Joshua Tree Day 2 | chossclimbers.com

Shirley on Apparition.

A one day quick in&out to Joshua Tree during Shirley’s work-related trip to Desert Springs next door. Went with Dow’s recommendations and climbed half a day at Indian Cove. Did the Direct South Face of Moosedog Tower (2P, 5.9) – nice views, decent climbing; followed by the very fun Apparition (5.10a) and finally Scare Way (5.10b) – best route of the day! After hitting up some late lunch, we figured we still had time for one more line and so we chose a normally crowded classic Pope’s Crack (5.9) right at sunset. Very good climbing indeed.

Pics

Moosedog Tower (on the left) with the obvious roof that is passed on the Direct South Face route (Jan. 2015).

Leading the opening pitch of Direct South Face of Moosedog Tower (2P, 5.9)…5.5 climbing to a 5.9 roof pull followed by more 5.5 to the anchor (Jan. 2015).

Shirley just above the short crux on pitch 1 of Direct South Face (Jan. 2015).

Pitch 2 of Direct South Face – a nice if short 5.7 crack (Jan. 2015).

Shirley on the sub summit of Moosedog Tower. We linked the short pitches 2 and 3 to the summit (Jan. 2015).

Arriving on the summit (Jan. 2015).

On top of Moosedog Tower with the Indian Cove campground in the background (Jan. 2015).

Shirley on the summit of Moosedog Tower with the splendor of J-Tree in the background (Jan. 2015).

Rapping off Moosdog (Jan. 2015).

Starting up Apparition (5.10a) – a series of short bouldery moves leading to a very nice hand crack (Jan. 2015).

The nice cruiser hands section of Apparition (Jan. 2015).

Shirley on the beautiful hand crack of Apparition (Jan. 2015).

Dos Equis Wall as seen from top of Apparition (Jan. 2015).

Splitter hands!

Apparition top-out (Jan. 2015).

Shirley rapping off Apparition Rock (Jan. 2015).

Shirley hiking over from Apparition Rock to Dos Equis – goal is the obvious crack called Scare Way (Jan. 2015).

Starting up Scare Way (5.10b) – the first 20 feet are the crux…a right-leaning groove that is doing its best to push you out (Jan. 2015).

Past the crux on Scare Way – we took the left exit visible above and it had some fun and exposed climbing (Jan. 2015).

Shirley topping out on the very fun Scare Way route (Jan. 2015).

Apparition Rock as seen from top of Scare Way route on Dos Equis Wall (Jan. 2015).

Rapping off Dos Equis Wall (Jan. 2015).

Dos Equis Wall rap (bolts).

The arduous hike out…

Echo Rock and Pope’s Crack with two climbers on it (Jan. 2015).

Unknown climbers on the beautiful Pope’s Crack route (5.9).

Leading the classic Pope’s Crack (5.9).

Shirley on the dike & slab traverse 2/3rds of the way up Pope’s Crack (Jan. 2015).

Brilliant sunset from Pope’s Crack (Jan. 2015).

Finishing up Pope’s Crack in the final minutes of the day (Jan. 2015).

Rapping off and heading home (Jan. 2015).

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