Easy walks to crags

(This is Kate, posting on Alan's account.)

We’ll be doing a 3 month trip to Western USA, from early march to late may. Provisional plan is start at J Tree, move on to Red Rocks and maybe Utah, then come back over to California later in the trip (esp for Alan to do a free route on El Cap in Apr-may.).

Now, I have a knee injury which hasn't improved in 8 months and looks like it may become a permanent disability. This limits what I can climb, but even more so it limits crags I can walk to. The most I can manage would be about a 10 min walk for "normal" people. Preferably without scrambling, loose scree etc. Flatter is better!

So I am looking for ideas for crags I can get to. I don't boulder, but any style of climbing - trad or sport, single or multi-pitch. (Multi-pitch routes MUST have the possibility of abseil descents - I can't do walk-offs.) Any grade from 5.6 to 10a.

I'm particularly interested in J Tree: Which specific crags might fit my criteria?
I’ve been before, and know some obvious areas such as Echo Rock, as well as some boulder-hopping approaches to avoid. But more info would be great.

Also there’s Tahquitz & Suicide Rocks but they sound like too long a walk. Are there any good smaller crags around there that may be more accessible?

Very grateful for any suggestions........

There's so many crags in J tree with like <5 minute approaches. Tons of stuff around HVCG, Indian Cove, Echo, Quail Springs/Trashcan.

Tahquitz and suicide are definitely out of the question.

You've already gotten these recommendations from me, but for others who may be interested or may want to elaborate:

Needles in SD (trad in Custer State Park, sport at Mt. Rushmore).
Devil's Tower, WY.
Eldorado and Boulder Canyons, CO.
City of Rocks, ID.

(Not in your itinerary, but if you were to opt for a layover in NYC, then the Gunks is 1.5--2 hrs away with hundreds of routes that fit your requirements.)

Yeah, the walk-off from Tahquitz is not knee-friendly (in addition to the half-hour uphill approach).

Do you have a Joshua Tree guidebook? That would be helpful to you, since approach information is provided.

Oh, thqnks all.

I hadn't even thought of the Gunks, but my partner has long fancied a visit there, so that's a great idea for a future trip.

Also a future trip to Devil's Tower, Needles, City of Rocks and Yellowstone.

For this trip, yes I have the J tree guide and will be studying it!
And it's useful to know Taquitz/Suicide are definitely out.

Actually, just for anyone else who may be looking for short walks I thought of another slightly obscure place, the Alabama Hills, south of Bishop.
It's like a poor quality J Tree (scaly rock) but with bolts, and lots of moderate routes and a view of Mt Whitney. I loved it.

real hidden valley, hemingway buttress

Check out the Jungle in UT and especially the sub-areas known as the "Upper Jungle", "Lower Jungle", and the "Dark Continent" Less than 4 min. walks in a remote alpine setting with good camping.

mountainproject.com/v/jungl…

I'm sure this is the last thing you wanna hear but coming from a person who has suffered tons of climbing injuries and non related climbing injuries, should you really be climbing at all? let alone climbing j tree 5.10 if you can't walk for more than ten minutes? I say this because I tried the same approach after a big toe injury and ended up trying to climb too hard resulting in an extra 6 months off from all activities, just a thought......

I was at Devil's Tower for a couple of weeks in Aug with a foot injury that limited my walking distance and packing weight. I wouldn't call most of the approaches any of <= 10 min, flat, or scramble-free...

Beautiful and secluded Fremont Canyon in Wy has pretty easy approaches: short flat walk to the top, rap in, climb out. I recommend both a high-clearance vehicle and a guidebook. The online guides we found just didn't cut it. You should be pretty solid to go there, because failure to "climb out" could result in a swim through the canyon down an unfamiliar river to the next exit.

Though not without boulder mazes, I found the Vedauwoo approaches much kinder on my foot than those at Devil's Tower.

Yeah, devil's tower is definitely not somewhere you want to go with a bum knee, especially considering the size of pack you have to be carrying.

If you want a nearby crag in Wyoming, Wild Iris's OK Corral has you camping 40 ft from the wall :)

As a Red Rock local with many lazy friends, I can name some of the walls with 5.10 and under routes.

Inside the park

Viagra Tower
Tiger Stripe Wall (5.10 Sport)

Sandstone Quarry Parking lot
Man's best friend (2 pitch sport 5.7)

Outhouse Wall
Mother's crag
Children's Crag
Ragged Edges Wall
Case Face

Outside the park

Cannibal Crag

Gun Club (Limestone sport of all grades in town, good for day after rain)

RE Joshua Tree:

Lots of stuff around Hidden Valley campground and Indian Cove campground.

In my experience, much of JTree has gear anchors and walkoffs (scramble-offs). But, since they're mostly single-pitch, your amazing and wonderful partner can clean the anchor and walk off after you rap down...

Hand.jammin wrote:I'm sure this is the last thing you wanna hear but coming from a person who has suffered tons of climbing injuries and non related climbing injuries, should you really be climbing at all? let alone climbing j tree 5.10 if you can't walk for more than ten minutes? I say this because I tried the same approach after a big toe injury and ended up trying to climb too hard resulting in an extra 6 months off from all activities, just a thought......

A fair point. Thanks for the thought.
But I tried 3 months of complete rest, followed by 3 months of rest-plus-physio, with NO effect other than I got fatter, weaker, and stiffer!
I have a knackered ACL, as well as some arthritis and other issues in the knee.

Since I re-started climbing 2 months ago my knee seems the same - neither better nor worse on the whole, but my climbing has gone from following 5.7 with difficulty immediately after the 6 months off, to leading carefully chosen 5.9 and following 10a . I am learning how to work around the injury by climbing very, very statically.

It's the walking on uneven ground which is much harder to do in a controlled way. I am going to be trying out a rigid knee brace for the walks, to protect the knee from further injury.

Kent Richards wrote:RE Joshua Tree: ... your amazing and wonderful partner can clean the anchor and walk off after you rap down...

He will, too - it's great to have a rope gun who doesn't mind walking off!

Off to check out the Jungle, Wild Iris, Fremont Canyon.
Thanks so much for the suggestions!

Rprops wrote:As a Red Rock local with many lazy friends, I can name some of the walls with 5.10 and under routes.

AWESOME!
That's great info - only a couple of those places I already know about, so will definitely check out the others.

Don't know where in Utah you might go, but Wall St. in Moab has a lot of routes with NO approach. Just unload and climb. I had a complete ACL tear, and went a full year after surgery thinking it was never gonna get better. Then saw massive improvements after 12 months. Cheers.

Yes, I think I'll definitely be doing everything at wall Street. My partner wants to spend a bit of time at Indian Creek, and I won't be able to get to most of the crags there.

How old are you Brett? As the surgeon I saw said ACL reconstruction would take twice as long to recover from at my age than someone in their twenties?

Everyone is different of course. I had an ACL reconstruction (and partial meniscus dissection) at 68. Was leading easy climbing about 7 months later. I'd say it took two years, maybe more, before I was no longer "aware" of the repaired knee.

People will tell you they were back doing everything in six months, but The average pro football player needs 54 weeks to return to pro football after ACL surgery according to foundrysportsmedicine.com/p…, and professional athletes have far better access to PT then ordinary folks, and it is their full-time job to do it. Climbing is not as demanding as pro football, but still I'd say it is reasonable to think in terms of a year or more for full recovery.

I know someone who decided against reconstruction. He was able to return to full activity, but eventually his knee would sometimes buckle without warning. This happened to him at the start of an easy climb and he took a ground fall that broke his leg.

Further recent discussions (where I posted the same info) at mountainproject.com/v/crack… and supertopo.com/climbing/thre….

For what it's worth, I'd be getting worried about heat in Joshua Tree towards the end of the time you're proposing. I wouldn't want to be in Joshua Tree anywhere near that long, either.

Rgold alluded to this already, but there are MANY places on the east coast that meet your needs much better than Joshua Tree. If it's a possibility, adding an Eastern component to your trip would add literally thousands of options with extremely easy approaches. You could start with the Red River Gorge, then head for the Gunks, Rumney, and North Conway when it gets warmer, then to Yosemite for the icing on the cake.

Funny how a question about Southern California, gets turned around into a "best of the East" .....

Katie.... there are lots of easy walks to good climbing in California. Yosemite, Sequoia, Bishop, Lone Pine, Shuteye and places in the desert and Josh all have what your looking for. Most of these also have really hard climbing that your BF can go and entertain himself on if he walks a bit.

I am in the same boat myself, back injury keeps my walks down to about 1 mile or less, after that I get numb, uncoordinated feet with zero feeling in them...and the left leg will just buckle under without warning, then I need to rest and stretch some.

You folks might really like the Alabama Hills, good moderate climbing (5.7 to 5.10 sport) so close to your car you can use it (your car) as a boom box.... and very challenging long ass 5.12/5.11 up in the local Mts. perfect training for your BF's goal of El Cap Free.... See the stuff Milles Moser and Amy Ness have done in the last 5 years or so. (its on SuperTopo, Not MP)

The A-hills is a nice place to relax, catch up on reading etc.... with one of the best views anywhere.

Just my $.02.... Good luck with the Knee.