Joshua Tree
I went climbing with the SCMA in Joshua Tree this weekend. I did some trad climbing, which was a revelation, and I would have done my first trad lead on Sunday if my dog weren't such a weenie. Case in point:
Yeah, Shelby's feet got chapped from the rough quartz monzonite of J-Tree, and I had to sacrifice a perfectly good pair of socks to fashion dog-boots for her so she'd quit whining about it. I'm not about to open my own canine atelier or anything, but you have to admit they look pretty bitchin'. And they sure did let her play the sympathy card for all the girls.
Besides that, the weekend was gorgeous. Lauren and I met some drunk climbers Friday night and she charmed our way into a spot in their camp. We traded climbing beta for port, and we ended up with a pretty excellent bartered breakfast: pancakes and bacon for coffee and grapefruit. After climbing all day, we met up in camp for dinner, beers, and stories around the campfire. Most of the SCMA folks are older, some in their sixties, and many of them have long and storied climbing careers behind them. It's a smaller community than I thought, which is good.
I got a new camera, a Fuji F810. It takes pretty decent photos, I think, it's small enough to carry around with me, and it's got easily accessible manual controls. And to be honest, even if every photo came out looking like Rush Limbaugh's dangly bits, I only paid $120 for it.