The Chimichanga Epic
(I bet you didn't think it was possible to have an epic at Joshua Tree.
Okay, so it wasn't a real epic, just a delay of dinner, when we were starving
for Santana's chimichangas.)
For those who climb Hemingway buttress in the future, remember to bring a
second rope for the rappel! When we climbed Dung Fu (5.7), we only had one
rope with us, so we had to rappel as far as we could (which was most of the
way) and set an anchor in the lower part of White Lightning (5.7), then do
a second rappel. Aaron then ran back to the car for a second rope while I
took some pictures of the sunset. We then climbed White Lightning, trailing
the second rope, so we could do a double-rope rappel. Of course, rather than
Aaron trailing the rope on lead, he had me bring it up, and it snagged badly
when I was about 20 feet from the top. By this time it was already completely
dark, but fortunately I had my headlamp with me. Aaron lowered me, but not
before warning me that “this could be dangerous if the rope is running
over a sharp edge.” Great thing to tell a relative newbie like me. So I
basically started downclimbing as fast as I could, as he lowered me. At the
bottom, I quickly re-flaked the rope, and climbed back up as fast as I could.
About half way up, I paused to catch my breath, wiped the sweat off my
forehead, and realized that I was running laps on this route. When I reached
the top we tied the ropes, and I rapped off first, clearing a few more minor
snags on the way down. Though it was a minor epic, all in all it was a good
learning experience for me, and there were a few really beautiful moments
along the way. At one point, as I neared the top of the route, I came around a
bulge in the rock only to be blinded by a bright light. It took me a second to
realize that it wasn't Aaron's headlamp, but rather a full moon. On the way
down, the moon treated me to one of the most beautiful sights I've had while
climbing. I looked over and saw on the wall to my right a perfect moonlight
shadow of myself rappelling, complete with ropes and the gear hanging from my
harness. I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but no camera could have
captured that sight so perfectly.