Rock Climbing – Ice Climbing – Ski Mountaineering
Community Pillar is about as traditional a route you will find in Red Rocks, attacking the most obvious weakness on the 800 foot north face of Magic Mountain with six straight pitches of wide cracks and chimneys, no lead bolts or bolted belays, and several unapologetically bold runouts - a true cult classic.
Group Therapy is a popular 800' 5.7 just north of the super classic Tunnel Vision (5.7+ R, 800') on the Angel Food Wall. While the climbing was nowhere near as memorable as its neighbor, we still thought it a great day.
Joshua Tree National Park is Bobbi and I's favorite place for single pitch trad climbing. In 2025 we spent five months in and around Josh, and climbed some 130 pitches. The three routes which defined our season were Run For Your Life (5.10b R), Falcon and the Snowman (5.10c R) and Illusion Dweller (5.10b).
The Main Vein is considered one of the top ten ice routes in North America, with 900 feet of technical ice climbing connected by a snaking ice hose in a dramatic gash canyon. Moonrise is an uber-classic three pitch WI5, and Too Cold To Fire is a unique and novel two pitch WI4.
The past week Bobbi Clemmer and I have been climbing ice in Cody, Wyoming. Our first three days, we climbed four classics in the Boulder Basin/Lower & Upper Bench area - Bozo's Revenge (WI3+), Sendero Illuminoso (WI4), Animal Rights Activist (WI4+) and Hunter Creek Pillar (WI5).
On December 28th, 2025 I opened my ice season with Erik Boomer on the Teton classic Right and Left Ghost Pillars (WI5 & WI4). Both routes were in virgin conditions with thin top outs. A few observation notes on nearby routes are included at the bottom.
On December 18, 2025, Bobbi Clemmer and I channeled our inner Teton spirit, raging up the 2000 foot mega-classic Solar Slab as our final climb of 2025. We climbed the full route and scenic "walk-off" to Oak Creek in a civilized nine hours car to car. We also climbed a few harder variations to the standard route.
Refried Brains is a lesser known but highly acclaimed route on the left margin of the famous Black Velvet Wall. Unique for the wall, it caters to the crack enthusiast with three long pitches of sustained and steep crack climbing, and one penultimate bolted arete pitch.
Triassic Sands is a legendary crack climbing route in Red Rocks, home of few long and continuous cracks. The first four pitches follow an incredible crack system the entire way, logging some 600 feet of consistent jamming, with the second pitch's miraculous 45 meter hand crack being the standout.
Cookie Monster is a high quality 300 foot 5.7 on the East Face of Mescalito Dome that links seamlessly into the final and best two pitches of the Red Rocks easy classic Cat In The Hat (5.6, II).
Ten Thousand Too Far 