We had a great trip to the Hills. Weather and temps were perfect and the climbing was a sweet treat as usual. We got to Lone Pine around 1:00 Thursday and were climbing by 2:00. I started on Hoodgie 7*** described as "sporty" in the guidebook. I knew the bolts were spacious with only 4 in about 80 feet. Routes with an R in the Hills are ridiculous from what I've seen. There is a Regular Route 6R next to Hoodgie that has one bolt and a 2" piece possible in a horizontal about halfway up. Hoodgie was enough of a scarefest for me - especially for a warmup!
Next we did Ankles Away 8**** with 9 bolts, a tricky crux and just slightly longer than Hoodgie. There are only 3 "4 star" climbs in the Hills. To get 5 stars you have to climb 10a or harder. I bagged the 7**** Rotten Bananas last trip, so that only left Ankles and Bananarama.
KC on the sweet underclings at the start of Ankles Away 8****
After thoroughly enjoying Ankles we did Copyright Infringement 7*. It had one bolt followed by some sweet slingable features and bomber pro. What a great way to end the day! I'd give it 2 stars.
Collage of Copyright Infringement 7*
Day 2 we started at the Penguins followed by the Candy Store and on to Cattle Pocket and the Corridors. The most hiking we did was about 5 minutes at the Penguins - gotta love those bumper belays. Here is the list:
The Penguins
Goodbye Blue Sky 7**
Candy Store
Pure Cane 8**
Werner’s Werthers 8*
Crack It Up 7*
KC led Tootsie Pop 6* - solid lead!
1st Boulder Unknown 8
Cattle Pocket
Jackie’s Rack 6**
Corridors
Rider of the Frontier 7*
Ride Lonesome 3●
Here's a few of my favorite pics
Placing bomber gear on Crack it Up 7* - pretty mellow for the grade and worthy of more than one star.
KC on the Unknown 8 at the Candy Store
Caressing Jackie's Rack 6** - definitely one of my favorites this trip.
Day 3 we continued gettin' after it. We started with a couple of great climbs at the Hideout to warm up. I would have liked to do a few more there but we wanted to save some strength and energy for the Shark's Fin and Bananarama.
The Hideout WestUnknown 6**
Snowball 7**
Shark’s Fin
Coral Sea Adventure 7**
Tall Wall
Bananarama 8****
Lost Eye to the Moon
KC led Eye For An Eye 6** pitch 1
Corridors
First Corridor – Unknown 6*
Sand Flow 7*
Paul's Paradise
The North Face 8*
Snowball is a great climb with slabby unprotected moves up a boulder to a bolt just above the overhang - now crank a fun power move to a delicious face above.
Committing to the steep on Bananarama
Our last day we cranked off a few more fun routes and then got on the road to get home by supper time.
It was a windy morning. We drove down Ghosts Road to look for the Totally Noobular Tower. We found it easily and hopped on Burnt Bacon and Beans. We both onsighted this one. It's a new route that needs just a little cleaning up and is well protected - a great warmup. We walked the wash from there to the Leaning Tower of Pizza and jumped on Deep Dish. I definitely want to go back to this area and do some more routes. Deep Dish was an interesting mix of slab and face. We wrapped up the morning on an Unknown 2* at Paul's Paradise. Great cool down route with slabby moves to thick dinner-sized plates. We both thought this one should be named Platy Galore.
Totally Noobular Tower
Burnt Bacon and Beans 5*
Leaning Tower of Pizza
Deep Dish 6*
Paul’s Paradise
Unknown 2*
KC threads for a rappel after onsighting Burnt Bacon and Beans 5*
With raw fingertips and satiated souls we reluctantly climbed in the vehicle and hit the dusty trail.
