The Sentinel 4360′ and Hidden Tower 4290′
Rock Climbing– Joshua Tree National Park
Total Time: 3:45
Distance: 1.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 400′
Crux: Class 5.8- Sail Away, 5.6 Fote Hog
Pitches: 3
Protection: Doubles to 4, long slings, 70 meter rope
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Hidden Valley Trailhead- trash, pit toilets
Continued….
The weather for our second day in Joshua Tree was looking better, although still not great, with a short period of sunny skies in the morning and the rain restarting around noon. With a long To-Do list in the park, I decided to head to a different area and hit a few climbs in the Real Hidden Valley, with a number of classic moderates within our abilities. Having only climbed the wet Upper Ski Track 5.3 the day before, I didn’t want to jump on anything too hard and thought Fote Fog, 2 pitches 5.6 on the Sentinel would be a good option to ease into the more moderate grades. The sun was indeed shining when we reached the Hidden Valley trailhead, snagging a spot right in front at the early hour. We started out on the very popular trail, going up and over a small crest to enter Hidden Valley proper, the Sentinel the obvious large formation to the left.
We took the left fork of the use trail and reached the base within a few minutes, the only climbers out for the day so far. After racking up, I started up the first pitch, scrambling up a fourth class ramp to the left to a small tree. Straight up from this was a thin finger crack, the climbing a bit trickier with water dripping down the crack.
A few moves brought me to a ledge, now facing a traverse on jugs across to the right. I was able to reach wide and place a cam at foot level to protect the first wide stem, making the big step right to better holds and a little better pro. This brought me to the roof crux, with overhanging patina jugs and a beautiful adjacent hand crack for protection. I place a BD #3 cam and hauled myself up and over, feeling far burlier than the 5.6 rating, even for Joshua Tree. Above the roof was a great large ledge, and I built a belay to bring up Holly.
Holly started up the ramp and quickly made it to the ledge at the start of the traverse before realizing that the first stem move out wide was out of reach for her 5’1” frame. She didn’t want to commit to the move with the risk of taking a swing and I ultimately wound up untying from my end of the rope (staying on anchor) and tossed it down to her, allowing her to do the traverse essentially on top rope. We regrouped at the belay and after tying back in, I started up the second pitch, climbing a flake off the belay to a dual crack system. I initially tried just climbing the left crack but it was quite wet and instead spanned my arms wide to bear hug my way up. This would similarly not be an option for Holly, forcing her to climb the harder right crack straight in when it was her turn. Above the dual crack was a beautiful lieback corner, sadly too short leading to a fun chimney large scoops and up to the summit.
I slung a summit boulder and brought up Holly to join me, the sunny skies having disappeared having taken some extra time with the traverse on the first pitch.
We found the walk off easily enough through a gap to the left in the summit boulders, a number of hikers having scrambled up the class 3 slabs from the trail below. We dropped down to the valley floor and circled back around to our packs, trying to decide what to do with our ever shortening weather window.
The next formation over was Thin Wall, featuring a number of moderate lines, however we found it covered in top ropes on nearly every climb when we walked over. I had wanted to try Sail Away, 5.8- on Hidden Tower, but I worried we would find a line on the classic route, wasting what little time we had left before the rains restarted. But with Thin Wall crowded and no other climbs in mind, we headed cross country across the Valley to the loop trail on the other side to search out Hidden Tower. I had a GPS track loaded from Mountain Project and found the spire easily enough not far off trail, finding the very classic line completely empty!
I dropped the rope and gear before anyone else wandered over and started up as soon as Holly could put me on belay. I utilized the easy broken crack on the left over the harder direct start to gain the highly featured crack above. In most places, it was a bit too narrow for true hands for me, but the crack was incredibly featured with knobs and pockets eating cams and hexes with plenty of great stances. It started to very lightly rain as I was halfway up, my hands growing numb from the cold and now wet rock. The crack tapers out about 5′ from the summit, and I stepped out left onto a big knob for an easy finish on the spire summit. I was quite pleased with the climb and lead- being able to tick off this classic line made the trip worth it despite the bad weather. A twosome showed up behind Holly just as she started up to join me, the rain of course increasing when it was her turn to climb. With the weather worsening and a line now formed, we quickly rapped off the tower and packed our things, our climbing looking to be over for the remainder of the trip.
We hiked back to the car, the weather now seeming indecisive, adding to our own indecision, and we drove around to a different trailhead trying to decide on another climb or hike until the rain started up again for good, officially bringing our short climbing trip to an end.