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On a wonderful weekend in May 2002, I flew out to San Francisco and visited my brother, Tim and his girlfriend Tara at their place in Twin Peaks. From there we drove to Joshua Tree National Park (south of LA about 8hrs drive from SanFran) and went rock climbing. |
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Here is Tim and me the first morning before climbing. We have on our climbing harnesses and a couple layers of clothes because, being desert, Joshua Tree was cold at night but as the day went on, it got warmer and warmer. We also have 2 climbing ropes, one tied over my shoulders and one in the bag under my arm. Tim has on his harness many kinds and sizes of pro (that's short for protection) to attach the rope into the cracks in the rock as we climb. Plus a climbing helmet, sunscreen, lunch, and plenty of water. |
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On the right is Tim consulting the climbing guide book to see where we want to start. All the rocks have routes that have been discovered and rated and mapped in the book. Since we are beginners we want to find a route that won't be too hard for us to start with. He selected a route on the rock on the left in the picture above. We went to the crack that is just to the left of Tim's head. |
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Here's Tim getting ready to tackle the climb. You can see all the pro hanging from his harness. |
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What ended up happening is that we couldn't get a good hold of the rock with the pro so we climbed up the back of the rock and anchored the rope from the top. Then Tim repelled down the face (and I climbed back down the back) so we could then have one person climb and one person belay from the bottom. This is Tim repelling down the face. |
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Finally, this is me, climbing up the crack in the rock. It was not easy. You have to grip with just your fingers and toes and concentrate on keeping going, using your legs and not your arms to go up and keep breathing. Very, very cool. |
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Here is Tim and Tara in front of their tent and me by mine. Another friend of Tim and Tara's went with us too, Anita. Somehow I didn't get a picture of her (Sorry Anita) but we shared this tent. |
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This was our campfire that night. The rock wall around the fire pit was built by Tim because there was a good gusting wind most of the time and we needed so protection to get the fire going. I hope the next people there appreciate it. |
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Here below are just some shots of San Fran. Some from the roads near Tim's apartment as he was in the hills overlooking the city and some shots I took while I spent one morning wandering around the Haight-Ashbury district. Enjoy. |
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To return to the home page, click here. |
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