Cacti

And for your "spiky" enjoyment. Here is the flora of the AZ desert.
Click here for more.

The Sun is back?

Five days in the desert and yes we manage to have a day of rain. Ah Ah I definitely blame it on Angie and Calvin who seem to have a cloud following them across the US climbing destinations! But I have to admit if it was a disappointment as it would have been out multi-pitch day, a rest day was welcome after three days in the row and finger pads asking for mercy.

We woke up to some drizzle on our last day.  The elements did not seem to cooperate.  But Team Saucisson never gives up!  Joe offered to go hike deeper in the Canyon of La Milagrosa where we had been 2 days before.  There were some natural pools which would definitely make the hike worth it, and who knows we could carry our gear to the base of the crag... just in case.  
We hiked under some very heavy skies to reach the beautiful remote pools, scrambled around on very wet rock and oh miracle found a couple of dry routes on our way back.  Never mind that the driest was a 12a, a beautiful shallow dihedral The Wizard.  Great warm up!  The other dry one was one we had climbed the previous time, Community Service.  Angie sent it beautifully this time after Joe led it, while I had my eyes on the Wizard which Joe and Calvin worked and sent.  I climbed it twice and my pads still remember it!  I'll be back to it.  Ahh that move off of a 1/4" square "crimp" after the third bolt!  Beautiful....painful...

Chris Prewitt joined us (and Katherine later) in the afternoon, and I went on to climb a beautiful 11 a bit further down.  Delicate balancy face and a fun move around a small roof.  Nice flash for me, and first 11 send for Angie who followed it.  Bravo! you go girl!

Then while Joe sent another 12 next to the Wizard, and Calvin was working on it while kicking and screaming ( and calling for mommy!), Angie and I followed Chris who led up a mixed 10 next to Community Service.  No big deal you would say.  Chris is a seasoned Trad climber.  Well the twist of the story is I had only a few pieces with me, to be exact: a .5 and .4 small cams, and a handful of nuts (5 total I believe).  Chris looked at it, looked at the route and went for it!  My hats off to him!  Not such an easy lay-back to protect at the beginning.  Calm and controlled was his climb.  Pretty cool.

More pictures of day here.

We hiked back before sundown with just enough daylight to catch a glimpse of a strange breed of Cactus:

We finished the day invited at Chris and Katherine, eating some delicious bbq while watching some video of crazy Brits climbing Grit stone on one piece.  

Good Bye to the desert.  Thank you to Joe and Kerry for their great hospitality.  Thanks to all the nice locals, old and new friends.  We'll be back.

Tucson, Day 3 - Milagrosa Canyon - Updated

posted by Saucisson #3
climbers: Angie, Soph, Burke, Kerry and Calvin
Day 3 found us with sore fingertips from the sharp granite and we headed to Milagrosa. Milagrosa is known for its nice, technical climbing, yet on rock that isn't nearly as sharp as the granite on Mt. Lemmon. It's on private property (you have to hop a fence), but I understand it's been hiked on for years and an easement is probably in place as a result. Who knows about the legalities, but an online topo isn't available probably for that reason (edit: actually found one online now). It was a nice change for our pads. Joe crafted us a nice topo and marked out some climbs from us to try. Link to the full web album.

Here's Burke on the warmup 5.8, Valentine's Day Arete "The hardest 5.8 in the state!" Polished POS. :)

We then tried a nice .10a - 3 star warmup called Community Service, and another .10d called Where the Buffalo Roam (edit: found this on MP.com) with cool sequential moves. I liked it, but noone else seemed to as much - plus the second part of it (after a large ledge with anchors) seemed much harder. Either I suck at climbing (more likely), or it actually was more .10+ish (edit: right on from MP.com!). This is Soph on Community Service:

Burke had his eye on a dirty, choss filled crack of doom that looked unclimbed - so he sacked up and gave it the ol' college heave. I almost heaved after seeing some of the holds he would have had to use up high. You can see how high up the nasty holds were (which he didn't know at the time) on the second pic here. Thankfully, he backed down.
Burke:


Soph, Ang and Kerry then opted to try Welcome to Milagrosa .10a/b (edit: got some names wrong the first time) - which I didn't try until later - super cool, long and pumpy. Like most of the climbing in AZ, it was cryptic as well. Ang flashed it and told me it was easy. I then proceeded to climb up right, then down, then up left, then down and finally asked Kerry where the holds were. Up right, again, and I was fine. The bolt line is usually straight, but it's not unusual to have your route meander way left or right of the bolt line. I couldn't see $H!t for holds. ha.

The highlight of the day was actually an unnamed route (edit: still unnamed on MP.com too) .10c/d, which starts on an interesting arete, tackles a mini-bulge feature, then finishes on nice moves - probably about 75-80 feet in length. I put up the draws, Burke almost flashed it, and Soph flashed it with an epic maneuver on the roof feature. :) Here's Soph and Ang:

After that, it was time to head back for another great dinner, this time courtesy of Soph - pasta, with chicken and tasty veggies. Yummy. I love her cooking. :)

The next day... RAIN!

The Forgotten Wall

Climbers, a.k.a. cacti's targets: Angie, Joe, Burke, Calvin, Sophie

Burke does not like long approaches.  So as good friends we kept the best one for him...the one no one knew about.  The less travelled road to... the Forgotten Wall.  
We should have known.  I have learned in my travels that the most poetic names are often kept for the harshest places, as to lure you into going anyway.  He He it worked.  Let me put it that way: Bush-whacking in Arizona is a different concept.  There is no catching yourself on a branch or an inviting bush.  None of those are really inviting you to anything but loosing some blood. Pretty they are. Incredibly esthetic, for sure!  Friendly?  Nope.

I learned it the hard way by poking my hand on a palm cactus while Angie got attacked by mean little flying spiky balls.  Ahhh the joys of climbing...and getting there.

But we did get there, and since no one knew which route was what, we worked out a little guessing game.  Joe, our favorite local, pointed out a couple of "10s".  So Calvin and I got set up and led out both routes, one right next to each other.  After the fourth draw I had a funny feeling this was no 10.  Humm and hearing the grunts next to me I believed Calvin was having the same doubts.  Yup.  It turned out we were "warming" up on a couple of tricky hard 11s.  OK so we came down and Burke and decided to get on that other 10 (of course it had to be!).  By the 3rd draw...words which were coming out of Burke's mouth....well the Queen would not have approved! No it was no 10 either. I got on it and after a few grunts and swinging falls got through the crux by a hang clip ( you know the thing you do when you hang the draw and get so sketched before you hook the rope that you hang on the draw for a second...!) Anyway Burke had his eyes on a sweetie around the corner, a beautiful line. Yeah yeah the man has taste!

And it went. The Onsight of the day went to the Captain himself who sent , in great style and determination the beautiful line of Blood Book, a magnificent 5.10- dihedral.

This was a beautiful sent.  Bravo to the Captain.
We all took runs on it after that, Calvin on lead as well.
Burke truly owned that day and even said it made the approach worth it.  He He he had not walked back yet.  We timed that one pretty well as we got a bit lost, or should I say misled... which is always a lot of fun when nature wants to spike you anywhere you go and the daylight is slowly disappearing.

One day not to be forgotten.

You can see more pictures if you click here.  

Tucson, AZ - Dec 31, 2008 - Jan 6, 2009

posted by Saucisson #3

climbers: Soph, Angie, Burke, Joe, Calvin and Kerry

Ah, Tucson. In what I hope is rapidly becoming an annual tradition, Team Saucisson ventured out west for almost a week of climbing among the desert spires of golden Arizona. I say almost a week, because we got rained out for almost a day and a half. Joe confirmed this was the second day of rain in nearly 3 months.

Joe and Kerry Kreidel hosted us, along with their goofy and adorable kids Asher and Adelaide. Asher is 3, hates wearing clothes, and is a riot to play with. Adelaide is just breathtakingly cute. My highlight with Adelaide was teaching her the fistbump.

Here are some pics of the two cuties:



To make my (and Soph's) job easier, I'm going to post one day at a time along with pics. I'll start with day one. Windy Point.
You can access the web album of the full day here.

Climbers: Soph, Angie, Joe, Calvin

Windy Point is several thousand feet up on Mt. Lemmon, a fun high altitude climbing location. Great in the summer, decent where we were in winter. It's great for its easily accessible climbing, which is both technical and pumpy from climbs that are pretty long.

We started out on the Hitchcock Pinnacle, an iconic freestanding tower near to the road that also happens to be great for photos:

We climbed a mixed 5.8 to start, then toproped the .10a variation to the left. Chris Pruitt joined us with his son Eliot, and casually talked about how some dude decked after sketching out on the .10a (which is akin to Pecker Wrecker at Draper's Bluff in So Ill). Hence the TR setup.



Next, we headed down to another area (also close to the road). Soph started on a .10, while I started on Steve's Arete .11a. Both were super fun. Angie climbed the .10 and Joe climbed both.


After that, we headed over to another area highlighted by Arizona Flyaway, a stiff .11. Joe and I first climbed another .10 to the left of AF, which had a sloped boulder for a belay stance and required anchoring in to some bolts to safely belay. I don't know the name of this .10, but it was superb. Intricate, technical and heady climbing lasted the full 80 feet of climbing. I started to get worried, as I realized I wasn't quite used to this style of crimpy climbing. 4 more days to go!



Joe then put up the draws on Arizona, which is a classic .11 for the area. Soph, Ang and I all tried it, but we each pumped out on the crux sections. Fun route! I might have screamed a little trying to hold on.


We wrapped up the day at a local Mexican place with Chris and Catherine, their son Eliot, and the Kreidels. Great first day!

Brad Weaver

Many of you may already know of Brad's blog, but in case you don't, I've added it to our list on the right. I first found out about it on the Narc's website, and it looks like Brad's been adding to it regularly. He's about to head out west, so we'll see what he sends out there...

Brad's a local Illinois climber whose recent accomplishments include the second ascent of Southern Smoke .14c and a send of Fifty Words for Pump right .14c at the Red. He's pretty much sent everything hard there, so now he's moving on west. Keep track of our local guy through his blog.

Return from Tucson

Team Saucisson just returned from Tucson - downloading and sorting photos to commence today. We'll have a report up shortly...