Last weekend, we went back to Joshua Tree. We were actually supposed to go to Tahquitz but the weather would not quite cooperate. We would have sunny (or mostly sunny) dry days up until the weekend and then it would rain on Thursday or Friday and then we would have to worry about the snow level in Idyllwild The past two weekends has been like this so we decided to play it safe and head to Joshua Tree where it is usually warm and dry.
We headed to an area in the Wonderland of Rocks (North) area called Outer Mongolia. We decided on some longer climbs on the Asian Fever Buttress (no comment on the names of the routes).
The approach is relatively long for Joshua Tree, so we did not run into too many people all day and there was no one climbing in our area, so that was nice.
Our first climb was an easy 5.4 route (Me Love You Long Time) which was 200' up a low angle crack.
The end of the climb was just some 4th class scrambling up to the top but there was a lot of rope drag at the top so it was not so fun. Christian lead the climb and the rest of us practiced our sport leads and the pieces that he placed.
Next, was a 120' pitch called Yellow Peril (5.5). This was a slightly more challenging route up a prominent crack with a bit of an off-width or chimney at the top. Christian led and the kids ended up top roping this section as no one was much in the mood for anything else because the girls were fighting about some nonsense or other.
That climb was more enjoyable...or would have been had the girls not been irritating us with their petty bickering.
At the end of this, we considered doing one more climb but in the end, just called it a day as we still had a bit of a hike back to the truck. The girls were getting along again by the end and headed out ahead of us.
We got back to our vehicle just as the sun set on our day of climbing in lovely scenic Joshua Tree.
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