To all appearances, this was not an agricultural land of plenty. I even spotted some oil rigs!īut occasionally citrus farms would appear, in perfectly rectangular islands of irrigated wonder. The land was so brown, I felt as if I'd landed in Saudi Arabia. The day slowly dawned as I tore up the highway towards the Needles.Īs the sky brightened, I got a gander at the surreal landscape through which I was driving.Ĭalifornia's long drought had clearly devastated this part of the state. When I awoke about an hour later, I bought myself some terrible coffee and got back on the road. I pulled into a gas station and crashed in the back seat. I made it about an hour outside of LAX before I decided I just couldn't keep going. With no place to stay in Los Angeles, it seemed pointless to do anything but drive. I ended up waiting there- no exaggeration- for TWO HOURS. There was a line winding around the inside of the rental office and then out the door. I decided to soldier on and to drive through the night to our cabin.īut first I needed to pick up my rental car, and the counter was a nightmare. I ended up arriving in Los Angeles just after midnight. No one at the airline seemed to feel the need to explain, even when I asked. My brilliant plan was thwarted from the get-go when my flight out of New York was delayed by six hours, for no reason that I could discern. We'd just have to work a little bit harder for it. Even if we had to walk a few extra miles, we could still climb at the Needles. ![]() It had been a snowy winter and there were a lot of armchair rangers on the internet predicting a late start to the season.Īdrian and I almost called the whole thing off, but ultimately we decided to have faith. As the date approached I kept seeing posts on Supertopo and elsewhere suggesting that the roads around the Needles would not yet be open. If only we could get there! We planned our trip for Memorial Day weekend. Between the two of us we had the experience and the knowledge to deal with whatever challenges the Needles would throw our way. I was sure that with the help of my longtime partner Adrian (who loves crack climbing), we could get up whatever we chose to climb, one way or another. This year I figured it was time to check out the Needles, whether I was ready to "crush it" there or not. If you click to enlarge, you can make out a climber (dressed in white) seconding the last pitch of Igor Unchained (5.9).) ![]() ![]() (Photo: The upper portion of the West Face of the Witch, with the Warlock peeking over her shoulder.
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