Alabama Hills – Trip Report

On Sunday morning, Martha and I left for Alabama Hills. Along the way, we took a short detour to Black Planets, a local winter bouldering destination. Since I will be leaving soon, I wanted to be sure to show her the turn-off road from the 395. It’s very hard to spot, unless you go 35 mph on the freeway!

At Black Planets, we saw a turantula spider as it was bopping down the road. So we stopped and helped it to safety. Hopefully, we saved it from being squished by the frenzied off roaders who frenquent the area.

We started climbing around 11am, at the Paul’s Paradise cliffside. It’s Southeast facing, so it is lathered in morning – early afternoon sunlight. I put up the first route, a very mild and typical climb for the area. I went slowly as I wanted to ease into the climbing day.

Martha surprised me by asking to lead the next route, De Ham Bone. It was her first lead ever, so I talked to her a bit about safety and clipping techniques. The information was digested, and off she went! There were only 4 or 5 draws and then the anchors, so I was able to watch every clip and offer some suggestions when needed. Before long, she was hollering happily at the top.

“What do I do next?” she asked after clipping the anchors.

“Say “Take” and then “Lower”, enjoy the ride down.” I replied.

Secretly, I think she led that route just to avoid having to clean it…hee-hee! After those warm-ups, we sallied up to the next two routes. Paul’s Paradise & Ted’s Shread. Both are 2 grades harder than our warm-ups and we weren’t quite ready for the shock!

Paul’s Paradise went on my second attempt, and then we were both able to top rope the Trad route Ted’s Shread. I thought she did great on both routes, showed much improvement since our trip to New Jack City a month ago!

By now, it was lunchtime, so we stopped off at the car. Avocado, tomato, hard boiled egg, and some crackers went down the hatch. We were thus revived for the afternoon. It had warmed up nicely, so we were ready for the shade.

Thus, we went over to The Cattle Pocket and I ran up Choss, Moss, and Buttfloss (5.10a). As the sky was letting loose large dropletts of water, Martha reached for the anchors. Martha was psyched to do the route clean on TR, a first for her.

A couple dudes came by while we were doing CMAB, and it turns out to be TJ and Ed, Ridgecrest locals just coming back from a weekend up at ORG. They were thrashed from their half day at the gorge, understandably so! They reported large crowds at the crags, and so we were happy we came to Lone Pine instead.

For a cool down, we set our sights on Magic Pig. This is a very continuous 5.8, and it’s harder than it looks from the ground. We thought a more appropriate name would be called, “High Stepping Pig” or “Magic High Step”. Almost every clip was 2 or 3 inches further than what I could reach from the clipping stance. Time and time again, I had to high step on a nub, pull up on crimpers, and lock off to make the clip. A worthy climb, but not as memorable as CMAB.

What a great day!!! As we were leaving, we saw Mt. Whitney rising above the stormy clouds, enshrouded in freezing mists. The sun had burnt a brilliant orange band between the clouds and the rock massif, giving the impression that the range was on fire. It *was* amazing to behold. We drove home listening to the soothing and beautiful sounds of icelandic tunes. Ethereal; just like our day.

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