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1337 Hits
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74.92% Score
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5 Votes
Page Type:
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Mountain/Rock |
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Lat/Lon:
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34.06989°N / 116.17167°W |
Activities:
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Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing |
Season:
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Spring, Fall, Winter |
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Overview
Joshua Tree is marred at times with the gym climbing hoard who frequent Hidden Valley and its confines. But almost anywhere in the park, if you are willing to hike for a few miles, you can have a specific area completely to yourself and if the views align just right, it can even have an alpine flare as you stare out to Mount San Jacinto’s snow covered summit.
All that said, East and West Siberia can actually be quite crowded on weekends despite the several mile hike due to the free backcountry camping nearby and the “modern” graded and bolted routes on East Siberia’s sunny face. However, few humans are found to the left (west) of East and West Siberia, on a short varnished face named Al’s Crag. This southeast facing wall has only three established trad routes as of 2018 but Miramontes guide includes another bolted route, The Glass Onion, 5.10b*, found on a short and mostly shaded wall directly behind and right of Al’s. Of the three trad routes on the main wall, Headroom, 5.8, is by far the best of those three but it is not given a star in the guide. Oral Sex Bozeman, at the same grade, is given a recommendation but is not near as interesting as Headroom. Twinkle Toes, 5.7, is a scary lead for the grade and not recommended for soling. In fact, I down climbed it due to the poor quality rock and soloed Oral Sex Bozeman to set up a top rope on Twinkle. The Glass Onion was an outstanding sport route, albeit short. It is hard to set up a top rope and in fact I recommend bringing up the 2nd and walking off directly to the back. Kahn’s Corridor is worth a visit since you are this close. It is one of the more remote feeling corridors in the whole park.
Hike in via the Boyscout Trail as you would for the Siberia faces. Al’s Crag is to the left of West Siberia’s dark face, on the opposite side of a wide boulder strewn gully. It is a short brown varnished wall that is mostly south facing. The Glass Onion is located behind it on another short wall on the right side and draws shade from the backside of Al’s Crag. The three trad routes are all obvious via natural crack lines. The Glass Onion is fully bolted and is the left most bolted route on its face. There are other bolted routes to the right that are not published in Miramontes guides as of 2018.