Pine Mountains

I've been back and forth from San Diego to Oxnard four different times now and just as I was getting antsy about climbing, I got out to climb.

Thanks Suzi!

We went to Pine Mountains in the Ojai Valley, by way of the central coast in California.  It's a long windy drive through tall pine trees and right smack in the Los Padres National Forest.  Stunning and high with magnificent views from all directions.   And you don't have to top-out the boulders to catch the views because it's just there.

Take a look . . .

We focused on two areas Happy Hunting Grounds and Enlightenment Ridge. Both littered with high quality sandstone, hardly climbed - we were surprised that we were the only climbers out there even though there were several parties camping and hiking. Check out these routes.

Aside from Suzi's little blemish, she also got a flapper. I don't have a picture of the flapper but it didn't stop her from anything. Having been on several climbing trips together I know her strategy - she observes, watches and susses out the moves in her mind, and then pops up and pulls the move which is often times, the move I've been working hard to get! So two little "injuries" (that's for effect) is nothing in the big scheme of our little climbing world.

I didn't try hard on anything, really. This shot shows I'm more of a poser than a hard-core climber.

High altitude, dusty, wind-blowing and sunny makes for perfect conditions to run into a rattlesnake. Which is what I did . . .