The Acid Crack 

Not so much a comment as some historical musings...

I remember when Bachar did this thing and then we all saw it in all the mags and whatnot. At the time it was just another horrendous Bachar toprope done on some random weekend. A while later it started to get a pretty good rep as being really hard. Skip Guerin rolled in from Colorado, supposedly not really climbing for a while, but decided to give it a go, on top rope. Flashed the thing. Seemed really impressive at the time, and as time went forward, seemed even more impressive for the time and the era, and the condition he was in. A few years later Doug McDonald and myself decided it was time to tick this thing off. We set up the TR. I got virtually nowhere and Doug ended up getting one of the biggest gobies I had ever seen. The kind you can pour blood out of like a flesh lined shot glass. That was it for us. I don't think either of us have ever gone back and there is certainly no reason for me to visit that thing these days. The last guy I saw on the thing was Hidetaka Suzuki eons ago, and if I recall he finally led it into submission.

This is one of the best routes at Joshua Tree. It has always been one of my favorites. On the coldest day of the year, you can still go here in the afternoon and be relatively warm.