CAPTIONS

{01} “IRON CURTAIN” - Joshua Tree National Park

Jeremy Schoenborn climbing Iron Curtain (V11) in Joshua Tree National Park (2022). Many walk by this massive patina wave on their way to the more renowned Planet X, but it’s worth the detour to go stare at (or climb on) Iron Curtain. To quote Jeremy: “long, scary, and all the while you’re getting barreled.”

{02} “PEACE” - Toulumne Meadows

Weronika Lojewska climbing Peace (5.13c) inTuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park (2022). Driving in from the Valley, it’s impossible not to be awestruck by Medlicott Dome. Its golden granite face is striking, and even from the road the black water streak of Peace is obvious. The position of the climb is hard to beat, with a view overlooking Tenaya Lake and Half Dome. Shooting it in the evening golden hour seemed like the way to do the golden wall justice. Ronnie hucked laps on the upper crux as the shadow creeped towards us as I snapped some shots.

{03} “CAMPGROUND ARETE” - Rock Creek, Bishop

Bryce Bozovich climbing

The Campground Arete (V9) at Rock Creek, Bishop (2021). Rock Creek is the underappreciated little sibling of Bishop bouldering, but the Yosemite-style granite and the cooler temps are not to be missed. Rock Creek offers respite from the baking sun and fingertip bruising crimps, and though there aren’t a ton of problems, most are incredible.

{04}

“THE FARCE” - Yosemite Valley

The Farce (V9) in Yosemite Valley National Park (2022). It had been lightly snowing on and off all morning, and I was hiding in the lodge drinking another cup of coffee when Jordan and Sam texted methey were heading out to the boulders in Camp 4. I grabbed my camera and left the warmth of the lodge, not convinced it would be dry. I was wrong, and Jordan ran a quick lap on “The Farce” as it continued to snow while I snapped some shots under the protection of the giant oak tree’s canopy.

Jordan Cannon climbing

{05} “BROKEN ARROW” - Toulumne Meadows

Jeremy Schoenborn climbing Broken Arrow (5.14a) in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park (2022). Small gear, hard moves, bad temps, and aquick send by Jeremy. Broken Arrow hasn’t seen many redpoint accents; it’s short but extremely sustained and the gear is finicky. Not often are you pulling off the ground with the first piece of gear between your teeth, as Jeremy did. Tuolumne is known for scary slab climbs that top out the domes, but the hard single pitch climbing nestled in the trees are not to be missed.

{06} “ASTEROID CRACK” - Joshua Tree National Park

Bryce Bozovich climbing Asteroid Crack (5.13a) in Joshua Tree National Park (2021). Sometimes I get lucky, right moment at the right time. My friends had spent the afternoon sessioning Asteroid crack and I wandered out right before sunset with my camera to see how it was going. As Bryce went up for another attempt, the setting sun illuminated the rock in a soft glow. It was one of those moments I was glad I actually had my camera with me.

{07} “HOT ROCKS” - Joshua Tree National Park

Willing friends make photographs. Early on in the season, I noticed that a distinct shadow crept up the base of Hot Rocks (5.11b/c) as the sun set. The climb glowed gold as the base sunk into shadow, I knew I had to try and shoot it in that light. Unfortunately, Hot Rocks is exactly that: hot. It gets sun most of the day, and by evening, any reasonable climber would avoid it. Thankfully, I have friends like Jack who are willing to sacrifice some skin in order to get photos like this one.

{08} “SALATHE VIA FREERIDER” - El Capitan, Yosemite Valley

Jordan Cannon and Sam Stroh climbing The Salathe Wall (5.9 C2) in Yosemite National Park (2022). This spring was my first real season in the valley, and I was (and still am) pretty intimidated. Jordan and Sam climbed “Salathe in a day” to celebrate Jordan’s birthday this year and graciously invited me to come shoot. This photo represents many firsts for me: first time hiking up, first time rapping in, first time shooting, and just in general, first time being on El Cap. I was excited about the photos, but perhaps more excited about the incredible nap I took on Long ledge.

AT THE END OF EACH FALL SEMESTER,

in the small northern California city of Arcata, the students of Humboldt State University take to the streets. Wearing their finest marijuana leaf patterned pajama pants and oversized Mexican blanket ponchos, the students shuffle down from apartments, dilapidated townhouses and suburban rentals, dragging broken and bongwater-stained furniture onto the sidewalks. These “free piles” are then resourcefully picked over by the thrifty full-time residents of Humboldt County. In the fall of 2014, while sifting through a free pile in the Arcata Bottoms, I scored a big L-shaped desk. “The perfect addition to the Command Center,” I thought.

After dragging the desk for a few blocks, I wiggled it through the front doorway of the “Z House” and then shoved it into the corner of my room. I tossed my computer on the desk and then adjusted the huge topographic maps and ocean swell charts that were tacked to the walls above. The maps were littered with brightly colored thumb tacks; blue tacks marked the locations of boulders that we had visited, red tacks marked beaches where boulders were suspected to exist. I scanned the maps until I came to a section with only a few blue thumb tacks; the coastline at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, an area in the far northern reaches of Humboldt County that includes some well-known boulders, most notably the Ossagon Rocks. The following morning I met a group of rag-tag boulderers at the usual meeting spot; Wildberries Market at the corner of 13th and G Street in downtown Arcata. Some trudged into the store to procure overpriced rations for the day’s excursion while others loitered in the parking lot. Anywhere else this procedure would be expected to take about twenty minutes, but here, in a place where a phenomenon called “Arcata Time” exists, a 9am meet-up can easily lead to a late afternoon departure.

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Austin Schuler makes his way across one of the most impressive roof features on the California Coast. This un-named traverse checks in around V7 and involves strange dynamic downclimbing moves in both directions.

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Matt DeShazo working his way up an un-named V6/7 on the largest boulder at Ossagon. This problem features slightly overhanging incut crimps on a bullet-hard, smooth wall.

The city of Arcata stands alongside a few adjacent communities surrounding Humboldt Bay that together make up the cultural heart of Humboldt County. The once-booming silver mining town of Eureka has since been developed into a modern municipality with malls, fast food restaurants and other eyesores, yet the Victorian-style homes with late 1800s architecture can still be found here. Just across the Somoa Bridge is the Arcata Spit, home to a once-booming logging operation and a few solitary homes whose residents enjoy easy access to sand dunes and intimidating surf.

The now-booming college town of Arcata sits on the northern side of Arcata Bay and is known for a culture of eccentricity and overall strangeness. To the delight of some, and to the dismay of others, downtown Arcata has recently civilized itself with fancy amenities like wine bars and expensive restaurants. Yet the outlying areas of Arcata still manage to foster an odd mix of farming and island cultures; a place that somehow feels a little like Iowa and a little like Hawaii all at once.

To the north, Humboldt County is a safe haven for unconventional climbers and surfers, boasting a paramount number of high quality beach-side boulders and crags and equal potential for new discoveries and first ascents in wild and remote settings. Although a boom of development has recently occurred, both in town and out on the cliffs and boulders, solitude, scenery, excellent summer climbing temperatures and high quality routes on a wide variety of rock types still accurately describes the climbing in Humboldt County.

A number of moderate, safe and easily accessible crags and bouldering areas exist in the area, but to say that climbing in Humboldt County is primarily adventurous is an understatement. Changing tides, loose rock, poison oak and rusted hardware are just a few of the challenges Humboldt County climbers face. Bouldering here is usually pretty mellow, but the sand level at all of the beaches changes frequently with the tides which drastically alters the nature of the climbs. Many of the beach-side bouldering areas still maintain a policy of un-named and un-graded problems.

Our heavy packs and overstuffed crash pads jostled and bobbed as we weaved our way through the dark second-growth spruce woods and alder groves that line

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RIGHT the first section of the well-warn path to the Ossagon rocks. Between 1880 and the early 1900s, logging denuded thousands of acres of what were once old-growth redwoods in Humboldt County, including some of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and the upper portion of the Ossagon Trail. In 1918 alarmed conservationists established the Save the Redwoods League to protect California’s redwood groves. By 1920 the League and the State of California purchased thousands of acres adjoining Prairie Creek to form the State Park.

As we continued to make our way down the fourmile-long Ossagon Trail we began to hear the sounds of crashing waves on the beach far below us. Soon the forest opened up into a grove of massive old growth redwood trees, some over 15-feet in diameter. These few remaining old growth stands were protected by the State’s annexation of the territory in 1920.

Standing below the ancient trees, one can almost imagine what life in the region must have been like long before the gold mining operations of the 1850s and the logging operations of the early 1900s. Communities like the Yurok, who traditionally lived near the Klamath River and along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, primarily inhabited the land that is now known as Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Yurok villages, numbering no less than fifty, were located from Little River in the south, to the Wilson Creek Basin which runs into False Klamath Cove in the north.

As we descended closer to the ocean the giant redwood stands that shadow the steep mountain ranges began to thin. Here, more spruce trees and red alder woods led to the beach and the marsh below. Crossing a small footbridge over a deep channel, we headed towards the Ossagon Rocks, a collection of large gray boulders with a distinctive arrowhead-shaped spire at their center. Walking around the giant blocks, we’d stop and put a little chalk on some neat looking holds, do some moves, maybe go to the top of a boulder, and then move on to the next interesting feature. Eventually we’d shuffle over to the next gigantic block.

PREVIOUS Sunset over Arch Beach, Humboldt County.

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Ryan Camera makes a few desperate moves on an un-named V6; one of the few short and dynamic problems at Ossagon.

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Julia McKenzie climbs a stunning overhanging arête (unnamed V5) on the north side of the largest rock at Ossagon.

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Julia McKenzie gets high above a friendly group of spotters on another of Ossagon’s show stopping moderate highballs. This west-facing problem evolves big moves out a massive jug rail to a committing topout.

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There are only five rocks at Ossagon. Seriously, just five, really, big, rocks. But they’re all pretty damn incredible. Some problems are short but require fun movement or dynamic sequences. There are a few traverses and a couple of excellent moderates. Other problems are as tall and striking and proud as anything, anywhere, including an absolutely insane double digit project that soars out the largest 45 degree roof I’ve ever seen.

After climbing a small percentage of the possible problems at Ossagon, we lounged in the sun, kicking sand around with our bare feet and looking at cool driftwood sticks. We tried to cross a big marsh, and then we tried to run around a huge rock that faces the powerful shorebreak to access Carruthers Cove to the north. Soon the sun began to fade into the west over the ocean. We packed up our junk and made our way back to the spruce trees and red alder woods that mark the trail. We passed through the arms of the ancient redwood trees in the silence of twilight. As we piled on top of each other and wrestled our crash pads into the damp Toyota van, a thick blanket of fog covered the forest.