Joshua Tree—Bear Island
Climb Review
Joshua Tree National Park has over 5,000 routes and the routes on Bear Island were excellent.
The rock was sticky granite, which meant the slabs felt way better than they should’ve. Though, at the end of the day, our fingers were red and used up.
Bear Island was about a mile from the Boy Scout Trail trailhead and the hike was flat. The trailhead had a pit toilet.
There was no trash as far as I could see.
The view from the top of Bear Island was beautiful.
Theoretically, because there was a class 3 walk-off, all the routes below could be top roped (Shardik without gear and others with). For us, we led the routes and walked off the routes after cleaning them.
Shardik (5.3; Bear Island)—With an excellent crack to the left of the route, it was easy enough for Louie to protect while they climbed up. However, the traverse that they had to commit to at the top of the route looked stiff for a 5.3. I climbed the route more to the left of the crack, which I found to be about 5.3. It was a good way to get used to the feel of the rock and to learn to trust the tiniest of holds.
Shardikawoopoopie (5.9; Bear Island)—We top-roped this climb as we could share the anchor that we had already set up for Shardik. The 5.9 section was at the start and Louie found the perfect beta for it. We all used their beta to get past the 5.9 section (maybe the first 8 feet?) and cruise up the 5.5-ish part at the top.
Polar Bears in Bondage (5.7; Bear Island)—Louie climbed this route to set up a gear anchor. When I top-roped this route, I started on Polar Bears in Bondage, but moved over to Kodiak after the first 10 feet, as I wanted to climb the darker rock on Kodiak. The rock was brittle and hollow, but nothing fell off and the rock felt amazing.
What I Learned
I really need to bring guidebooks along (they’re just superior to Mountain Project at new places) and also download photos at new places. Without either, we wasted precious time trying to find routes near Route 66, before giving up and going to Bear Island. At Bear Island, we had an easy time finding the routes we wanted to climb as the text descriptions on Mountain Project were excellent.
Friends
I climbed with Cassie and Louie. It was Cassie’s first time climbing outdoors and first time belaying in a long, long time. I had guessed that she would like it, given that she loves nature, but was surprised at how much she liked it and how adept she was at climbing—crushing a 5.9 climb the first time out is no joke! Louie led both Shardik and Ursa Major, as well as building their first gear anchor—as usual, they were excellent at everything.
What Happened?
~3 miles, 2 hrs (of hiking), 200 ft of ascent
We parked at the Boy Scout Trail parking lot and tried to get to Route 66, a highly rated 5.4 finger crack. When we got there, there were two parties ahead of us, so we decided to find some easier routes to the right of Route 66. Unfortunately, due to the lack of a guidebook and no pictures on Mountain Project, we were unable to spot the routes. Instead, we doubled back to Bear Island, where we found the same types of easy climbs we were hoping to find near Route 66.
Louie spent the day leading two routes, coaching Cassie on the finer points of belaying, and building a solid gear anchor with the materials that they had. Cassie enjoyed her first outdoor rock climbs and remembering how to belay. I spent the morning top roping (though it felt like a lead as I didn’t want to fall for some reason 😉), lead belaying Louie, and re-building the gear anchor with a longer accessory cord. What we all enjoyed were these nut/seed crackers that Cassie and I brought (the black sesame seed ones were the best), as well as some almonds.
At around 3 pm, we wanted to check out Intersection Rock, so we cleaned up and headed back to Ramona, where we washed our hands, replenished our water bottles, and drove a few miles further into Joshua Tree.
