berkeley '99 - some more impressions

[back to part one]

the story continues when eveline came to see california. beaches, of course.

but coming from the mountains, beaches aren't everything

since it offers both, we went down to stinson beach again

and since beaches are essential in california, also to santa cruz,

where there are a lot of surfers doing their thing.

on the way back we had to stop in the mountains to peek out of some strange holes at castle rock.

it's called swiss cheese, really.

and of course, more berkeley sunsets on grizzly peak.

just a tiny little bit later.

eveline found some swiss artefacts around town. mario botta.

enough of city life. off we went to yosemite valley.

to climb on manure pile buttress.

tired and a little sunburnt,

with a beautiful view.

the next day, the "nutcracker" gave us some tricky moves,

but we made it.

half dome had already closed for that year, a sign posted told us that the cables had been taken down
(we didn't know if only  the poles or the whole cables would be taken off for winter. a local guide told
us, it was only the poles and steps that were stripped. but you don't want to be caught on half dome
with just two or three anchors in the descent or a 20 pitch rappel off the face...), so we couldn't do
snake dike. but anyway, we will come back.

it always is an impressive sigh, isn't it?

and here the most picturesque spot, as we head for our road trip down to joshua tree national park.

looking back

over to where i hiked earlier this year

and ahead

to the strangest place around. mono lake.

happy, not yet tired from driving. 350 miles to go.

well. what can you say?

it looks the same, both ways. but slowly it started to smell like something i know very well: desert.

and the this: wow. joshua tree is the most awesome place to climb. it reminds a lot of the arabian desert i know so well. especially the "blue mountains",
for those of you, that have been there. this one's called hobbit roof. it's on joe's to-do-every-time-you-are-here list.

there's these blobs of rock. all over.

some weeks earlier i had met the swiss juerg and barbara
in yosemite.  they came to visit us in berkeley, and we
met again in joshua tree. funny enough allmost all of the
old people that had stayed together in site 3 of camp 4
in yosemite met down there again. in the middle of the night.

we will all go skiing together this winter. so watch out
for more to come.

since we wanted a real challenge, we toproped another
5.11a. oh boy. that was a hard one.

juerg on just another sunny afternoon.

joshua tree is so very easy going. you just forget about time.

rocks all over

and these funny joshua trees. they look like nothing i have seen so far.

a great desert athmosphere.

still happy after a hard day.

another one of joe's must-do catergory routes. the super easy and fun "geronimo" roof, just on top the
hidden valley campgrounds. don't forget to yell when you hang up there on the ledge.

and watch out, when you top out, or you might get stuck like eveline here.

barbara on geronimo.
this part is where you have the most fun. just swing your legs into the seat. it's not an ordinary roof.

that's all for now. Back to jb's home

Last Update: 03/06/00 10:55:45 PM