the twenty-nine palms gypsies go bouldering

Another installment in the adventures of the Twenty-nine Palms Gypsies

Driving your Prius down the lost highway.
Down to California, down to Joshua Tree,
To feel Gram’s ghost on the desert breeze.

– Kasey Anderson

Whilst Renee and I had been thrashing around on some easy but scary crack climb the two lads were on a boulder safari. And with big game in mind: Stem Gem, Gunsmoke, White Rastafarian, to name a few. We finally hooked up with them later in the day, and they were kind enough to take us around on a tour of some of their finds. 

Stem Gem is right in camp; in fact it is right in a campsite. So if you ever find yourself there, be nice and ask before you climb. If they are climbers that are camped there, they probably won’t mind. If they aren’t, then who knows. So just ask. It’s rated a V4 and it was first climbed by John Bachar. This problem totally symbolizes some of the very soul of J-tree bouldering. Mystifying and technical. Reminded me in a way of Gritstone. There are no holds on the thing. Friction and body position are the only real tools that you have to use on this one. Thuggery just wont work here. As the name implies you do need to stem and you had best been practicing your yoga as well. We had heard that over the years this climb is getting harder due to wear of the rock and due to erosion of the desert sand at the base. I couldn’t even get off the ground. 

The best of the bunch however, was indeed White Rastafarian. We all did a few moves and took the obligatory photos. This was, of course, integral to our trip philosophy: Touching some of the same stone as our heroes of legend had. White Rastafarian for example was first climbed by John Long around 1973. Mr. Long shares the credit with Bachar however.  Grade-wise at least the guidebooks give it a V3 which equates more or less to 5.11b. Although I have heard folks cry ‘grade creep’ and say it is ‘only’ .10c. I do know that the crux is maybe 6 metres off the deck and it tops out at about 7 metres, and is also considered by some (such as John Long) the birth of Joshua Tree highball bouldering.  Whatever the grade, it is a classic problem, in a beautiful spot, and it is pretty damn high. 

All in all it was a really stellar day, and although the campground was full of mostly climbers we hardly saw anyone climbing which was kind of nice. It was as if we had the place to ourselves. 

Even though we were starting to feel the day wear on us, we spent another hour or so doing easy boulder problems and just soaking up the desert magic

We finished the day off with Caleb sending a highball slab at the base of Intersection Rock.   

These days you would see a whole pile of pads stacked under the climber. Pads… we don’t need no steenking pads…

One can’t really compare climbing grades and bouldering grades equably but that doesn’t stop us from trying to do so…

But in the end it really only makes sense to compare the Hueco V-grades and the Font. Grades.

Playlist:

• Some Depression – Kasey Anderson

• Old Trails – Rex Koury

• Buffalo Soldier – Bob Marley

• Ballad of the Last Gunfighter – Johnny Cash