This is my neighbor, Matt, on his 3rd climb ever. He did very well for climbing in J-tree during mid July, while the temp was 106 F. Photo by Katie Burlingame

This is a decent shot of the route including Matt's tennis shoe while he contemplates how to remove a hex. Photo by Katie Burlingame

This is me, Dave, about 15' up a simple route when I decided to bang my skull off the rock a few times in hopes it would drown out my 2 year old's cheering... I mean screams-of-bloody-murder for daddy to hold her. 2 minutes earlier she only wanted mom but the second I get on the wall.... DADDY! What a cute kid. :) Photo by Katie Burlingame

Steve onsighting. Art and another spotting. 15 Apr 2006

I cannot overstate how lucky I was! I show up to J-Tree without a climbing partner, expecting to climb in a team of three, only to find Deb. She and I clicked together on the first route, and climbed together for the rest of the week. Her smile was infectious, and I fed off her energy, propelling me to complete routes I feared too difficult. I could not do anything but smile looking down and seeing her giving me a flawless belay. Here she follows me up Taurus during our most productive day of climbing. I will never forget that time out in the desert.

This is me climbing "Men with cow heads", while my buddy alan belays. This is my 1st trad lead, and I definitely caught the trad bug!

fire_eyes following baja_java on Annointed Seagull. Another butt shot (Photo by a non-climbing firend - Udi)

While messing about on the atlantis wall in 2003, this fellow started soloing up and down pretty much everything... The crux of vorpal sword did give him some pause, but maybe it was just me on the ground taking a picture that made him sweat.

TR on the left drapes over Solar Technology. Straight topout crack immediately right of the rope is Men With Cow's Heads. Jack warming up on Wet Pigeon, trailing the blue line. Climber in white helmet to the right topping out on Taurus. In between the two of them is the wider upper crack finish to Unwiped Butt. Easy walkoff to the back and to climber's left down the talus canyon, then around the left end of the formation back to the base of the routes. 9 Apr 2005

Jack reaching high to clip the bolt before gunning for the highlight overhang on Trident, located left of Vorpal Sword on the left end of the left side of Atlantis Wall. Photo by Darcy. 9 Apr 2005

The entire Atlantis Wall. Mystic Knights of the Sea, Minotaur, Fantasy of Light, and Nittany Lion are on the smaller formation in front on the left, with a climber on TR on its left side. 9 Apr 2005

This is me on my first lead, terrified and ecstatic all at once. I don't think I've ever climbed less gracefully or been as thrilled to top out! This photo was taken by my friend KT.

Me on top rope near the crux of Men With Cow's Heads (5.5). This was two days after the snowstorm before Thanksgiving. Things were a bit wet and cold but great climbing nonetheless. (23 Nov 2004)

Ceremony is a 5.10c ... the crux is the start with hardly any features as you can see from this pix ... I ripped skin off my thumb trying this ... my son Andy (in the pic) made it ...

Nice easy 5.6 ... lots of good crack technique to use here ... hard not to get a visual from the route name at this point in the route ...

This photo of Atlantis Wall also includes Tire Tread Wall to the right. The short, steep, moderate routes here are a good place to practice placing pro for the aspiring trad leader.

2nd lead of the day - awesome climb - good top crack crux.

Sneaked out of school for a quick climb with Erin