A Desert Rose: Tales from Joshua Tree

Last week Eric and I and my friend Jamie road tripped out to Joshua Tree National Park and met my brother Nelson and his fiance Krissy for a long weekend of climbing in the park. I developed a rather nasty head cold pretty much the day before we left and continued to feel miserable during the whole event. you can see my very red nose in the pictures from all the nose-blowing i had to do. :( We still had a great time. Joshua Tree is only 1 1/2 hours from where Nelson lives in victorville, CA. it was his and krissy's first climbing trip or experience ever and they did great. Eric took lots of great pictures for us. I've been checking the weather in Joshua Tree since december and it's been about 70 degrees. so the day we got there brought a cold front and we faced temps in the 50s and clouds with some sun while we were there. boo. and it was a bit windy. it's always a bit windy there though. nelson got to do his first lead climb ever, krissy developed sick rock climbing skills, and jamie- my friend who mostly boulders- got better on the roped end of things. Joshua Tree is about 10 hours from Salt Lake, so it's no small drive. the quality of climbing and the beauty of the area make it worth it though. i'd like to return again when i feel myself and climb more routes there. having a cold puts a pretty big damper on my motivation, energy, and spirits. i received the "complainer of the day" award for making sure everyone there knew just how bad my cold was. what, me complaining? never! :) i'm excited that my brother is getting into climbing and interested in doing more trips with us.