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Spooky
Spooky.
A weekend of mixed activities – (Shirley’s) business trip to San Diego and a touch of climbing in The Needles. We’ve meant to check this place out for years but somehow things never materialized. Now that we have, we can add our own voices to the chorus of admirers. Stellar climbing in a pretty setting and on some gorgeous rock! A 2:30am arrival in Kernville on day one meant a late wake up and by the time we hiked in it was early afternoon. We climbed the 3-pitch Igor Unchained and admired an unknown party on Thin Ice across the gully – the only other people we’d see climbing all weekend (shocked!). Indeed, Igor is probably some of the best 5.9 crack climbing in the universe. Pitch one is mostly an easy handcrack and when that peters out momentarily a perfect jug appears within reach – engineered to be fun. Pitches 2 and 3 offer a bit more variety including a touch of delicate face climbing and stemming. After topping out and rapping off, we stashed our gear and hiked out hungry for more.

The following day we came back and got on Thin Ice (3-pitch, 5.10b) first thing in the morning…expecting crowds. That worry never materialized and once again saw only the two same climbers as the day prior. We climbed the route in three pitches mostly because I wanted to get some photos of Shirley enjoying the pitch 2 flared chimney. 5.10a really? Heard an older guidebook calls it a 5.9…I need more hair on my chest. After topping out (and, despite the hard pitch 2, really enjoying this stellar route!), we rapped into the Sorcerer-Charlatan notch and climbed the 2-pitch Spooky (5.9) to the top of The Charlatan. A quick hike out and a strong desire to go back soon!

Video

Thin Ice
Game of inches.
Click for video.

Photos

Homebound
Homebound (this time).
First Half Day

The Magician
The Magician with the remnants of a burnt out fire lookout on its summit. This is the first of The Needles formations that you see on the hike in (Aug. 2014).

The Witch
The Witch as seen from the approach. Igor Unchained – its upper 2 pitches – are visible as a crack system that splits the center diamond-shaped face in half (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Igor Unchained – handcrack climbing ecstasy (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Shirley low on the first pitch of Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Views from Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
A follower getting into the crux on the first pitch of Thin Ice on The Sorcerer (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
More jamming goodness on pitch 1 of Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Leading pitch 2 of Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Looking back from midway up pitch 2 of Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
An unknown party nearly finished with pitch 1 of Thin Ice. View is from Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Starting up pitch 3 (funnest of the whole fun bunch) of Igor Unchained (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
The unknown follower on pitch 2 of Thin Ice. The leader of this party casually walked both pitches of the route with about 3 or 4 pieces of pro per pitch…pleasure to watch (Aug. 2014).

Igor Unchained
Shirley topping out on Igor Unchained with The Sorcerer (left) and The Charlatan in the background (Aug. 2014).

The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer formation as seen from Igor Unchained. There’s a party on the upper pitch of Thin Ice (leader is on the summit; Aug. 2014).

The Warlock
The beautiful looking Warlock formation as seen from the rap line on The Witch (Aug. 2014).

The Witch
Shirley rapping off the summit of The Witch (Aug. 2014).

The Witch
The Warlock as seen during the rappel off the summit of The Witch (Aug. 2014).

The Needles
The Needles.

The Needles
What seems to be the problem officer?

Second Day

The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer (with its classic Thin Ice route) as seen from the approach hike (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Starting up Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Thin Ice pitch 1 (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Shirley on pitch 1 of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
More Thin Ice pitch 1 action (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Topping out on pitch 1.

Thin Ice
Plunging into the flared chimney on pitch 2 of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Higher on the interesting pitch 2 of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Shirley starting up the strenuous (for us) pitch 2 of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Higher on pitch 2. Click photo for the video…

Thin Ice
Leading the much easier third and final pitch of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 3 (much easier than previous 2) of Thin Ice (Aug. 2014).

Thin Ice
Shirley atop The Sorcerer and eyeing The Charlatan with its Spooky route which we climbed next (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Leading pitch 1 of Spooky – short, easy slab to a very pretty thin hands crack (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
More splitter heaven (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Shirley starting up pitch 1 of Spooky on The Charlatan (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
The beautiful thin hands (but low angle) splitter on pitch 1 of Spooky (5.9; Aug. 2014).

Spooky
A great day to let the hair flutter in the warm SoCal wind.

Spooky
Leading pitch 2 of Spooky – short but nasty wideness to fun face climbing (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Shirley enjoying pitch 2 of Spooky…above the off-width start which was short but less enjoyable (Aug. 2014).

The Witch
The Witch as seen from the top of Spooky route on The Charlatan (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Cool granite features you climb through at the top of Spooky (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Pointing towards The Sorcerer from the top of Spooky (Aug. 2014).

The Charlatan
Summit selfie on The Charlatan (Aug. 2014).

The Needles
Shirley atop The Charlatan with The Witch formation in the background (Aug. 2014).

Spooky
Top of The Charlatan with Our Lady Of The Needles in the background (Aug. 2014).

Fabulous Nails
Fabulous Nails.

Homebound
Homebound after a good if quick bit of climbing (Aug. 2014).

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