New and Experienced climbers over 50 #21

So here's a head scratcher, for me. 

Iris missouriensis is native to much of the west...and is an alpine plant.

How the heck does a plant that spreads by rhizomes get to the "range" part of basin and range territory???

However it manages, it was in full bloom this last trip, fields of it....but fading fast toward the end.

They're just past blooming, but I have COR columbines in my yard here in Boise, red and yellow. I confess to pocketing a tiny bit of seed one visit.

Best, Helen 

Todd Berlier wrote:

well actually gentian did not feel right to me. so i googled too and im leaning toward Linum lewisii or Wild Blue Flax! 

Wild Blue Flax

Naw, it's not flax, no white centers and flax is just long stems with skinny little leaves.

https://www.facebook.com/379940602106984/posts/2670375269730161/?app=fbl

Setting google lens to hunt brought up the above.

Stickseed, from Lake Tahoe wildflowers fb site, if the above won't cooperate.

Every time I just do a search, google won't give me the same thing twice. Sigh.

Best, Helen

The "toad" looks like a pacific treefrog, Hyla regilla.

https://www.mrussellphotography.com/blog/photography/2011/july/pacific-tree-frog/pacific-tree-frog-hyla-regilla-16999c.jpg

Helen, your first suggestion is the right one.  That is Iris missouriensis and it is found throughout the west in mountainous regions.  We have it all over the Sierra as well.

You are most welcome, Todd. I recognized it because we have lots of them here in southern Nevada. I think the route Frogland is alluding to that particular amphibian. The only other froggy type animal here is the red spotted toad (Bufo puctatus,) which makes a whirring sound that is not generally recognized as coming from a toad by most people.http://www.californiaherps.com/sounds/bpunctatuscallshort.mp3

I have always been interested in flora and fauna, but now that I live someplace with close proximity and easy access to wildlands, I get to indulge myself as often as I please   

I seem to recall a water sorce at the base of Frogland? 

Brandt and I got out for a couple of hours to fetch some lost draws from Incandescent.  That's because Brandt is such a genuinely nice guy. 

The first couple of moves are harder than 5.8 imo, and I felt bad about botching them (again).  Then I read the description "Start just right of Electralux and make a height dependent move (5.9 if you're 5 ft 10 or taller, harder if you're shorter) past a bolt up to a ledge, then climb a sustained slab (5.8-) on very high quality rock past 6 more bolts to a 2-bolt anchor (80 ft.) "  

It truly is just another inch or two to have something to latch on to... but without that out-of-reach crimp, it's a whole other level of hard.  I feel better now, knowing it's a 'height dependent' move.  I don't know when/if I would be strong enough to make it without some kind of cheat.

Also... I've been promising myself this, I'm going to find some rock or boulder to actually warm up on before climbing.  You can't just hit a route like this cold.  

------------------

I am driving Tony to the hospital today.  We are staying in a ridiculously expensive hotel (they all are)... I can't burden him with my aggravation over this, he just wants to get there for the Big Show tomorrow at 5 a.m..  (his surgery). I pray with all my heart that this does what it's supposed to do.  He will be in the hospital at least 7 days.  I thought I would stay the whole week... he thinks I should stay a day and then go home.  Maybe he wants to flirt with the nurses.    

Meanwhile, at the risk of triggering Russ... I am having my own healing journey this summer (I had not thought of taping potatoes to the soles of my feet... is this baked or raw?).  One of my projects is disabling my wi-fi and going back to ethernet cabling.. which turns out not to be easy.  No one, not even at Spectrum, could tell me how to disable my wi-fi... short of just unplugging the router.  If I unplug the router, I also unplug the ethernet.  Now I understand that I will need to go to Best Buy and purchase a different router that has the capability of turning off the wifi while leaving on the ethernet ports.  And then I will need to find someone who can run ethernet cables where I need them--I bet it will turn out to be me.  Here in Joshua Tree everyone is a handyman... and no one is.  Just because someone says "I can do it." does not mean they have the remotest idea of what it is. I can cable my office computers.  But I don't know how to run a cable to the living room TV unless I just drag it along the floor.  

For awhile I have taken off my Whoop, turning off the wifi, disabling all the meters and gadgets associated with being diabetic... taking an EMF vacation. When I actually did a RF reading of all the voltage going through my body 24/7 it was pretty shocking.  One thing is fine... but compounding all sources, it is A LOT.  I started asking around about other options than being an insulin pump which also continuously transmits data to my cell phone and another gadget, and I decided to try going back to injections--just give it a few weeks to see how I feel about it... oddly, other Type 1 Diabetic athletes I have met have all chosen to forgo insulin pumps.  It certainly isn't considered state of the art to inject insulin all day (rather than use a pump), but it would be nice not to have to drag around tubing and gadgets and alarms.   I don't know how to account for this, but as I have tried to regain my old energy and good feelings, it returns pretty quickly when I leave my home and drive into the Park.  Maybe it's just because I'm outside and I'm moving my body.  I'm doing my best to make the inside of our house feel like the beautiful outside.  Tony rolls his eyes... but for the moment, he's not complaining.  He needs me too much--and he's weird, too.  So, it's give and take.    

    Seems like the longer I climb the fuzzier I am on ratings. Rating Incandescent involves a lot of variables for me. How well have I recovered from recent travels? Did I have a nap that afternoon before climbing? Was I wearing my lucky underwear? Was I in touch with my inner Chihuahua?    

    I would have to slightly disagree with the description quoted by Lori. At 5 ft. 9 in. I can reach the good edge above the first bolt, which makes a world of difference compared to those who can't. Lori was an inch or two short of that edge. Not sure what I'd rate that move. I call it "moderately desperate."

    What Lori didn't say was that despite the fact that she was clearly a bit under the weather, she soldiered on and made it to the top. I had asked four or five other folks to help me go rescue those draws and she was the only one who came through.

  

Lori, sending good thoughts to Tony for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I seem to recall a water sorce at the base of Frogland? 

Water flows through black Velvet Canyon. Not a lot of it most of the time, but there are usually some pools of water in the drainage.

I am pretty sure that the last time I did dark shadows that there was a pool at the base of it . 2004

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I am pretty sure that the last time I did dark shadows that there was a pool at the base of it . 2004

Not just a pool, a swimming hole.  Impossible to pull your rope without it getting wet, at least for me.

Idaho Bobwrote:

Not just a pool, a swimming hole.  Impossible to pull your rope without it getting wet, at least for me.

Yup, me too,

Old lady Hwrote:

So here's a head scratcher, for me. 

Iris missouriensis is native to much of the west...and is an alpine plant.

How the heck does a plant that spreads by rhizomes get to the "range" part of basin and range territory???

However it manages, it was in full bloom this last trip, fields of it....but fading fast toward the end.

They're just past blooming, but I have COR columbines in my yard here in Boise, red and yellow. I confess to pocketing a tiny bit of seed one visit.

Best, Helen 

Is this the same flower? I get a hillside full of them every year at 700 feet above sea level in an arid southern California climate.

rgoldwrote:

Yup, me too,

I've waded out in the middle a couple of times determined to catch it before it went in.  Never worked.

I’m in Orange County and if I was in the mood to shop I could make up for a decade of not shopping. South Coast Plaza alone has 333 stores. But if you were in the mood to climb, swim, hike, kayak, or breathe… you’re SOL. But when all else fails there is the best South Indian thali anywhere on Pioneer.   So lunch it is.

Got Tony to the hospital at 5 am. In no time he’s in a bonnet with 3 nurses, 2 Nurse Anesthesitists, the Anesthesiologist, plastic surgeon, Neurosurgeon, Orthopedic Surgeon and a very hot assistant surgeon. Clearly he was hired to flop Tony over onto his stomach once he’s out… no one else is big enough.

I’m to check back in in 10 hours. It’s an 8-10 hour surgery. I did ask, do you pause for lunch? What if someone has to pee? Who makes the Starbucks runs? Apparently the surgeons don’t pee but the nurses take shifts.  

Hope everyone is out getting after it today! 

Eric Engbergwrote:

I've waded out in the middle a couple of times determined to catch it before it went in.  Never worked.

I do not remember if you did that on "our" trip in '98.  I remember we were two parties for that climb.  Did you pair up wtih Fran that day, and I with Shar?  Or the other way?  Was Leonardo there too?
In any case, my rope went all in. Had to air it out in the hotel room I shared with L. Yeah, the very one Shar kept making fun of.
Good times, great memories.

Wishing the best for Tony and for you, Lori.

Yes, there is a pool at the base of Dark Shadows, but the original question was about water at the base of Frogland —-totally different canyons!!! I don’t recall any water at the base of Frogland but the name may sort of give a hint.