Forever Outside Co.

For those whom are Forever Outside

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Cycling Cap

Super limited edition of less than 12 available. These cycling caps are bad ass!  100% designed, sewn, printed in California. Perfect for cycling but also intended to be worn under a helmet when rock climbing.  These 3-panel caps feature:

• 60%/40% poly cotton blend premium fabric • 100% poly moisture-wicking headband for sweat • One-size-fits most elastic back • 100% Made in USA • Forever Outside artwork on all panels including brim top & bottom

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Eaton Canyon

PHOTOS © JAMES MAGDALENO / EMILIO RIVERA VIDEO © SINDY MALDONADO

There is a first time for everything!  The last couple years have held many firsts for me.  2015 is shaping up no different.  My adventure bucket list includes ice climbing and canyoneering, both of which I have successfully completely this year.  I checked off ice climbing right out the gate in January up in Lee Vining before this blog started, but last weekend was a real summer kick off in Eaton Canyon.

Eaton Canyon sits only 20 minutes away from my home in Altadena, California.  It has a nature center, and a little nature walk to view the bottom of a waterfall, and a little walk-in campsite that is frequented by the boyscouts, and one more thing, a HUGE canyoneering trip that is buried from the public eye.  On the canyoneer's grading scale it's a 3B IV, Which means: 

Class 3 - Intermediate Canyoneering  Rappels or technical climbing and/or downclimbing. A rope is required for belays and single-pitch rappels.

B - Water with no current or light current. Still pools. Falls are normally dry or running at a trickle. Swimming expected. 

IV - Expected to take a long day. Get up early, bring a headlamp. Possible bivy.

Eaton Canyon lived up to all of these terms and conditions. It is regarded as one of the best canyons in Southern California, and some consensus would consider it a 10 hour day trip.  It is a multicomponent exercise involving hiking, rock scrambling, swimming, repelling, and then repeating those actions over and over.

On June 20th, 2015, a group of 7 of us meet at the gate to the nature boundary at 7:30am. Some important foreshadowing of this trip report is to notice that gate behind us.  It is a tall structure bound with massive razor wire.  This gate is open to hikers, backpacker's and bikers from sunrise to sunset.  During any other hours, one must use an alternative entrance near the Nature Center.  This gate sits along a residential road but is a common access for the campground and specific park destinations, including the upper canyon.

We arrived at the gate right around the time it opened, the beginning of the approach consists of a hike up a dirt fire road to reach Henninger Flats.  This is maybe 3 miles with a couple thousand feet gain, no big deal early in the morning.

When we got to Henninger Flats, the campground around Eaton Canyon, we stopped to briefly enjoy the view and hydrate.

 I observed a warning sign for Rattlesnakes.  I've encountered rattlers before, in Burbank, San Gorgonio and Joshua Tree, they don't usually spook me.  For some reason I snapped a photo of the sign, and that might have been prophesied what would happen.

From here, you continue up the toll road, which could eventually connect you to Mt. Wilson. 

Not far above Henninger, you make a left over a tiny wooden bridge that almost immediately shoots you into the deep backcountry.  What goes from a very dry and arid atmosphere in the public, immediately transforms into secluded rain forest vibe.

You're prepared to get wet when you start this trip, but when you pop into the top of the canyon you are sort of skirting the creek trying to keep your feet dry.  Almost instantly you realize that it's not only impossible, the creek is the only form of trail.  To avoid walking in the water, would require heavy bushwhacking. 

The terrain was bittersweet, while beautiful and sequestered, it was also treacherous.  There was a combination of wet shoes with moss covered rocks on the bottom of the creek, which meant moving extremely slow to keep your balance.  In addition there was massive poison oak on the sides of the trail.  Spider webs in the trees, swarms of bees, a large rattlesnake that forced us to bushwhack through a grove of stinging nettles (more poisonous plants) and of course infinite mosquitoes to bite your ankles.

In contrast to nature's torture devices, there was also an abundance of beauty.  Flocks of butterflies (or at least really beautiful moths) would flutter when you stepped over logs, and countless cute frogs clinging to the granite walls.  We saw a deer prancing thru the forest (and a rotten exploded carcass in our way too) Really cool newts and skinks, a non-venomous snake swimming by and enough greenery to keep some sun burn at bay, which is a rarity in Southern California hiking.

Eaton Canyon is often referred to as an "adult water park"  there is a succession of mini-waterfalls that you either slide down on your butt or jump off into (depending on the water depth at the given time) then rotated with technical repels, some climbing, hiking, it just never ends.  It's at a good 8 miles trip.

Eventually you need to gear up with a harness, repel device, a fancy rope, and helmet, and maybe a couple other accessories.  This is what separates a class 3 canyon from a class 2 or 1 canyon.  This can be dangerous, especially adding the element of water, it's slippery!

Some repels end in a pool of water, you must untie from the repel device which treading water and swim out.  Here is Mel demonstrating!

At this point, I have no recollection if these photos are in any particular order.  It becomes a roller coaster of fun/scary/tired/excited.  There is somewhat of an endurance challenged involved.  The only way to properly explain the sequence is to post this canyoneer's map of Eaton.  Click to enlarge, you can see there are something like 6 roped repels and 10 slides, and lots of down climbing, tree-hoping and hiking.

Here's Emilio, the man with the master plan, our fearless leader for the day.  He had done the trip once before, so hey, that qualifies him!  Thanks Emilio, even after your phone crapped out from getting waterlogged, you still had a great grasp on the land form recognition, everything was also "just around the bend!" 

I think two phones blew out that day, amazing we got all these photos and the cameras stayed dry.  Emilio had a GoPro in a waterproof case which was nice, Jimmy rolled the dice and 50% of his electronics made it out of the canyon still functioning.  I guess one ziploc bag is really better at protecting a sandwich than an iPhone.

Thanks to Sindy for editing this video, it gives a better perspective on the event.

The weather was great, normally people wear a light wetsuit, but since it was in the 90's we many of us jammed out in shorts.  Too bad we didn't know there would be so much poison oak! Here's Melissa, she repelling in real boss mode.  We all took a pretty good beating, but I feel like she only took one beating on her knee, so that out her below average with trip injuries. Good work!

Down some trees into a pool, a couple nice balancing acts and bizarre traverses.

A couple of the repels had very awkward starts and some awkward finishes.  Sindy never blinked about walking on the wild side.

And for every tree you had to go over, you had to go under one too!

At around 6:30 pm we started approaching the final repel.  This one is special.  You repel over what's known as Eaton Falls.  This particular waterfall is the base of the lower canyon.  There is normally a large audience to watch you descend this portion because this is the main attraction of the common Eaton Canyon Nature Trail hike.  Many people hike the simple couple miles to the waterfall to utilize it as a swimming hole, picnic area, selfie background and escape from the city.

However, Eaton Falls is also rich in a dark history of helicopter rescues and misfortunate deaths. Many ill-prepared enthusiasts attempt to use-trails to ascend the upper falls for cliff jumping and swimming.  In 2011 alone there were over 60 helicopter rescues.  A quick google search brings up story after story of depressing fatalities, many oh whom are young kids.

To repel this final 50' waterfall is exciting and nerve racking all at once.  It is to an audience excited to see the action, and it is a signifier than the mission is coming to a conclusion.

Last year, after the 5th death, the forest service made a public and official closure of the upper canyon trails.  It's a $5,000 fine to enter in the 84 acres marked off.  In spite of this, if you apply for a permit, specifically for canyoneering, and get the signed approval of the District Ranger  Denis Merkel, you may pass through the upper and lower falls.

After we all finished the final repel, I coiled the rope for the last time that day.

We finally removed our helmets and took a concluding group photo.  We reorganized our backpacks and headed for the 1/2 mile hike back to the side gate where we had parked in the morning.

We were proud to finish the canyon before dark.  Most of us were new to canyoneering so expected it to take longer than usual.  We all got down and out safely before dark.  On the hike back to the car we discussed how one more person in the party could have potentially disrupted our timing.  We were hiking out while the sun was setting.  Our clothes were drying and our eyes naturally adjusting.

Perhaps you remember that fence from the beginning of our adventure?  The one with the coils of barbed wire that closes at sunset?  Yeah, well we got there just after sunset, and it was locked!!!  Now it was dark, we were hungry and exhausted.  We faced another 2 miles of night hiking to get back to our vehicles.

We wasted no time and just accepted that our adventure wasn't over.  We joked about bivying by the fence and leaving in the morning, which would REALLY make this the Grade IV canyon trip!  No thanks!  We caught wind of some real locals who happen to be in the park after dark, we followed them down a slim horse trail to a side gate, perhaps shaving some distance off our expected re-routed path. We all chatted about showers and hamburgers and Mexican food. 

By the time we all got back to our respected vehicles on Pinecrest Rd. it was 9:30pm!  This made for a 14 hour adventure.  Perhaps a slow time for the Eaton Canyon descent, but every minute was amazing!

I might have to update by adventure bucket list!  I know alpine climbing is still on the docket, could that be accomplished in 2015 too?! 

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Castle Rock

There are many than crags called Castle Rock, they exist in Idaho, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Nevada, Arizona, a couple in California and even one in New Zealand.  However, there is only one Castle Rock crag in Southern California and it sits in the San Bernardino Mountains.

This was my second time to the crag, and both times require a sincere recognition and appreciation to my Dirty-Rock-Sucking-friend Lori, who has organized and supported a large part of my climbing and learning.  Thank you Lori!!

As we drove into Big Bear, gaining the high ground, we were treated to a lovely "above the clouds" view in San Bernardino.

In a rather secluded forest setting, with sprawling views of Big Bear Lake, sits some superb quality granite. With it's high elevation (7,400' / 2255m) and tree shade provided, Castle Rock is an excellent choice for Summer climbing.

The approach is short and steep, perhaps a mile and 500' gain, but it's beautiful and worth every step.  So many crags around Southern California are more of a high desert setting so it's a very fresh alternative to be surrounded by such a lush green scenery.

We had two days and one night in Big Bear, so we set our first day sights on the East Face of Castle Rock.  The plan was to work a combination of on-sight sport climbing leads and trad leading.  The routes are moderate on this face, and the trad routes ate up rock protection.

Here's Jamie cutting her teeth on a sport lead.  Bravo!

I have been rolling the mountain weather dice for the third time on this climbing weekend.  I pressed my luck at Yosemite, then Tahquitz, and the third time was a charm.  It was about a 50% chance of scattered rain, which ended up being a beautiful sun shower that didn't effect our climbs.

Here's Nancy wearing her rain shell for all of 5 minutes

I've been eager to get deeper into trad climbing and more proficient with my skills.  I was stoked for a clean lead on Black Tower Crack 5.7.  Big thanks to Josh for the lead belay and the positive encouragement on the climb.  Also thanks to Josh and Lori for critiquing my gear placements.  Knowledge is power!

The route starts up twin cracks with a wide section on the left and then climbs up about 15' to where the angle kicks back and jugs appear on the face to the left. Higher up another steep section is encountered just before the top. Great climb with a lot of different moves (stemming, chimney, jams, etc.) and protects very well and provides the climber solid stances to place protection.  Great for a n00b trad leader!

Although the East Face has significantly shorter climbs than some of the other faces at Castle Rock, we all really enjoy crack climbing, and the moderate routes provide plenty of fun.  Here's Nancy with some fancy footwork:

After tackling the lead climbs and avoiding a thunderstorm, we headed back to a campsite in Bluff Mesa.  Time for food, fire, and chopping wood! Check out my instagram account for a slow motion video of the log splitting, follow me @foreveroutside

On Sunday, we woke up early, packed the cars and headed back to the crag.  We all scrambled to the very top of Castle Rock to set some top ropes and enjoy the view of Big Bear Lake.  Many people come here to hike the simple trail and enjoy this view.  There's a couple nice 3rd class, maybe 4th class moves to get to the top if you head around the West face.

The goal was to work some harder routes and play with a couple route variations.  After some anchor building exercise, here's Jamie rapping down.

We had a partial topo of the Southwest Face, but many routes existed inbetween our map, and all of the routes allowed for some really creative variations that put the consensus in, around, and perhaps above the 5.10 grade.  Per the usual, everything on the ground looked easy, looks like a ton of huge handholds and features but when you get up there, it's never what it seems. 

The routes are really interesting, nice mix of sport and trad, all on really great granite.  Excellent grip and solid rock.  The routes on this face are around 100' (30m), offering a great work out.  You're also treated to a gorgeous view towards the top of the crag.  Here's a photo on top rope, following a bolt line on a tricky route.

Below is Melissa taking creative route detours.

The weather was great on Sunday, it was warm and sunscreen was a must!  We had a blast and climbed half a day.  After we were satisfied with the work out, we packed up and prepared for the hike back to the car and the 2 hour drive back to Los Angeles. 

Everyone had a great time, including Sputnik, who was a perfectly behaved crag dog over the entire weekend!

I'm looking forward to our next trip to Big Bear!

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Half Dome

Rising 8,800 feet above sea level lies Half Dome, the greatest icon in Yosemite National Park. This unique granite monolith is named from the obvious cleft appearance.  I've spent the last 3 years planning my crusade.  The "easiest" way to see the summit is by a 14-16 miles round trip hike that gains 4,800' elevation gain. The most famous part of the hike is the final 400' section that requires assisted use of metal cables that are seasonally installed by the park. In order to use the cables one must obtain a permit by a lottery system, and each individual is only allowed one application per year, with about a 20% chance of odds.  On my third year applying, I was granted a permit, and this is where the story gets interesting.

Depending on how you view it my adventure either fell apart, or came together.  The original plan was to hike the traditional hiker's route as described with my immediate family.  I was lucky to get a permit for Memorial Day weekend too.  As the departure date grew closer, my family reserved their participation for a time when they would feel more confidently conditioned to tackled the length and elevation gain demand (and the scary cable part!)

So I was left to decide about hiking the trail alone, refunding my lottery winning permit, or plan C, randomly ask a qualified friend-of-a-friend to technically ascend the monolith using ropes and rock climbing equipment, an entirely different style of adventure.  Plan C it was!  I met my teammate Ryan, aka Taco, a weekend before Memorial Day.  We ran some very rudimentary drills and assured each other of enough sanity to partner up and commit to the ascent, a trip he had lead previously, which was highly reassuring.

Carefully watching the ever nerve racking weather forecast of the Sierra Mountains, we headed out to Yosemite on the afternoon of Sunday May 24th.  Arriving at our temporary base camp for the night and tried to get to sleep my 9pm.  We woke up at 3am on Memorial day and headed to the trail head.  The rock climbing route objective is called Snake Dike and requires a similar statistic of hiking, but with the added climbing instead of the cable assistance. So we hit the trail at by 4am for the 6.5 mile approach to the bottom of the route.  You can start by taking the beautiful Mist Trail or do a variation up using a section of the John Muir Trail, both take you a couple thousand feet up past Vernal Falls and Nevada falls.

Now the first sunlight is appearing, and we fill up our water bottles for the last time.  We hike passed Little Yosemite Valley Campground and catch a climber's trail that heads into the back country.  At this point it's passed 6:30am, and we have not seen a single person.  The climber's trail is beautiful, and spirits are high.  We're looking for bears, but only see birds.

The climber's trail eventually disappears to open rock slabs.  From here you follow some cairns that may or may not guide you down the correct path.  Like most people do, we had some minor setbacks getting to the base of the climb.  This section requires some bushwhacking and sometimes very exposed ledges of 3rd and 4th class sandy switchbacks to get you to the Southwest face of Half Dome.

We get to the climb! I would be lying to say I wasn't a little tired already.  We just tackled near 7 miles and 2500'+ of gain.  It's 9:30am and we take a break for brunch.  Many people avoid climbing Snake Dike, or call the adventure "Snake Hike" because of the long approach, but hiking in Yosemite Valley is not a punishment, but rather a treat.  Look at this view from the bottom of the route, it's spectacular.

Now for my first time roping up in Yosemite and my first bid for the summit of Half Dome, it's go time!  Snake Dike, in regards to a relative grading system isn't extremely difficult per say.  However, it's a very strenuous day and a very "R-Rated" climb.  This specifically and particularly means there is little rock protection along the 800' of roped climbing and little room for error.  Essentially you need large cojones, and it qualifies this route as being one of the most glorious moderate climbs on the planet.  I've been climbing for less than 2 years and without the guidance of my partner Taco, I can't imagine having enough strategy.

Here I am below, about to approach the anchor of the 1st pitch.  Snake Dike requires 8 pitches. I'm smiling to get to this ledge, before this was photo was taken you must use alot of friction and finesse to arrive.

Here you can see Taco leading the second pitch of the climb, it requires a very delicate traverse.  The sweeping views of the Valley floor are the finest.  We really lucked out with great weather and when we started climbing at 10am, there wasn't another party on the route.  EMPTY!  It was as if we had Yosemite to ourselves, on Memorial Day nonetheless!

Below you can start to see the Dike itself.  It's a very distinct shape, almost looks like a dinosaur spine.  Excellent climbing when you get to it, almost acts like a natural ladder.  This shot of me cleaning what little gear can be placed displays a typical view looking down the route.  High exposure, and this is probably only pitch 3 I'm guessing.

Somewhere along the route we stopped for a selfie. It wasn't easy to shoot many photos of the climb seeing as we sort of had our hands busy holding the rope for each other.  Ya know, so nobody dies and all.  That's important

When you get to the top of the 8th pitch, around 800' later you untie your rope and sit on this large rock perched above the route. 

Now this is not the top, there is a require extra 1000' of unroped 3rd class slabs.  You cannot fall here.  Not sure if you would slip all the off the mountain, but it's not worth finding out.  The slab is off a lower incline but sticky rubber shoes is a must.  This part is a real calf and lung buster, especially after what you've put your body through by now.

We're gonna make it!  We make it.  We finally get over the top of the never ending slabs and there are a few peppered tourists around the summit who have made the ascent from the metal cables.  They are impressed to see us arrive from a different and obviously less convenient angle.  It's almost surreal to me, I have been waiting 3 years to see this view.  However, there's not much time to take it all in.  There are dark storm clouds in the distance near Mount Star King.  Being at the top of Half Dome during a storm could be a death sentence.  The dome is a natural lightning rod and several people have died instantly when the rock is struck by lightning.  Furthermore, the granite is naturally slippery, attempting to get down if it's wet could be a real nightmare.  It's around 2pm and I convince Taco to take a summit photo with me.  He's a bit shy to be mixed in with this tourist activity but I understand.  We've endured quite a shitload together seeing as it's a new friendship, the photo is non-negotiable in this instance.

At this point, I have full cell phone reception, since we basically climbed closer to the AT&T satellite.  I make a quick facetime call to my wife to let her know I have survived and show her the view.  I then make my way over to the diving board shaped summit portion known as Half Dome's "visor."  Here one takes the quintessential and ubiquitous postcard-from-the-edge souvenir photo.  It's a little dizzying to stand out there but it's irresistible.

Now I guess you think it's over, but this marks the half way point.  Now to it's get the heck out of here!  The celebration ends abruptly as the clouds look sketchy.  We head over to the hiker's metal cables for the traditional descent of the climb.  Coming down the cables is scary, sure thousands of tourists do it a year, but after sleeping a few hours and hiking several, and climbing even more, one must stay mentally sharp.  When you're tired is when mistakes can happen.  I found descending the metal cables to be part of the most nerve racking experience of the whole thing.  Weird but true.  It was just amazing how empty the place was.  We expected a whole mess of visitors heading up and down the cables, traffic jamming, but it was nearly vacant!

It seemed mentally safer to walk down the cables backwards, sort of like how Batman would rappel.  It's really shocking how many tourists use these things!  Relatively few people have fallen and died on the cables. However, injuries are not uncommon for those acting irresponsibly.

So we get down the cables, and still have NINE MORE MILES to hike back to the car.  HA!  Since you descent a different face than we climbed, the hike back is even longer.  Luckily it's the most beautiful hiking ever.  My mind and body are basically separated at this point and I'm just following my feet as we fly down the waterfalls and back to the trail head.  I stop at a switchback about half way back to get a capture of myself standing in front of my most recent and greatest accomplishments.

We get back to the car at 6pm, making it an exactly 14 hour day.  We've hiked close to 16 miles with 5000' gain, which is about 4 times the height of the Empire State Building. What a dream come true for me.  Taco and I head to Curry Village and massacre a large pizza before passing out at our campsite in Upper Pines.  I'm overjoyed with glory and satisfaction and it makes the blisters on my feet so forgetful.

The next day I hiked out to Mirror Lake to take one more peek at the iconic Half Dome.  I have been tracking all my climbs in a small Adventure Journal and was elated to add Snake Dike to a page.  Cheers to my first climb in Yosemite, my first summit up Half Dome, my first 8 pitch route and salute to Mother Nature for letting all the stars align!

Til next time Yosemite!

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Red Rock Rendezvous: Day 2

March 18th, 2015 the official launch of the Red Rock Rendezvous.  This was a packed day for us.  We slept well after the multi-pitch on Friday and woke up around 5am to reconfigure our belongings, drink massive amounts of coffee and prepare to efficiently switch gears between activities.  After rearranging out packs and tents we headed down to the Petzl booth to grab a complimentary mug, a nice mug indeed. From there we head directly to the Kicking Horse coffee booth where they were brewing large batch french press dark and medium roast.  Kicking Horse is a Canadian company that represents fair trade beans and was generous to supply the entire festival all weekend with unlimited free coffee.  I've never heard of the brand, but I have much respect for them now!  Thanks fellas!

The first part of our day included a community service project with the Access Fund. The Access Fund works with federal, state and local officials; local climbing organizations; and land managers to develop and guide climbing management policies for public and private lands. On a national level Access Fund actively lobbies our legislators towards mutually agreeable policies in the interest of climbers, on a local level they provide guidance for land owners and managers on issues that directly impact their land.

This specific project involved the area in Red Rock Canyon known as the The Kraft Boulders, located near the visitors center in Calico Basin. These great boulders are outside of a residential area and hold hundreds of problems from V0 to V10 (grading scale for the difficulty of the climbs).

The problem with this popular area was the trail maintenance.  People walk all over visiting boulder to boulder and the trail can be described as a "spider web" now.  During the weekend of Red Rock Rendezvous over 60 volunteers helped to define the trails around the Kraft Boulders.  This involved placing rocks like landing strips down in a way that would lead hikers and climbers on specific routes, simply and effectively protecting much of the plant life.

The problem with this popular area was the trail navigation.  People walk all over, visiting boulder to boulder, and the trail can be described as a "spider web" now.  During the weekend of Red Rock Rendezvous over 60 volunteers helped to define the trails around the Kraft Boulders.  This involved placing rocks like landing strips in a way that would lead hikers and climbers on specific routes, simply and effectively protecting much of the plant life.

You can see in this picture below how pointless some of the trail junctions are.  The trail below splits around a plant, but by closing off one of the sides, and leading visitors down just one path, the Access fund can add additional native vegetation to the area and create the more natural look of the land.

With so many volunteers, in just a few hours almost 6,000 feet of trail was defined!

After the service project, we headed back to base camp for a quick lunch before our afternoon climbing clinic.  The clinic was an 'Easy Trad for Beginners" topic.  We're mostly sport climbers but breaking into trad as we expand our climbing destinations.  The clinic was taught in the "First Pull Out" area of Red Rock Canyon, with an easier approach (all things considered) we headed to our specific wall.

The clinics are fairly brief, around 4 hours long each.  I made the assumption the class would just touch on pro vs passive gear placements, some risk assessment and maybe fool around placing climber protection into rock from ground level, but I was very wrong.  There were three top ropes set up and climbing began almost immediately.  All the gear was left in the wall and as we climbed up we where instructed to inspect the rock protection, remove it and replace it.  Basically shadowing the concept of trad climbing.

After everyone climbed all the routes, I was fortunate and just pushy enough to get the instructor to pull a rope so I could lead climb a route.  The routes we're very moderate and I had climbed it on top rope so I felt comfortable.  

The start of the route was real slabby and had a low incline, which is good because it's a solid 18' before you can place your first piece of protection in the rock.  The clinic, while maybe not awesome for everyone in involved, especially those who really knew nothing about the style of trad climbing, was awesome for me.  The teacher explained the difference of placing protection in the sandstone rock around Las Vegas compared to the granite rock that I normally climb.  She also followed my route to inspect and critique all the protection I placed.  The climb being fairly easy, makes you want to run it out and just head to the top, but I wanted an expert to examine my skills, which maybe 3 of the 5 pieces I placed were decent.  Got to start somewhere!!!

 A good buddy was walking by from another clinic in the First Pullout and happened to snap a pretty epic photo of me on the sharp end. 

After the lead climb, we packed up the ropes and ran back to the shuttle bus. Changed our clothes and the party began!  The North Face sponsored a huge buffet of BBQ food, Metolious sponsored a very entertaining dyno contest on a synthetic climbing wall, and all the major manufacturers had booths with games and demo products and raffles.  There was a gear auction with charity donations, and a hilarious techno DJ.  Also FREE beer from New Belgium brewing company, if you're into that.  We were so tired from moving rocks during the service project to climbing rocks in the trad clinic, that we hit the pillow around 10pm.  Fell asleep to the relaxing blast of the bass bumping from the DJ stage.  Tomorrow would be another clinic, new climbs and a long ride home! 

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Red Rock Rendezvous: Day 1

2015 marked the 10th annual Red Rock Rendezvous and my first, what will be annual attendance.  What is RRR? It's only the country's largest rock climbing festival.  Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Red Rock Canyon State Park, the festival holds learning clinics for climber's of all skill level.  RRR was held the weekend of March 27th - 29 and we filled our days to the fullest.

We left Los Angeles on thursday night and arrived to the campground on 11pm.  Many tents were already pitched with some scattered dirtbags just sleeping near their vehicle, as expected.  Friday morning we had registered for a "pre-clinic" as the official festival didn't really announce til that night, and Saturday was the billed as the big party.

Our Friday clinic, wasn't really a clinic, rather just a climb guided by the American Alpine Institute. It was 2 to 1 participants with our guide Aidan, a 47 year old veteran who looked more like a rough 1991 Patrick Swayze á la Point Break. He was kind, had excellent stories and insight, and a girlfriend who was 27.  Bravo sir. He also had a tendency to run out the climbs so far as when I went to clean the routes, there would only appear to be one piece of gear for every 50' we climbed, which is only impressive/scary if you speak rock climbing jargon.

Our destination was a 400' wall in First Creek Canyon, which took a solid 90 minutes to approach. The wall is seriously called "Lotta Balls Wall" not referring to reproductive organs, but rather this strange appearance of small marble like balls protruding all over the rock.  Some small and useless, others good enough for foot holds.  All in all the strange look of the light colored rock with these dark marble balls reminded me of candied yams with the baked marshmallows on top, some slightly browned, it looked just like that.

You can see Pine Creek Canyon in the background.  The foreground is Nancy enjoying some home-brewed kombucha ( +10 hipster points) and wearing the soon to be released Forever Outside dirtbag cap ( +10 cool points).  It was a fair hike in, and it was already hot. 

Mountain Project describes the Lotta Balls Wall as "Excellent rock, good quality traditional routes, and a bit of shade characterize this north-facing wall. Most of the climbs are four pitches long and end on a broken ledge system part way up the main face. The standard descent is via the gully on the left (east) side of the face. Some scrambling and 2 or 3 short rappels get you down to the easy terrain."

The wall is popular, especially for it's shade and sustained climbing.  Their are four routes here, all pretty classic, all graded about 5.8 and all around 400' with 4 pitches of climbing.  Our specific route of climbing was called "Trihardral"  a fun pun on try hard and dihedral.  Which it had a little of both.  The rock in Las Vegas was very different than the granite I usually climb.  Different in both it's feel, durability, but also in the unique moves.  For my first climb out here, it was almost as if I forget everything I knew about climbing.  I basically abandoned all my techniques and muscled through the first two pitches making for very gassed out arms and legs.  I kept thinking "oh this must be a crack lieback, but it was actually a chimney technique, really wearing myself out...  more climbing jargon you can ignore.

The approach was long, the lines to get on the climbs, weren't particularly short, and the length of the route and hike back to the camp made for a long day.  Here's a few pics along the climb, what an awesome way to kick of Red Rock Rendezvous!

Almost done with the route, a solid 400 feet above the ground, some great exposure when you look around.  You can see deep into the canyons.  The RRR was neat because all the major brands were there demoing gear.  I borrowed this newly updated Osprey Mutant 28 crag backpack for the climb.  All I had to leave at their booth was my name and phone number.  I beat the heck out of this back, the route had some stemming and chimneys and the descent required squeezing through some tunnels.  I rubbed this bag rough against the rocks, glad I tool their demo pack and not mine!

Here's Nancy off belay, restructuring the cairn up top that announces the direction for the rappel.  It was one short rappel to a ledge, then a 300' rappel to closer to the ground.  I quick short roping for a down climb and then class 3 back to the trail and the hour and a half hike to the camp!

Heading back for dinner, right before the sun started setting.

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Camo Compass Carabiner

Never lose your keys or your way with Forever Outside's combination keychain and compass.

This 3” carabiner sports the classic green/brown/black camouflage motif with silver engraving.

Anodized Aluminum. Engraving on both sides.

Includes 1" detachable split ring, 2" black nylon strap, and 3/4" bubble compass Length 3 1/8", Width 1 5/8", Thickness 5/16"

*this carabiner is NOT intended for climbing purposes*

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Fresh Tracks

March 6, 2015 we entered the Eastern Sierrra.  A short backpack hike up the closed road lead us to our first night's destination.  We set up a quick camp and set off for a night hike to Lake Sabrina.  The hike was fun, but almost mandatory to restore some feeling in our toes, it was surley below freezing. Lake Sabrina is a lake created by damming the middle fork of Bishop Creek. It is located south-west of Bishop.  We got to the lake around 9:45pm, took a few photos, admired the stars and headed back to our tents to get some rest.

In the morning we packed it all up, and backpacked further uphill to North Lake Camopground in the Inyo National Forest.  The lake was frozen over and the snow was pleasant.  We stamped out some platforms and pitched our base camp.

After an early lunch we set out to break some new tracks with snowshoes.

We headed towards the John Muir Wilderness boundary, did some serious post holing, tackled a nice ridgeline and pitched the Eno Disco Hammock for epic relaxation. The daytime weather was great, the high 40's felt like 80's when the sun hits you and you're tromping in the deep white stuff.  At night it was about 17 degrees, but we all survived and had a great time!  Sunday morning, make some coffee in the vestibule and head back to the vehicles.  Great times!

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Fresh Tracks

March 6, 2015 we entered the Eastern Sierrra.  A short backpack hike up the closed road lead us to our first night's destination.  We set up a quick camp and set off for a night hike to Lake Sabrina.  The hike was fun, but almost mandatory to restore some feeling in our toes, it was surley below freezing. Lake Sabrina is a lake created by damming the middle fork of Bishop Creek. It is located south-west of Bishop.  We got to the lake around 9:45pm, took a few photos, admired the stars and headed back to our tents to get some rest.

In the morning we packed it all up, and backpacked further uphill to North Lake Camopground in the Inyo National Forest.  The lake was frozen over and the snow was pleasant.  We stamped out some platforms and pitched our base camp.

After an early lunch we set out to break some new tracks with snowshoes.

We headed towards the John Muir Wilderness boundary, did some serious post holing, tackled a nice ridgeline and pitched the Eno Disco Hammock for epic relaxation. The daytime weather was great, the high 40's felt like 80's when the sun hits you and you're tromping in the deep white stuff.  At night it was about 17 degrees, but we all survived and had a great time!  Sunday morning, make some coffee in the vestibule and head back to the vehicles.  Great times!

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

ON THE SHARP END....

Huge moment in rock climbing this weekend.  February 28th, 2015 I sent my first trad lead in Joshua Tree National Park.  The route is called "Jane Crowley" a 5.8 hand crack with a nice layback crux.  Forecast was predicted to be a chance of high winds and rain, but Mother Nature blessed us with clear skies and a calm breeze. Location inside the Lost Horse area is the east face of "Left Hand of Darkness" crag.  If you're climbing on that wall, don't skip out on "Granny Goose" that's a great climb too! Thanks go out to Lori and Ben of the Dirty Rock Suckers for helping me send my first trad lead!

[foreveroutsideco-blog]

Surfing a pillar in the Alabama Hills, CA