Joshua Tree

[climb2core]

Are going to JT because you will be/want to be in that part of the country? Or are you just looking for a good climbing trip somewhere out west?

[tbwilsonky]

if you're in the socal area be sure to head to Santa Barbara. decent single pitch routes and fun boulders overlooking the city and the Pacific. and if the road is open this time of year you really cannot beat Pine Mountain. alpine sandstone bouldering. pretty amazing.

[toad857]

they give good tug-jobs in Santa Barbara.

[dustonian]

Man I never made it to Pine Mtn even though I was living less than hour away for a while. Super good huh?

Also there is this hot spring called Deep Creek 45 min from San Bernardino that is a must do... best I've ever seen. Multiple pools of different temps right next to a clean mountain river with sandy beaches.

[Shamis]

Tahquitz was awesome, but I don't recall any bolts. Some pretty ballsy 5 star trad routes though.

[tbwilsonky]

Man I never made it to Pine Mtn even though I was living less than hour away for a while. Super good huh?

it was just getting developed heavily when i was leaving, but the setting was awesome and the problems i saw were really cool. it might not be a worth a trip across the country, but if you live in Ventura County it is better than Stoney Point.

[milspecmark]

Are going to JT because you will be/want to be in that part of the country? Or are you just looking for a good climbing trip somewhere out west?

I am going to San Diego to visit a friend. He has not climbed in a while. So to answer your question, I am mainly going out there to be in that part of the country, but any climbing in a 3 hour radis of San Diego is cool.

[milspecmark]

Ok guys. Heading down Sunday night and Climbing Monday and Tuesday. Gonna camp at Hidden Valley Campground (Should be able to find a spot Sunday night? I hope). After doing some reading I notice it would be handy to have a Trad Rack as there are a ton of bolted routes that just have severe runout and could use a cam or a nut in between. Oh well. Gonna go to Easern Siberia Cliff, Wonderland of Rocks, little hunk. I was going to try and check out Echo Rock but I am not sure if there are any true sport routs under 5.10...thoughts?

[dustonian]

With a few exceptions, JT isn't really a sport area. It is maybe 90-95% cracks and runout slab/face climbing (ie. bolted on lead). Killer bouldering though too.

You may have more luck getting spot in Hidden Valley on Monday morning. Jumbo Rocks and Ryan are nice campgrounds too.

[graniteclimber]

Joshua Tree is not a sport destination... but there are several hundred sport routes. Yes, sport by modern standards.

THey bear zero resemblance to RRG sport routes though, other than having bolts. The best way to find them is to use Bob Gaines's new guidebook, he put up a huge chunk of them. You can grab it at Nomad's gear shop in town. They are also scattered around, so you'll have to do a bit of walking. Lucky for you Josh is a beautiful place. Also lucky for you is that Josh is an easy place to toprope. You usually need gear, but if you get one of the newer guidebooks look around on the photo topos for bolted top anchors.

Have fun, and if this is your first trip ever to Josh... I'm jealous.

PS--Josh has really good bouldering too.