Subject: The Simpleton
Rating: V1
Quality: 3 stars
Location: Joshua Tree
Notes: Classic Jtree bouldering experience!

Picture wandering across the stony desert to some distant rockpile, spying this tall boulder, with a line of jugs across the top, from way off. Fighting back the urge to just run straight to it...!
The Simpleton is a great problem for anyone at JTree looking to climb on actual holds! Its tall enough to be proud of, yet not so tall as to shrivel the nuggets. The problem has been around prolly longer than most boulderers, put up maybe in the early '80s. My guess is by someone from the Stonemaster crew, which consisted of the likes of John Long, John Bachar, Lynn Hill, John Yabo, to name a few.

Start awkwardly on a low overhanging arete, then pull left onto the face to sidepulls. From there, pull a long move to the base of a jug system and finish on glorious jugs... or, go for bonus glory by finishing out left with a sloper press over the top. The more casual, original finish out the line of jugs is about 14ft. tall, whereazzz the left exit is around 16 ft. tall.

Climber: RtM
Photos: Christina Anastasi