apAdventures

For years (as in like, 10+) we’ve been driving past the Tramway Boulders on our way to Yosemite, never once stopping. Every time we’ve sailed past Palm Springs, with pedal to the metal to get to Yosemite Valley as fast as humanly possible, either Paul or I would call out “there’s the mountain with The Tram! Tramway Boulders up there!” Every time. The kids might have glanced out their window once or twice at the massive mountain that our highway was snaking around, amidst the more-exciting windmills everywhere, but never once did they ask why we weren’t stopping. Cause duh. We were on our way to Yosemite! We’d check out those boulders some other day.

The Tramway boulders are legend, featured in one of first and possibly most cult-classic climbing videos ever made, Rampage. We always talked about going, chatting with San Diego locals about how amazing the lines were, and sometimes even rewatching the Tram segment of Rampage. Drooling. But we never went. Only 7ish hours away and we never went.

Problem is, they’re a bit logistically and economically challenging to get to. Access to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains where the boulders sit, perfectly placed amongst pines and meadows and blue bird sky, can only be done by either a strenuous 12 mile hike, or a pricy Tram ride. Most (all?) climbers use The Tram. Like Disney World. Purchase your tickets, stand in line, and wait for the “big ride.” Strike one. Next, there’s no convenient camping options. While there are what appear to be some decent forest service campgrounds on the other side of the mountain from The Tram, they’re on the OTHER side of the mountain!, an hour’s drive away, minimum. Strike two. Which means….climbers who can’t day-trip it from home need to stay in the swanky city of Palm Springs. Strike three.

Well, as I tend to say often here on apAdventures, one adventure always leads to another. Earlier this year we had an epic “adventure” where Silas had a gymnastics comp on a THURSDAY in the middle of ARIZONA STATE TESTING WEEK in

C A L I F O R N I A!!!! And this wasn’t just any old comp. This was Regionals. And of course Silas qualified. Of course. Neither Paul nor I had budgeted vacation time for this. And after a couple of stern emails to the Regionals Organizer that fell on deaf ears, Paul took one for the team and shuttled Silas out to the comp. Silas did well but (thankfully) didn’t qualify for Nationals. (I say thankfully because Nationals was scheduled smack on top of the weekend we had planned to do R2R2R for Ivan’s Birthday). [Side note totally unrelated to this post: For anyone eager to get their kids into boys gymnastics, beware of the last minute scheduling of the entire comp season! 😤]. Epic.

So where am I going with this? Well, Paul being Paul, obsessed with rocks and with a knack for turning one heck of a lemon into lemonade, he squeezes a trip up The Tram into this gymnastics-adventure-gone-sour. Just he and Silas with one tiny organic pad. No guidebook. No Kaya app. A quick rewatch of Rampage. Old school.

And this is why I love my Paul.

Back home during this adventure my phone is off the hook with pics of gorgeous granite boulders in an alpine setting. Paul and Silas call Ivan and I on the drive home and are nuts on the phone. It’s amazing! You’ll love it! They roll in super late that evening. Paul shows me more pics late into the night, we sip tequila, we drool.

No more drivebys. Open the pocketbook. Bougie Bouldering, here we come.

posted by ARR