Let's go Climbing in Joshua Tree!!! -Heather

Once we left the Desert of Love, we continued on to Joshua Tree National Park for the Desert of Climbing!

After all our delays, it turned out, that we would make it to Joshua Tree just in time for a Birthday gathering of my friends from San Diego- also known as: beer, climbing, and cake (with loads -nay- RIVERS of frosting) in the desert!!

We met up with Johnny and Adam (Birthday boy!) and had some pretty awesome times, including Manni’s FIRST OUTDOOR CLIMBING!!!!! For those of you who don’t know, Joshua Tree is a world famous climbing destination, famous for having very difficult and technical climbing… so Manni started out big! He did 2 climbs: the first without any problems, the second was a pretty technical climb involving lots of experience and he made it to the top with a bit of extra effort!!

The funny thing about climbing is that, when you’re focused, adrenaline is pumping, and you’re breathing hard, you don’t really think about anything else but the word “Up”; the word “Down” never enters your mind, and “down” is another beast entirely. You can get a cat up a tree but good luck getting it back down. Manni is presently working on overcoming a fear of heights- “up” has been a relatively painless obstacle to overcome, yay! But “down”- trusting rope, gear, and partner alone- is a bit harder. Our instincts when high above the jagged rocky ground, are to grip the rock (for dear life) and not let go… this facilitates the “up” part nicely… but then, once you get to the top, you’re just supposed to let go! “Ummm… excuse me? You want me to do what!!? Don’t count on that happening my dear!!!”

Don’t worry friends and family… we did manage to get Manni down…. He’s back and loving life… on the ground. (But just the other day, we were doing some pretty cool canyoneering- story to come- and he turned to me and said, “I want to go climbing again”… happiness!)

SOOOO Goodbye dust and dirt (and rock) of desert travels part 1.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather’s scheiss Deutsch translation:

Wir reisen in die Wu:ste. Manni klettert fu:r das erste Mal. Er war sehr gut aber nicht so schnell. Er war auch nicht so fro:hlich als er ganz oben war... und sehr unglu:cklich auf dem Weg nach unten. Aber, er will noch ein mal klettern!! Ich bin glu:cklich!! Und jetzt.... gehen wir nach VEGAS!!!!