BETA PHOTO: "Hot Rocks" climbs the beautiful crack, photo cent...
Description
Starting at Hidden Valley Campground's front loop, follow a trail leading past the west face of Outhouse Rock northeast to this large formation with a prominent west face.
Hot Rocks is the masterpiece of this wall, and climbs a line just right of center identified as a seam that higher widens and forms a crack. Just left of this route is the thin and technical Stand And Deliver (5.12a), while further left is the widening crack of Looney Tunes (5.9).
There are two starts to the climb - 1) climb the seam directly with no protection, or 2) climb past a bolt just right of the seam. Either way thin and delicate slab moves gain a stance where you can get some gear in. From here lieback and jam up a thin crack (crux) to a horizontal, after which the crack widens and enjoyable jamming past a steep bulge leads to the top. Descend by walking down the south shoulder (climber's right).
A true Josh classic, and perhaps one of the ten best crack routes to be done here, with varied, interesting moves up a clean face.
This is one of the climbs that John Bachar used to routinely solo back in the late 70's/early 80's. Other routes regularly soloed were Spider Line (5.11c/d), Left Ski Track (5.11a) and More Monkey Than Funky (5.11b).
Bold, delicate, burley, clean.Also part of Vogel's solo circuit, this really is a nice line. With so many routes at JTree, I'm not sure that any are 'Easily' in the Top Ten.
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Jan 7, 2004 rating: 5.11b
The route seems to be on the easier side of 5.11, not the harder side, the crux being a switching sides layback or a thin fingerlock on a bad foothold (2 hard moves total). I TR'd it though, so maybe the ease of that brought the route down. As for soloing it, it seemed to me that the move was more 'low percentage' than it was hard, and the trick was simply not to slip off on the bad foot. Which is to say... I wouldn't solo it. Of course, I'm not a local and J-tree friction is not automatically programmed for me. Really fun route! Once the crux is over, the climb goes to a well-protected 5.10a that is still super-fun.
If you're taller the crux is certainly easier. I don't know off the top of my head how tall Randy or John are. On a gear note, it's easy to put gear where you need to put your feet on this route.
One of the best routes I've done in the park, ranks w/ O'Kelley Crack, Left Ski Track, Illusion Dweller, Clean and Jerk and the like for me.
Hotrocks is such a beautiful line and one of the best that I have done in Joshua Tree. The crux move after the bolt was very hard, I took several falls on a #4 TCu (Metolius). After pulling the crux at the bottom the climb was still a challenge. What a memorable day it was. Thank you Jeff for the belay and catching me when I fell. Thank you Sean for taking photos and Lee for the spot at the start! And you guys that solo this route, hats off to you! Armando
Rock Hudson
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