Wednesday, June 29, 2011

playing in the Southern and Eastern Sierra

I'd rather be there by slampoud
I'd rather be there, a photo by slampoud on Flickr.
I've taken a couple cool trips recently where the highlight was Huckleberry, my 10 month old lab-boxer pup.

Huckle and I did a backpacking trip in the Southern Sierra, in which we went from the Jerkey Meadow trailhead to the bridge over the little Kern, then backed up a little and camped overnight in the woods, and back the way we came on the next day. It was a painful trip, since my knee wasn't doing well, but it also gave me a taste of how awesome backpacking with a dog is.

On the next weekend I headed up to Rock Creek with Dima. We camped at French Flat, then climbed Iris Slab on Saturday, struck camp on Sunday and headed to Pine Creek, where we climbed this new area of development called the PSOM slab. We did the first pitch of a route called Racing Lizards, but via the direct slab variation, which was stellar. Huckle was also along for this trip and provided mayhem galore: on Saturday he found a putrifying fish and brought it to me. When he threw it at me it burst against my leg, covering my pants in gore and maggots. The rest of the day was fishy. On Sunday he tried to climb 5.7 slab. Yep. Got a few feet off the ground, too, which was extremely scary to watch.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My climbing library

My climbing library has grown to the point where it's almost the size of my computer science library, which I've had five times as long to accumulate. I'm a compulsive organizer, and I'll take any excuse to fondle my books, so here's a list. Let me know if you need to borrow something. Particularly the starred books are out of print or hard to find.

Guide Books:
The High Sierra: peaks, passes, trails -- R. J. Secor
Indian Creek, a climbing guide -- Bloom
Rock climbing Santa Barbara and Ventura
Rock climbing Tahquitz & Suicide Rocks
Southern California Sport Climbing
Owen's River Gorge Climbs
Bishop Area Rock Climbs
High Sierra Climbing
The trad guide to Joshua Tree
Rock climbing Joshua Tree West
Red Rocks, a climber's guide
San Diego County climbing guide
* Climbing! Santa Barbara, Ventura, SLO
Tuolumne Free climbs
Exploring the Southern Sierra: East Side
Domelands

Not guide books:
High Infatuation -- Steph Davis
Flakes, Jugs & Splitters
Climbing Free -- Lynn Hill
Beyond the Mountain -- Steve House
Climbing Self Rescue
Mountaineering: the freedom of the hills
One move too many...
The self-coached climber

A friend on twitter also brought to my attention that there is a great resource out there for climbing books and guide books: Chessler Books.