Day 3: Breaking Bones
White Rastafarian
Our second full day in Joshua Tree began with just-as beautiful weather as the first. After entering the park, we started our climbing journey by warming up on a tall V0 named Pinhead. From there, we began attempting White Rastafarian, a highball (i.e., very tall) V2 and a famous problem in the park. Each member of our group gave it sufficient attempts, but only Shane managed to complete it. The rest of us either couldn’t reach the boulder’s lip or were intimidated by the dangerous fall zone.
Betty Jo Yablonski
Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we tried plenty of other problems. These included a difficult crack-centric V0, a painful V4, and a V0 named Betty Jo Yablonski. None of us found success on the first two problems, but several of us successfully sent Betty Jo. The problem was tall and intimidating, but the moves were fun and the top-out was rewarding. It was a little unfortunate that the problem sat directly next to a hiking trail (i.e., lots of unwanted spectators), but we enjoyed it regardless.
Saturday Night Live
After Betty Jo, our group moved to Saturday Night Live, a famous V4 in the park that requires a difficult dynamic move to successfully complete. Collectively, we spent about an hour working on the problem. Several of us were frustratingly close to sending the problem, and – once again – Shane was the only member of our group to successfully complete it. Despite the frustrations of those who couldn’t finish the problem, everyone still seemed to enjoy the struggle. The gorgeous weather kept us in good spirits.
Shane was absolutely dominating the boulders we were trying. Admittedly, I (and presumably others in our group) were a little jealous of his success, but it was still great to see him in such a good mood while he sent most of the routes he attempted. He was accomplishing exactly what he’d driven 30 hours to do.
As the day grew late, we wandered into the park’s Planet X area. There, we had our eyes on several of the park’s classic boulder problems. This included Planet X (V6) and Strawberry Contraceptives (V7), the problems Shane & Will, respectively, wanted to work on. On our way to those harder problems, our group stopped by Satellite Boulder Left, a V3 in the area.
Satellite Boulder Left
Shane sent Satellite Boulder Left with relative ease and moved on to the Planet X route, and Alex joined him to act as a spotter. Will, intimidated by the boulder’s top-out, left to work on Strawberry Contraceptives. I began giving Satellite Boulder Left more attention, joined by Jack and Aaron. Since the V3 consisted of more in-cut holds and defined foot jibs, it felt doable. It felt similar to the boulders I was used to climbing in the Midwest, a rarity in Joshua Tree. I resolved to complete the problem, since “V3” sounded like a great accomplishment among Joshua Tree’s sandbagged boulders.
Finally, after more than ten attempts on the route, I sent Satellite Boulder Left. I spent a load of time atop the boulder, taking in the views of the National Park while chatting with Jack and Aaron on the ground. Eventually, I descended from the boulder, elated with the route and my completion of it. With a renewed sense of optimism, I started encouraging Aaron and Jack to complete it. I felt amazing about sending the bouldering route and wanted them to experience the same feeling.
Joshua Tree Claims Its First Victim
As my two friends worked on the route, they each got closer and closer to sending it. Jack accepted defeat before too long, but Aaron remained firm in his resolve to complete the route. Every time he attempted the route, he managed to increase his efficiency and make it one or two holds further. Jack and I kept encouraging him, certain he could send the route.
After over a dozen attempts, we started to notice diminishing returns in Aaron’s performance. The route was tiring him out, but he continued to give it attempts. Eventually, another group joined us and laid out some crash pads. This prompted Jack and I to adjust the pads on the ground, trying to even out the landing surface they created and remove unnecessary overlap. Unfortunately, removing the overlap in the pads created an unforeseen hazard for Aaron.
During his next attempt, he made it to one of the last holds on the route, putting him about 10 feet off the ground. He decided to bail and jumped down onto the pads. When he landed, however, his right foot found a gap between the crash pads. This led to his ankle taking the entire force of his fall without the support of the soft crash pads.
Aaron screamed in pain as Jack and I watched his landing in horror.
Everyone around Aaron stared at him for several seconds – petrified at what had just happened – before coming to his aid. Aaron’s ankle was in bad shape… really bad shape. We couldn’t tell if it was sprained, twisted, or broken, but we quickly discovered that he could no longer walk (in retrospect, our group agreed it had been broken, though Aaron never received a physician’s official opinion). Aaron’s scream attracted Alex, Shane, and Will back to the Satellite Boulder, where they discovered his plight.
Visit Paul in the Parks for more national park stories
Our group wasted no time in packing up our gear and crash pads and supporting Aaron back to the cars. There, we gently helped him into one of the cars’ passenger seats and began driving back to Indian Cove. We weren’t sure what this meant for the rest of our trip, but we knew for certain that Aaron would not be climbing anymore.
Back at the campground, we made dinner while Aaron rested his ankle. His foot had swelled significantly, and black, blue, and purple discoloration covered his ankle. It didn’t look good. After eating, we returned to the tent under the stars once more.
Day 3 in Joshua Tree had been a resounding success for some of us, but unfortunately had ended in pain and frustration for Aaron.