Where Is Frogland

Xiao Wu
Jun 9, 2018
2 min read

The past Saturday ended up in scrambling some random rocks, though the initial plan was to climb the 6-pitch Frogland.

This was a long waited multi-pitch climb. Both the smart PhD and I were fairly stoked. Our rental car was incapable of going through the "average car should be fine" trail, so we hopped out the comfortable air conditioned space 1.2 miles ahead of the designated parking lot. We hiked in, and stopped once in the shade of a boulder, where bugs bite. Toasted or bitten, this is the forever question for me. Somehow, we completely missed the well maintained trail. I myself did not think about trails at all, as if I believed there would not be one. Not sure why the smart PhD did not look for it either. We almost crawled up via the steepest slope. Looking down at the top, I thought, this would be an exciting hike down.

We quickly located a right facing flake, and decided that was the start of the route. We took a long rest in a nice shaded cave until the sun completely left the route. It was about 1 pm when we started climbing.

"I can't find the bolts." The smart PhD said.

"I can't see them either." I was also a little confused. There should be three bolts on the first pitch according to the guidebook.

"How to do this section? No place for protections!" The smart PhD said.

"Ummm... I don't know...."

"Are we on the right route??"

"Maybe not..." This is the first time we had the doubt.

"OK. I'm going to run it out."

"Rock!"

"Rock!!" The smart PhD kicked down rocks as he went up.

"Ahhhh the rocks are so loose! ...and Fragile!" I broke a chip. "Are we on the right route??"

"But it feels like a 5.7/5.8. In that range. And that tree should be the second anchor."

"Right."

So, we were standing on the ledge at the top of the second pitch, wandering what route we were actually on. Then the smart PhD came up with a brilliant idea: why not look at the guidebook!

"There is a huge white scar on the left side of the north face....", he read, and looked up to his right around a later-turned-out-important tree ------- and he cursed.

I looked to that direction and saw this:

Aha! There is the white scar! I could not be more exited. We finally confirmed that we were off route. No more doubting, no more guessing, no more looking for features.

When did we go off route? Probably start from the very beginning. We hiked in the direction of the white scar. Arriving at the bottom of the wall, we found a right leaning flake and thought it was it. Some conclusions of the day:

1. Do take the trail;

2. Do look at the guidebook and photos;

3. Do find the features;

4. If the features are not found, you are off route;

5. Do get a AWD car for any off-road trail, even if the guidebook says "average car should be fine";

6. 110F is too hot to do any outdoor activity (well, I guess it is known).

Looking out from the cave we hided in: