Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Well it has been an exciting past couple days here in California. It all started on May 18th when I took our new car to get it hand waxed. About three and a half months ago, my wife and I got a Honda Fit and it gets on average about 32 mpg, and on the freeway it gets 40 mpg! We can fit both our mountain bikes in it, all of our rock climbing gear, and with the seats folded down we can sleep in the back. It also has decent ground clearance, just ask Harry Robertson or Tyler Landman. Overall it is a kick ass car and we are most definitely suffering from new car syndrome but anyways to to get back to my little story; I took my car in to get waxed on Sunday and by Wednesday afternoon forboding storm clouds were rolling in. Thursday morning it was raining (there goes the wax job), the streets were flooding, their was hail, snow in the mountains, and even two tornados that flipped a train and a few big rigs on the 215 freeway!

I got that photo from the LA Times, those two tornados touched down about 15 minutes from where I live and a funnel cloud did form over Redlands! Freakin crazy weather. However one good thing did come out of the bad weather, Memorial Day Weekend was nice and cool!

So on Saturday my wife and I loaded up the car and drove out to Joshua Tree, normally by Memorial Day weekend the temps in J-tree are over 100 and the park is packed with tourists. However with the forecast of thunderstorms in Joshua Tree and temps in the very low 60's. The park was deserted and a perfect place to spend the day climbing.


It was a cloudy day, but the temps provided perfect friction and the park was pleasantly empty, no queuing up even at Intersection Rock! The warm up route was Poodles Are People Too 5.10b, not a bad warm up for me especially for this trip (more on that later) After the warm up I got on Overseer 5.9 An amazing pitch, long, fun, with sweet kick ass finger jams at the crux where you pull a nice bulge with a zesty amount of air under your feet!


Later on I got on The Flake 5.8 (a super fun route, complete with a chimney, hand crack, finger crack, lay back, and slab climbing.) Super cool! I spent some time wandering around stalking the family of ground squirrels trying to get a good picture. Here is a good one...


I finished off the day by leading (the first lead on my new 70m! Thanks Tony!) Papa Woolsey 5.10b. My climbing buddies told me it was 5.8, and when I got to the base and scoped I was sure it wasn't a 5.8 but what the heck it looked pretty darn cool. So I hopped on. About half way up there is a sweet no hands no feet rest. At the top I set a bomber anchor, it was a text book Camalot placement, the epitome of perfect, compressed about 75% in a perfect slot that was narrower at the mouth so it was passively placed as well. I wish I had my camera up there so I could have taken a picture and shared it with you all.
Anyways enough about my bomber cam placement, this was my first climbing trip in over 5 weeks (5.10 day, May 10th, doesn't count because I spent about 90% of the time belaying and the rest climbing, so it was more of a belaying day) because when I was in the Marines I injured my neck and 5 weeks ago my old injury resurfaced. I wasn't able to do much for weeks. So needless to say I was super psyched to get out and get some climbing in after a month off!

I figured it might be cool to show you some of my photos from my tour in Iraq, back in 2003. It was a record breaking summer in Iraq with temps climbing over 150 degrees for most of August! It was so hot we could light a cigarette on the armor of vehicles!

I am the skinny white guy on the left, throwin' a gang sign... actually it is an upside down M for Marines. hey what can I say everyone was doing it. The guy on the right, is Henry Reyes, I owe him my life because he saved my ass more than once over there. One of the greatest men I know, he was the best man in my wedding and will be the godfather to my kids. Anyways enough of that sappy shit.

Here is a picture of us destroying some of Saddam's SCUD missles... One of the last missions I did in Iraq before coming home. Must have been late August...


Here is a photo from the worst day in my life, I was driving that Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) that is stuck. Thought for sure I had bought the farm when the road caved out under my vehicles weight.

Henry Reyes took that picture, and my other good friend Scott Hutcheson, another fine Marine and good friend, was the one who came and rescued myself and the vehicles crew.

Finally here is one of the Marines from my platoon, I cannot tell who it is; we all looked so different from the massive amount of weight we lost from the dysentary, fleas, bad water, no food, and way to little sleep. We used the motorcycle to sneak up on insurgents because it was quieter and smaller than our LAV's so they never saw us coming till it was to late.


That is a USMC Cobra, a very welcome sight in those days. With one of those flying overhead you had nothing to fear. They can unleash a massive amount of firepower that saved many a Marines life during the war.


Well that was over 5 years ago (to the day...) Here is a picture of my wife (she was my fiancee when that picture was taken) and I celebrating the Marine Corps Birthday in Prim, NV last year. Isn't she gorgeous? Still can't believe I managed to marry such a beautiful woman :)


Well I think that will do it for now, until next time...