On October 17, 1998 I packed up my gear at about 5:30 AM and headed out to Josh to meet Dave who was camping there with his wife ,Newshaw, and 2 friends, Aubree and Mark. Aubree was nice enough to lend me her hat all day since I had forgotten mine. I had not been climbing since July because I broke my finger while water skiing with Dave in some kind of freak accident.

I met Dave and the rest of the Group at the Jumbo Rocks campground around 9:00 AM. After some breakfast burritos, Dave, Mark, and Myself headed to the Head Stone. The Head Stone is a giant piece of rock that stands about 60 feet high and resembles a head stone. The Head Stone itself is on a 50 foot high pile of boulders and overlooks the Ryan Campground.

If you look really close you can see two people at the bottom of the Head Stone.

For my first climb in several months I decided to lead a nice 5.8 sport route called Cryptic (spelling?). I went slow and rested at each clip and made the climb with a little beta from Dave with out falling once. It felt good to do such a classic climb at Josh after not climbing for so long.

Here is a picture of me on top of the Head Stone.

It was really nice that day. I would say it was in the 70s and no clouds. There was a lot of wind though because the Head Stone is so exposed.

Here is a picture of Dave (on belay) and Mark at the bottom of the climb when I was at the 3rd or 4th bolt.

Here is a picture of Dave at the last Bolt. If you look really close you can see Mark standing under the big boulder behind Dave.

Here is a picture of the Ryan Campground from the top of the climb.

Here is a picture of Mark and Dave from the top of the Head Stone.

This last picture of me really shows how exposed climb is. The actuall climb is on the left face of this picture and moves toward the corner. It finishes right above where my head is.

.After we had finished the Head Stone, we headed to the Bong. The Bong is a nice crack system that is about 65 feet long. Here is a picture of the area surronding the Bong. I just put it on the page because it reminds me of the Flintstones.

This picture shows Mark closing in on the top of the Bong. Mark had never been climbing before and did good his first time out. Maybe he will go with us again some day.

Here is a picture of Dave (on the left) and Mark (on the right) at the top of the Bong.

Here is a picture of me (on the right) and Mark (on the Left) on top of the Bong.

We finished the Bong and headed back to Jumbo Rocks for a bit. We then headed over to Gun Smoke and bouldered for a while. Once the sun went down, I drove home and the rest of the group went back to camp.