We pulled onto the short gravel road that marks the entrance to New Jack at about 9:45. The van was parked, packs were grabbed, and we set off for the Boy Scout Wall, a rock formation with some good warm-up routes. About 200 meters later, we were there. One of the remarkable things about New Jack is the sheer density of the  climbing – the entire main area which holds most of the several hundred routes in New Jack is reachable by easy, five-to-ten minutes approaches. This makes it a fantastic area to climb with a group – Our guides were usually already leading climbs at the next area to set up topropes while the group was still getting packed up at the last spot.

We climbed well into the mid-afternoon on Saturday, with most of our participants getting to do all of the six routes that we set up at the Boy Scout and Sunnyside walls. We ended up camping in the site next to where two guys we met earlier, Anthony and Mike, were camping that night, and they proved to be perfect examples of the archetypal climber dudes – friendly, easygoing, and super psyched to be out climbing. They hung out around our bonfire with us, swapping stories and goofing around with some nighttime bouldering on the overhanging boulder next to our firepit. We also had another visitor to our campsite that night – the participant who had slept past his alarm had, through some miracle, found a friend to drive him the two hours from LA to the middle of the desert and drop him off so that he could camp with us that night and climb the next day! Happy to have another group member, we modified the sleeping arrangements accordingly and settled in for the night, staring at a sky full of constellations and even a few shooting stars.

A long exposure of camp

Sunday morning was cold and clear. Breakfast, packing, and planning all went by in a blur, and we set out for more rock climbing. This time around, we put up some harder, more interesting routes – quite a few 5.10a’s, and a solid mix of high-quality .8′s and .9′s. The participants did an awesome job with the harder stuff we were throwing at them, and everyone had a blast. As our last route of the day, I put up “Crooked Dick Spire“, a funky 5.9 up a thin and striking finger of rock. At the top of the spire, you could sit on a small knob of rock and look out over the entire valley and the sun hanging low over the rim. It was the perfect capstone to an awesome weekend of rock climbing.

The view of "Crooked Dick Spire" from below

Is climbing safe?

This is a pretty important question, and the short answer is that yes, climbing with SC Outfitters is a very safe activity. The long answer is that in climbing, just as with any activity, there is a certain amount of risk involved. On SC Outfitters trips, however, we strive to make that risk as small as possible – all of our equipment is safety rated and well maintained, and our guides set up all the climbs in such a way that the amount of risk to our participants is extremely negligible. We have never had anyone get injured while climbing with SC Outfitters. Because of our rigorous safety standards and knowledgeable guides, I would not hesitate to say that climbing with SC Outfitters is a very safe activity.

Do I need any special gear?

On SC Outfitters trips, we provide all of the rock climbing equipment you’ll need – shoes, harness, belay device, rope, etc. The cost of renting this gear is included in the total trip cost – so you don’t need to worry about bringing anything except whatever is on the trip packing list.

What should I wear for climbing?

While you’re climbing, you’ll want loose or stretchy clothing that doesn’t restrict your movements. I usually climb in a t-shirt and a pair of pants or shorts that let me see where I’m placing my feet. Jeans are generally not good for climbing or hiking in. Remember to bring warm layers to wear over your climbing clothes, if the trip description calls for it.

Do I need to know how to climb beforehand?

This varies on a trip-by-trip basis – most of our climbing day trips are suitable for beginners, but some of our overnight climbing trips I would not recommend as your introduction to rock climbing. If you’re not sure whether a given trip is a good fit for your skill level, try talking to the guide leading the trip. They will be the best equipped to answer your questions about difficulty and skill level.

What happens if I fall?

The type of climbing that participants on our trips do is called top-roping. What this means is that your rope runs through an anchor at the top of the climb, then down to the belayer who takes in slack in the rope as you move up. When you fall, you fall directly onto the rope which catches all your weight. This means that you will only fall as far as the rope stretches to absorb the force of your fall – two to three feet at the most. After that you can grab back onto the rock and try again.

Hopefully that answered some of your questions, and now you’re psyched to come climb with us!

Cheers,

-Quinn Rohlf

Photo credit: Renan Ozturk, pro climber and artist

The journey there involved a wild ride up the scenic twists of Yerba Buena Road, deep into the Santa Monica mountains. This led to an equally adventurous hike/scramble/climb up and down the ridges of the Mishe Mokwa trail right to the shadow of the tall volcanic and sandstone “Echo Cliffs”. With perfect sunshine and just a hint of a breeze, the climbing was amazing. The spring admits might be new to USC, but they took to rock climbing like they had been doing it for years. Some of the routes which were crushed by our adventurers included “Ms. Pac-Man”, a short but interesting line up a edgy slab, “Xanadu”, a traversing climb on pocketed tuff, “Morning Glory”, a long route on varied terrain, and “Bushwhacked”, a steep 90′ long route.

Rock climbing wasn’t the only thing that happened on this outing. We had no less than four people discover that they were next-door neighbors, new friends were made, and scenery was enjoyed.

Despite a few bumps along the way and an equally curvy drive back, the whole crew made it out in one piece, having been given a fitting introduction to USC life – SC Outfitters style!

a dark night saw stars. elias saw nothing, he forgot his glasses. a brighter early morning saw a nearly full moon. elias was able to see this part because we went back for his glasses. two cars, a small caravan moving along the coastline, four cones of light and one bonding commonality, everybody poops.

signs of day in monterey. purple then pink then the orange sun peeks finally over the hill tops illuminating the grazing cattle, the grasses to their knees and the white foam crash at the shoreline. lulling awake and then back to sleep again lazy elephant seals. in the west a moon slips quietly from view beneath rolling waves. forward facing eyes watching in the rearview.

sounds of footsteps dissipate in the vastness of this place. bigger than an echo. the trees greet us at the onset only to abandon us as we climb higher into the hills and farther from the humidity of the coast. the day only just beginning, and hours beginning to feel very long indeed.

down a long nasty switchback our feet ache and our eyelids feel heavy. we take turns in the river, submerging and washing away the invisible oils of poison oak, hopefully just in time. after the awakening chill the last of our energy is used to restore body heat and to lay out ground pads for an afternoon nap. sleep enveloped us all, and it was welcome.

broken camp and upward again. long, but beautiful. each downhill means the shade of redwoods. lunch on the road, pitas, hummus, tofurky, cheese, chicken, salami, and sundried tomatoes…the secret ingredient. not anymore. the other secret ingredient? not telling. just kidding. love. the last secret ingredient? secrets.

we walk into our campsite and drop our packs. this will be our home for the night. we’ll cook our dinner and enjoy this sandy beach. we’ll wade in the creek and walk to the hot springs. we will. it will be nice. it will feel warm. it seems naturally unnatural for a creek so cold to have such warm water close by. its warmth is intoxicating. the closeness of everyone–euphoric. these feelings grow and grow as the night removes us from the surrounding world and places us under a shining blanket of stars. the only semblance of day bathes our eardrums, the flowing river persists along with the spirit of adventure. it does not sleep, it manifests itself in an orgy of raw pleasure, covered by the cloak of darkness. hands, heavy breathe, animal noises, and the false feeling of anonymity. normality abandoned for something far more unique.

each step draws us closer to home, so downward we fly. towards warmth, cleanliness and comfort and all that the civilized world has to offer. the entire distance travelled the previous two days are covered in one day’s push. each bend we expect to reach our destination but are disappointed, until finally that bend comes. we walk past a peaceful grassy field. the grass is tall and fenced in, but the coastal breeze spins and tustles each blade. they move freely. car doors unlock, an engine starts, and a road lies ahead. a very long road.

in the distance a dog barked.

written by Cormac McCarthy

-Christine Sur

I have to admit; I have a very unique perspective on this. As the Community Support Director, my responsibility is to keep everything running smoothly because at the end of the day, none of us want to deal with all this “business stuff”. We as guides and you as members all want the same thing: spend more time chilling together, preferably outdoors in the wilderness. From our @scoutfitters.org email addresses to our Facebook page, all of our online tools help serve the mission: to let us better nurture the outdoor community we’re trying to create.

So, along those lines, I’m kind of hoping you noticed the new digs www.scoutfitters.org is showing off today. Together with the help of two other guides, Molly Barnes and Quinn Rohlf, we’ve been working incredibly hard over the past month on our brand spanking new WordPress website.

Over the past couple of semesters, we’ve been asking you what you liked about SC Outfitters and what annoyed the crap out of you. One of the things that we kept hearing was how much you liked our website.

On the other hand, SC Outfitters has been expanding exponentially over the last year. With a membership program and an expanded roster of trips, our website was simply unable to keep up with what we needed it to do. We could’ve made it work, but it would’ve been more complicated for both you as a participant, and for us as guides to maintain.

So with much celebration, we decided to move to better pastures, and this new site is the result. Some of the new features we hope you’ll like are:

• A cleaner design to make it easier for you to get all the information you need.
• A new Trips Page for you to bookmark and get an easy, visual way of seeing all the trips.
• Added support and help pages so you can find answers to the questions you have.
• More photos of the guides and the members that put a face to our community.
• A revamped The Blog with RSS Feed to keep you in the loop with the latest news.
• A new host to reduce our operating costs so more money can go to benefit our members.

And that’s not all! With midterm season going on right now, we couldn’t finish everything we wanted to do, but that doesn’t mean we’re done expanding the website. Let’s just say our members will have something to be very stoked about come next semester.

For now, we hope you like the look of our new online home. For the longest time, when people said how much they like our website, I’ve always responded, “I’m glad you love it. I actually hate my work.” Now, I’m happy to say how much I love what Molly Barnes, Quinn Rohlf, and I have created. We hope you’ll agree.

Thanks for reading, and remember to live for adventure!

Andy Chu
Founding Guide | Community Support Director | SC Outfitters

Lauren drove the USC van with impressive skill in the complete dark to the Marion Mountain Trailhead and we hit the trail at 1:45 am. We were rewarded with amazing views as well as a completely different and totally epic hiking experience. The moon was so bright that there was no need for headlamps and we ascended surrounded by the beauty and solitude of the outdoors. We lost the trail a few times but thanks to other hikers who used rocks to mark the trail we were able to find our way.

The sunrise was scheduled for 6:58am and at about 6:30am, we discovered we had taken a wrong turn and were on the other side of the impressive San Jacinto that we should have been. Because it was still dark and so close to the sunrise, we decided to not turn back and summit a nearby mountain, only 200ft shorter than San Jacinto. We were rewarded with amazing views of San Jacinto and the sunrise.

After being motivated by the cold and a delicious breakfast, we got back to the trailhead in the late morning and had a delicious lunch of pita and veggies on the way home.  Because of our hard hike (nearly 12 miles with 4500ft elevation gain) and lack of sleep, the drive home was rather quiet, as everyone slept.

Everyone on the trip was amazing and we all enjoyed the completely different experience hiking in the dark awarded.