Homage to Vermin

No blogs for the last while; this is mostly due to the fact that we've been busy for the last few weeks, and mostly staying overnight at trailheads in Arizona, far away from civilisation and internet connections.

Our time in Arizona has been divided between two places - Jack's Canyon, and 'The Pit' (a.k.a. 'Petite Verdon', which sounds a lot nicer). Both places are actually really beautiful limestone gorges, surrounded by pine forest and at an altitude of around 7,000 ft, either on high plains or in the mountains around Flagstaff.

Its been bitterly cold at night with temperatures down to -7C. But, the sun is so strong that when it hits the crags it's been T-shirt weather by 10am each day; or, "sun's out, guns out" weather as the locals say.

The cliffs are really nice in Arizona. Perhaps not world class, but as I've started to say a lot on this trip: "If these cliffs were in the UK they'd be the best...". You get the message.

Ruth and I have been climbing until our arms drop off most days, and the extra altitude in Arizona has definitely been helping on that front. So, we are starting to get fitter, which is very satisfying.

Most of the climbs in Arizona tend to be quite steep, and very powerful. One in particular that I was really pleased to get up is a pocketed wall called 'Energiser' at The Pit. I didn't quite get up it first go, and fell off a few metres from the top, which sounds quite impressive until you realise that the whole route is only 12m high. The reason I'm so pleased to have eventually climbed it, is that it was first put up by John 'Vermin' Sherman.

Climbing historians, those that know their climbing literature, and bouldering dweebs will all recognise the name 'Vermin' - he is a famous American climber, writer and photographer. Vermin was a bit of a teenage idol of mine back in the day, so it was great to do one of his routes.

The route Energiser is everything it should have been given its originator - a grossly undercut start, the first hold an undercut above your head, powerful and aggressive, with big dynamic moves all the way to chains. A perfect problem.

Vermin = Genius.

If any of you ever get the chance, and have the inclination, 'Energiser' is a fantastic little challenge, which is sure to amuse.

We are in Red Rocks now and racking the routes up. Eight days 'on' in a row, and a bit of a storm coming over mean it's a rest day today. We'll write another blog soon.

Innes

Now we are in Flagstaff, Arizona. It took all day to drive here from Joshua Tree, but the novelty of driving in America kept us entertained. Driving in the US isn't really like driving at all - the roads are almost entirely straight and empty, so you don't have to do much. The landscape is pretty empty as well. At one point we drove for 100 miles without seeing anything apart from arid desert. There were no signs of human habitation at all. The towns also take a bit of getting used to - I don't think I really understood what people meant by sprawling suburbia entirely dependent on car ownership until I saw it. I don't think I have seen a building that has more than one storey since we left Los Angeles.

We've spent the last three days climbing at a place called Jacks Canyon quite close to Flagstaff. It is steep well-bolted limestone in a very pretty gorge. There is still quite a lot of snow on the ground, which surprised me, although the weather is getting warmer every day. It's cold at night because Flagstaff is on a plateau at about 7,000 feet. We camped at the top of the canyon - a very quiet spot with no facilities.

Today we planned to have a rest day as we were exhausted from the steep limestone. Just as well because the exhaust fell off our RV, puncturing a tyre in the process (the breakdown cover now seems like dollars well spent). We've sorted both these things out with not too much expense but it's taken most of the day.

Next we are headed to another limestone venue called "The Pit" which is just outside Flagstaff. We plan to stay there for a few days before heading to Red Rocks near Las VEgas at the beginning of next week.

Ruth

Joshua Tree

Well it's been 10 days since we arrived at J-Tree. It's taken longer than we thought it would to shake off the jet lag, and we've only recently started to get the hang of the place. J-Tree is a must-see destination - no doubt about it. The lanscape is stunning, the climbing superb, the locals are friendly, and the wildlife highly entertaining.

What more could could you ask for? Well... nice warm weather, I suppose. The weather has been pretty damn cold most days, even snowing in the desert one night. Apparently, it's the same story across the US - winter is stubbornly holding on this year. According to the gossip around the campfires, it's something to do with El Nino. I'm not sure about that though, as those dudes didn't look like meteorologists to me.

Despite the cold winds most days, its been sunny with blue skies, and we've managed to climb for 10 days on the trot, without a rest day. We are both knackered now. Personally, I'm worse than that: after a double bout of championship off-width wrestling in one day, I've pulled a muscle in my ribs - a weird injury arising from an even weirder move, which I won't attempt to describe here. It's not too bad really, but maybe it's time to take a rest day... it's a bit frustrating as we were both just starting to step up a gear on the crags.

At any rate, Ruth was starting to get itchy feet, so we have decided to 'up anchor' and move venue. Quite a difficult call this one - where to go? Others have been talking of Utah, Indian Creek, and Moab. definately interesting venues, mostly desert sandstone, but all a bit further east than we had planned. We have to be back in Vegas in a couple of weeks.

So we have decided to fall back on the sub-plot for the early part of our trip - namely, get fit! We've decided to go and spend some time climbing steep limestone, and clipping bolts. We're going to Arizona... next stop Flagstaff.

Innes

So, here we are in the USA. It is the end of the first week of our trip and we're sitting in a cafe in Joshua Tree in the rain. It is really quite Scottish. We did not think they had weather like this is Southern California.

We have had fun so far. Our journey was uneventful, just long and boring after Sheona had very kindly dropped us off at the quite impressive terminal 5 at Heathrow. Our 6 enormous pieces of baggage were not too heavy, and when we arrived in the US the immigration people let us in with no problems. We then spent a night in the Holiday Inn at Los Angeles Airport which was really quite nice. Much better than Holiday Inn in the UK. The bed was enormous - we speculated as to whether this was something to do with the average size of Americans.

On Tuesday we picked up our RV. We thought it seemed a bit old and ramshackle at first but it has grown on us. Above is a picture of the RV on our first morning in Joshua Tree. The RV has a toilet, shower, hot and cold water, heating, cooker with oven, a bed over the cab and room for six people to sit comfortably. However it doesn't go very fast, and I found driving it out of LA on the first day suffering with jet lag pretty nerve wracking.

We then drove to Joshua Tree National Park, which is about 150 miles east of LA. It's an amazing place - a magical desert landscape full of these crazy trees which give the place its name. The climbing is pretty good. A mixture of trad climbing and sport climbing, and lots of different styles of climbing. So far we've had a day bouldering, a day doing very technical face climbing, and a day of crack climbing. We've met up with our friends Tom and El who have been here for a while already. We plan to say for a few more days before heading north into Utah.