Climbing Getaway

This past weekend was supposed to be the weekend that the annual UCR Heat Concert was scheduled for. We thought that maybe they would cancel due to the imminent rain threat but they declared that the concert would go on whether there was rain or shine.

Normally, the music starts blasting from the afternoon until the wee hours of the morning when it would finally end at the University only to have after parties sprout up at various location throughout the neighborhood. We've tried calling the police but they say that their hands are tied because UCR has a permit to abuse their neighbors. We've tried talking to the city, but they just talk in circles and not taking responsibility with what goes on in their city. In truth, they let UCR do mostly whatever they are one of the biggest tax payers in the city. Where do you think their priorities lie? Not with us.

This year, we decided to just throw our hands up in the air because nobody cares and we are unable to do anything about it. So, we decided to leave town for the weekend. We didn't want to stick around to be abused by UCR and the city.

Although we desperately need the rain, it was going to also put a damper on some of our plans. In the end, we opted to go to the Alabama Hills to do some climbing. Originally, we were going to leave Friday afternoon as soon as the kids got out of school but due to the rain, we figured that we would leave super early Saturday morning instead and just spend one night out camping.

We arrived in Lone Pine around 7:am. It was pretty chilly out but the whether seemed to be at least keeping the crowds at bay. We decided to climb the "Shark's Fin." Christian had been wanting to climb it for a while now and there were always people on it every time we went. This time, we got the place to ourselves.

Christian, Emily and I climbed the arete and two other routes on the shark fin. It was fun for the most part but the last route was kind of difficult. Because it was a bit much for Caitlyn still, we headed back over to "Lost Eye to the Moon" to find a climb for her.

The last time we were there, Caitlyn was able to climb up the 5.3 route in the dark. This time, we figured that she should be able to at least complete "Rhythm on the Range," a 5.5 route and then attempt the "Riders of the Purple Sage"...a 5.7 route. She shocked us by completing both. She needed a little help on a couple parts of the 5.7 route but she did it. I think next time, she should be able to do it without any help at all. The help isn't us pulling her up or anything. She just used on of the bolts as a hand hold once and another bolt as a foothold. We usually aren't allowed to use them as part of the rock face except as a safety for our rope.

Emily actually led both routes!

In between climbs, the girls got to play with Dad's new toy, an ascender. We only got one so far. 

We climbed until we were out of daylight as usual. We had dinner and went into town to get warmed up and get the girls a treat from McDonalds. It never got above 48 degrees F. all day. It was almost just as cold in the restaurant as it was outside. The girls enjoyed their fries and ice cream anyway.

We camped out in Alabama Hills that night. Although the weather never warmed up, the weather didn't drop very much either so it wasn't too cold. We didn't get more than a few sprinkles now and then so we didn't really get wet either. I think that we were pretty lucky overall.

We slept in Sunday morning, had breakfast and went for a drive up in the mountain passes. We tried several and at some point, all of them were closed because of the snow and rock fall.

The girls got to play with the snow until their hands froze. 

They made a mini snowman and we had some hot cocoa before heading back down for some lunch.

We hung out and read some scriptures before hitting the road.

When we got back, we found out that the UCR Heat concert got canceled after all because they were afraid of the lightning...small favors, huh?