Hello from Joshua Tree

Hello from Joshua Tree National Park, California. Jeff here, this place is awesome, definitely the most scenic place we've been so far. At night the combination of boulders, stars, and of course the Joshua trees create the feeling of existing on another planet, its wild. The sounds of howling coyotes greet us in the morning and sound us to bed at night. As far as the climbing goes, it's varied which is awesome. The rock is sharp, no joke but consistent and fun to climb. I sent a 23ft V3 "Satellite Left" which was most exciting, sent a V4 "Yaba Daba Don't," very cool climb. I also have three V5 projects going in one area which is exciting. Again we are meeting new awesome people, we've been climbing with our neighbors Roy and Pat from Maryland and Jidae (He-day) from Japan who has an amazing story. He has been traveling on a bicycle for almost three years now, we will actually be with him for his last days of his trip. He traveled through Argentina, Mexico, British Columbia, Alaska to here, quite inspiring. He is quite the spirit to have around, Roy and Pat took him while he is here but needs no one to depend on. With an apparently vigorous work out and stretching regiment he is a strong climber with only four months under his belt. Saturday day night was possibly the coolest night we've had. With new friends and some strangers hanging around a camp fire, the language of spanish flying all over, we had a great night of music from Barcelona and from our neck of the woods as well. Feeling good, feeling fine, here's to next time.

Hello Lee here, Josh is a very cool place.  As jeff said, it seems to be from another planet... or the land before time... or the Flintstones.  This leg of the trip has been very good so far, starting out with my birthday on friday.  We went to the 5.10 outlet in the redlands, and got two new pairs of shoes, because all of mine are on their way out.  on saturday we climbed with our delaware friends along with Jidae, the three of which were camped next to us but we ended up meeting at our warm-up boulder.  They gave us a very good introduction to the area, including the classic "yabba dabba dont", "not so thin lizzy", "thin lizzy", and "White Rastafarian":  The proud 25 foot arete with a committing move to a sloper gaston, that moves into an exposed top out.  I was aware of the potential consequences of the move; a friend from home, Brad Frankenfield, fell from the move and tore ligaments in his ankle due to landing past the pads on the ground.  So i knew i would either feel comfortable and send or have to bail risking injury.  I pulled on and every move felt awesome, i stood up to the big move, and executed, and flashed the problem.  I felt rather comfortable throughout the whole thing.  I believe it was a situation where everyone on the ground was much more uncomfortable than I was.  We then went to stem gem to close out the day, and i didnt send but was very intruiged by the balance of the problem.  We had a great fire that night with such a good energy brought on by the vast range of people we were with.

Yesterday we climbed in a different area and It was very good however i was pretty tired so tried a number of things but didnt spend too much time on any one thing.  Eric and i did however find an interesting boulder not in the guide that had really interesting movement, we think it goes at v2 but in josh style it requires a lot of beta.

I made contact with Eric Wysocki a friend from highschool who know lives in LA and we will be meeting up with him on friday night to go out on the town.  So expect more pictures and an update then!

auf weidersein.  

It's Eric. I'm gonna make this short and sweet. Like ginger ale. California is totally awesome. Dude, the people are so rad and mellow. Man, the climbing is like .... Wahpow! It's gnarly brah! It's like ... Mars man, totally far out.
On a more serious note I really do love California. Between the landscape here and the vibe of the people I can already see myself moving to this state so I am excited to see what the rest of California is like. The rock here is great to climb on and I'm pretty stocked on sending some crack routes on gear tomorrow.

Love, peace, and chicken grease.

Jeff on Yabba Dabba Dont

Lee sending White Rastafarian

Eric working Pig Pen

Saturday Night Fire