2008 August

The forecast is for a 50-60% chance of rain all weekend, so we do our best to start early when see clear skies in the morning. This is our first time to the traditional area at El Rito. It appears to be used far more lightly than the sport area. The approach from the forest road to the cliff is essentially a bushwhack. The cliff itself sports enough vegetation that we wonder if the climbing will involve bushwhacking too! Packrat Dihedral 5.6 looks clear at the bottom and has been recommended, so I gear up to try it.

The first pitch makes for soothing climbing. There is a bit of the cobblestone rock prevalent at the sport area, but most of the rock is the hard volcanic tuff without the cobbles. There are a lot of blocky shapes and cracks for holds. The fifty-meter first pitch gives me time to really sink into it. At the bolted anchor below a big roof I pull up our tag line, then Ann follows quickly. Pitch 2 is where the excitement comes. Skirting the big roof to the right, I take the exposed step onto the lip of the roof to good hand holds supplied by a big flake. Wanting a more secure stance, I move my feet onto the flake, then realize I’ve passed my only opportunity to protect the lower face. Rather than try to put a piece in below my feet, I make two more moves to a creative stopper placement in a pocket. If I did it again, I’d protect that flake while my hands were on it, even though the footholds there are small. As it was, a fall off the roof would have swung me into the dihedral below. Luckily both the holds and the protection improve, and I finish the pitch smiling. Ann follows, criticizes my runout, praises my creative stopper, and we hike up to the summit and descent trail.

The good weather seems to be holding, so we start up another route, The Big E 5.7. The first pitch follows a thin diagonal crack up a very smooth face. The protection and holds are just what is needed to climb the crack, no more - very nice climbing. When I reach the belay there is a cloud darkening on the horizon, and it grows as Ann follows. Given the forecast, we decide to rappel down on our tag line rather than start the 5.5 second pitch. Of course the cloud retreats after we do, but we’re still feeling good about the day regardless.

The rain starts during the night, and continues through Monday morning.

We were getting ready to climb at El Rito this weekend, when I noticed an irritating cactus spine injury on my ankle was painful enough to make me limp. The injury was already two weeks old, red, and inflamed. After some research and soliciting some advice, I decided to stay off of it for a while, keep it elevated, soak it regularly, and keep a close watch out for any signs of blood poisoning. The photo is actually another week later, after a weekend out. It’s definitely slowly getting better, but my research indicates that it could be a few months before all the minute barbs fester out. Fun!

After quite a bit of surfing on the subject, this is my plan for the next time I get stuck:

1. Pull out spines with tweezers. Pull them like a tick, gripping as close to the skin as possible. It’s easy to leave microscopic bits embedded in the skin even so.
2. There may be spines too small to see or pull. Coat the the area with Elmer’s glue, let it dry, and rip it off. This can remove many smaller spines.
3. Wash the site, apply antibiotic ointment, and cover.

Helpful info I got from the tubes:

• Penetrating cactus spine injury to the mediastinum of a child - good summary.
• Cactus Skin Injuries - good summary.
• Cactus Spine Injuries - good summary.
• Still removing spines after 8 months
• Cactus Bontanical Info with a good section on spine removal.
• Cactus Dermatitus - technical, but information-rich.

This release has all the features of 1.1 Beta 3, and some bug fixes. If you’re upgrading from 1.0.6, have a look at the documentation first - you’ll have to update your existing tags after the upgrade. Geo Mashup now uses WordPress standards for tags, so hopefully this will be the last change of that kind. When you’re ready, enjoy the download.

I’ve been receiving enough interest and support to warrant more work on Geo Mashup, so watch for a 1.2 beta release soon with more new features to try. Thanks again to www.hidden-teesside.co.uk, publicenergy.co.uk, Vernal Creative, A blog of my travels by Christopher Weddell, Joost Rooijmans and everyone else who has contributed time and money to make Geo Mashup better.

Changes from 1.1 Beta 3:

• Fixed full post display links in IE.
• Fixed missing zoom/pan controls in some scenarios.
• Fixed “Cannot use string offset as an array” error.
• Removed GeoMashup::the_map() - it’s been replaced by GeoMashup::map().
• Use in-post/page settings if the post or page has a location, otherwise use
  global settings for a map.

Tom and I both have physical problems today, so he proposes a shorter hike in his local stomping grounds. His knee has been acting up, and I have a cactus wound on my ankle that’s inflamed. We’re happy to manage this hike, during which Tom takes me to all the best viewpoints and relates local historical tales. The legacy of Shirley McClaine’s driveway, the Once-Used Hanglider Launch are two stories that go with the hike. Someday maybe I’ll mash up all these yarns into some amusing fiction. Today I’m happy to find a mystery cactus and hundred-mile views to Mt. Taylor and Mt. San Antonio.

We stay parked at Las Conchas by the Cattle Call Wall for a stormy, rainy night. A few other wayward souls see us there and join us, and in the morning a variety of breakfasts are cooked by the fence. After eating our burrito bowls Ann chooses a hike for the day up Cerro Grande. It turns out to be perfect timing for the storms. We hike in sun, identifying flowers and mushrooms, and make it to the top just as the clouds are starting to thunder. We make it down dry, but as we drive down into the valley we witness piles of hail by the road and flooding arroyos. Clearly we missed the wild weather.

Will this be our last time repeating this mistake? I hope so. We head to a new area in the camper, at night, after a birthday dinner. The Gilman tunnels are remnants from a narrow gauge railroad that burrowed through the steep canyon walls of the Guadalupe Box. It’s an ominous looking place in the moonlight, with a drop into inky blackness at the edge of the road, and the outlines of monstrous cliffs rising up out of it at an indiscernible distance. We continue quite a distance beyond the tunnels looking for a place to park. We squeeze through trees and into chollas, only to fail to find a level spot. In the end we resort to a nice pullout with a “No Camping” marker. Always scout backcountry camper sites before the sun goes down.

The Guadalupe Box looks smaller in the sunlight, but still like an excellent place to climb. We choose to start at the upper end in an area called The Corridor. The routes here are short, but look sweet. Ivy grows everywhere. Rainstorms roll through all day, but we manage to do a few routes in between. After the second, we bail from the Guadalupe Box, drive to Spence Hot Springs (where the sun comes out again), then finish the day at Las Conchas.

Unknown 5.9?

There is one more route on the main wall than in our book. I’m guessing the new one is the furthest right, but it looks reasonable, so I try it. It’s nice slabby climbing with small edges in the slick rock. It starts to rain as Ann is descending, and we retreat back to the camper for lunch.

Thing 1 5.10a

After a few hours of rain and drying time, we return and get on the route just left of our first. It seems likely to be Thing 1, a bit harder than the first route, with holds that seem to face every direction but up.

Bubba 5.11a

This route seems to gradually get harder and harder as you go. It isn’t powerful at all, though, but demands some thin stemming and delicate balance. I’m excited to make it my first flash at this grade! Ann is also good at this kind of climbing, and follows without a fall just as the rain begins again.

Bovine Inspiration 5.9

After our migration to Las Conchas and dinner in the camper, Ann makes a smooth, confident lead of this fun route, with just one short hang after the bouldery start.

Tom invites me out for one of his favorite hikes. This one is packed with beautiful streams, lakes, peaks, and ridges. To add a little spice, a cold front is predicted to hit in the afternoon sometime, triggering heavy storms. We get just a taste of it to remind us that such hikes in August are a gift of good fortune.

More maps and photos at EveryTrail.

Ann rallies after to work to join our climbing friend Jason at the New New Place outside White Rock for climbing. It would be easy to snuff at this place. It’s full of graffiti, tire art at the bottom of the hill, and fairly short routes. So I’m surprised when I like it. Nearly every move of each route we do feels good. And it’s nice to do a little trad climbing again. We feel this is bit too much driving for after-work sessions, but this one was worth it.

Our Routes:

Have a Nice Day Yucca 5.8+

Named after the plant at the base, I protect the thin, bouldery bottom moves with our new 000 C3 cam. Which Jason tells us later is rated for aid only. It must be okay for a short fall then, right? But, no falls today. This route has a fallproof handjam on it, and a perfect overhang at the end.

Batshit Crack 5.10b

We toprope this after Jason makes a lot of noise leading it. It’s very balancey on sloping sidepulls at the bottom, where the protections looks a bit sparse and weird too, then works into a lovely, gently overhanging fist crack. Some tentative stemming to a mantle gets me to the anchors.

Sharon’s Sandbag 5.9

A short route, but nearly every move feels like real 5.9. Lots of small edges, lead up to a crowning mantle. Combine this with some very small pro, and it can be intimidating! I’m feeling steady today, though, and pull it off.

I volunteer to go out with Forest Service coordinator Craig Saum to survey some campsites along a forest road in the Jemez range. We head out with a $13,000 Trimble asset surveyor and drive deep into the Jemez backcountry. This area is used so lightly, all but one of the campsites we find look like they haven’t been used in a year. There are mushrooms and wildflowers to enjoy, and on our way back a family of wild turkeys scamper across the road. We check out our data when we return, and it looks good. If all goes well this will be the basis for designated camping corridors under the new travel management rule. Cool!

We decide to camp out close to home at Diablo Canyon this weekend. There’s not much sacrifice involved. Wildflowers of almost every kind we’ve seen in the past month anywhere are blooming here. We have no trouble finding climbs in the shade, and while there are more people around here, most don’t stay long. We’re not sure how we’ll climb since we’ve had a bit of a break, but we do pretty well:

Post Moderate 5.9

Called the longest sport route of its grade in the state, I combine our trad and sport draws to get up to 17, and head upward. It’s sweet climbing on big edges, and enough of it in 165 feet to really sink into the groove. I don’t even mind pulling my rope up through the draws and dropping it again to pull up another for the long rap.

Drunk Rednecks With Golf Clubs 5.8+

This is the climb we got rained off of last time we were here. I enjoy leading it this time. The crux is a committing move to a hold you hope will be good…

Waiting To Hesitate 5.10b

I’m happy to work through the pumpy lower section without falling, but the crux move over a bulge after a good rest takes me a couple of tries. It feels nice to work on a puzzling sequence though.

Hidden Slab 5.10a

A bit of work to approach, but I love the climbing. Good thin holds with some cracks and pockets for variety, and one little runout for spice.

A Day With Dr. Diablo 5.10c

This route isn’t in our book, but has the rating written in chalk at the bottom, so I try it out. It begins well, with kind of balancey moves on sidepulls, but then the upper half stymies me. After several falls and grabbing a quickdraw while trying to clip, I find a workable sequence. Should be fun to come back and try to redpoint this.

Good 5.10b

A very satisfying flash for me. Very consistent climbing on big downsloped holds, or small sidepulls. Gave me a smile.