Stepped out for a tour in the Northern Desert with Kevin, Sara, & Cole earlier in the month. A decent day, though slightly challenging conditions. A couple new problems on a boulder midway up the hill heading to Big Slabby, though slightly north...best approached from the roadside Honzel Warmup Boulders. No pics at the moment, but a nice compression to deadpoint problem makes it worth the stop...
From there we hit up the smaller boulder out front of Big Slabby
We then headed north on the ridge over to a boulder Ari and I played on back in July.
A nice sit start was added, as well as a sds to left traverse to the arete.
From there we dropped down to Decompression Sickness and a tour of the back gullies...unfortunately, the rain started coming down and did not let up...we ended up walking out to the Fonzie Boulders and up to the 13/14s and back out for a decent loop. While it was a wet walk it was nice to get my bearings out there again, and fun to get out with some psyched people in the darkest days of the year. That said, it's a good time of year to be anywhere in the Lower Forest. The Desert up through the Druthers seems pretty dry at the moment.
Hope you are enjoying your winter.
Cheers
