding it, this trip. Turned out the Pine was dead:
This was a recurring theme: The biggest, prettiest Pinyon in LE was dead, along with this one, and dozens of others. Most of the others were dying, apparently from drought, heat, and then beetles.
Further down the hill. No beanies, no pads, no choss, and no crowds. Welcome to My House:
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Jan 14, 2009 - 02:11pm PT
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Looks like Queen Mt. West area (before reaching Cockroach Crags)?
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Dirka
Trad climber
SF
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Jan 14, 2009 - 02:13pm PT
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Cool. Thanks for posting your TR.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2009 - 02:44pm PT
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sketch-- yeah, western shoulders of queen mt. aldude was calling that meadow area little egypt iirc.
the pinyon tower is on a ridge to the south, and the house boulder in a hanging valley below that. someone will have to roll or cut away that dead pinyon before the tower can be done again from the start.
i used to sweep the ridges on the way back doing new stuff. i was into highballs and solos at the time. lots of good rock up there.
can't recall the name, cockroach crags, but then i never took a rope up there.
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