Words and Pictures by coach Connor Gurzi
Ashima came down to Sender One for a few days to hang out with the team and get some of that sweet so-cal stone. She climbed
with the elite team Thursday evening and fit right in. She's quiet, a little reserved, respectful, and pretty darn funny! In a nut shell she's your average 14 year old girl (who just so happens to be an absolute crusher!). Ashima flashed some lead routes with ease and dominated some hard boulder problems as well. After practice the whole team and coaching staff enjoyed pizza on the mezz courtesy of Evolv.
On Friday morning a small group of Senderians packed up and headed out to Joshua Tree National Park. I got to play tour guide and headed to Gunsmoke first. Ashima and a few others cruised the long and pumpy traverse as a warm up. Next, we walked over to The Chube, a classic v2 with a heady mantle on slopers at the top. Everyone sent with a smile on their face and the psyche was building up. After The Chube we bush whacked through some spiky plants and trees to the sketchy rock ramp that leads to Allister's Cave.
Everyone made it around the scary belly crawl with a 40 ft drop off and we emerged into Allister's Cave, a beautiful, quite long cave 50-60ft up on a rock ledge. Ashima gave Diary of a Dope fiend a flash burn but the crux was too reachy for her. Manny and I sent. Ashima proceeded to flash Perpetual Darkness V10, which has a very hard first move off a heel hook to a terrible crimp and then goes to a slopey seam where she placed an upside down foot cam for a big move to the top. Manny sent in a few goes. Ashima also flashed Sex Magician Sit v8, another pumpy traverse with a scary tall top out that she made look casual.
Allister's Cave we headed over to Cave Man where welounged around and shared climbing stories for a while. No one was psyched on cave man so we headed out to Pumping Monzonite and Shoveling Monzonite which several of us tried but no one sent. It was about sunset so we all packed up and headed out to a view point and watched the sunset.
Once the sun went down we went to In n' Out by Ashima's request (she's quite the in n out
fan). Some shenanigans took place while we enjoyed good burgers, pod company, and lots of laughing.
fan). Some shenanigans took place while we enjoyed good burgers, pod company, and lots of laughing.