ya mon we goin' to beee shawp

Well, ya know, like I was saying.. some days your on, and this weekend was one of them.

I made a trip out to Bishop for the holiday weekend, I figured there would be a shit load of people there, but the pass was open and the temps looked pretty good.

I headed out Wed. night with the dog. We stayed at Harden that night, then headed to bishop in the morning after. Finally got to drive through Tioga pass for the first time, and man is it beautiful up there!! so many domes and so much rock, and water!! awesome, I definitely gotta get up here when the temps are a lil warmer and the windchill isn't -20. there looked to be some nice boulders up at the high elevations through that little corridor.

So, after not really stopping and Taz jumping in the water, literally coming out an icicle, I headed down the pass to Crowley Lake and down to Bishop.

First stop, the milks.. so I got out and headed straight to the green wall. I had been reading about it and really wanted to get on green wall center. So I figured I'd warm up on the other problems on the wall. I got on Green Wall Essentials and got up to the jugs a few times before I topped out. Ultra Classic problem. I then did the arete and got on this crappy ass v5 on the back that isn't named, it would be a decent problem, but there is a small boulder that is really in the way and makes it contrived. So I headed back to check out the center line, I checked out the starting holds and what appeared to be the moves, but decided to either get two pads or wait till later.

So I started to walk back to the car and saw a few people on Cave Route. I had got on Cave Route a few times years ago and remember the move. It is really a crux move from one huge flake, up to a little lip like thing facing right then a huge move up to a jug. I figured that I would give iti a go, I was decently warmed up. So I gave it a go and didn't remember my feet so I figured out where I would place my feet and got a little beta to match on the decent hold as an intermediate to go up to the jug. So I hopped on with the good beta and sent the thing. woohoo, a successful send, I worked my ass off for it a few years ago and then came back and send the thing. What is more fufilling then climbing something that once thwarted you and now feels so easy. No matter what the grade or style of climbing, that is one great thing about climbing.

Well, after that, it was definitley time for some grub. So I headed back to the truck to cook up some food. I cooked up some grub and hung around. I saw some friendly folk hanging around talking about some of the Tahoe bouldering, so I got the real deal about the bouldering in solake Tahoe. I'll have to head up hopefully before snow sets in to get on some of the stuff.

After that i headed back to check out Soul Slinger. There were some others on there already, so i hopped on. I got up to the pinch, but was not grabbing the hold the proper way, I lost some skin, so I figured I'd lay off and save my skin!

I wandered around and then headed over to Get Carter boulder and saw a fuckload of people there, so I headed back to setup camp in the pit. Camped in the pit, you know the usual, cook food, drink beer, sleep.

The next morning I woke up and decided to head back out to the milks. I saw Dan in the morning and said that he was heading out and Scott may be out there too so I figured why not. I headed out and there were a boatload of people there, all over the place.

I figured I would warmup on the birthday boulders, there were already pads all over, easy as pie. So I got on all the good easy stuff and warmed up. I got on Birthday Center and thought it was pretty weird and didn't like it. I then wandered around to see what I wanted to get on. I walked by the green wall and saw a bunch of people there and decided to get on the center, I was already warmed up good. So I go down to wait for my turn and someone there is working on it and gives me some beta on what some people do and i give it a go and flash the damn thing. It does really have some good moves and considering I'm a pretty hardcore yos climber, the moves came pretty easy.

After my adreneline wore off, I walked around and saw some others on High Plains Drifter, witch I know is a classic! So I decided to get on it and wow it is an awesome problem. I was able to get the first moves down but then fell off going for the sloper, the obvious crux. It had some hard moves and hurt my fingers, but some other girl sent it! I then saw a few girls on Popes Prow and decided to get on it with them. One of the girls worked out some outside edge smear foot beta that worked well for me too.

Now I dunno, but she used a move that I suprisingly had seen before, its the 'leg lift'. Seriously, you use your hand to lift your leg into position to put your foot on a foothold. i had seen it a few weeks ago in yos on a problem called Team effort where someone was fully mantled on used their other free hand to lift their leg and put it on a foot hold. I think this is a legitimate move!

Well, we worked out some of the moves and then Daniel, Brodie and Thomas came over to work on the problem too. We all got on it and got some decent progress, but none of us got it.

They went up to get on Siagon and I headed down to the car for lunch. After grabbing a bite, I headed up to the Five and Dime Boulder and did a few problems on that. The boulder has some cool patina on it and some decent problems. I then did a crimpy problem on the backside of the Flyboy boulder that was ok, just like one or two moves. Decided to end the day on that.

Headed back to the pit and ended up hanging out at Daniel's camp till pretty late. They mentioned hitting up the sads the next day and my tips were pretty beat so it sounded good.

The next morning I was tired as hell and decided to probably just do a photo day, I figured I would cruise by the milks and see if anyone was hanging out there and I saw Scott! They had all setup around the birthday boulders and I got on the Birthday Center problem and did it, I personally don't think it's all that great of a problem, but some disagree. Its just got some weird moves that I don't like doing all that much. After that, Scott wanted to get on Stained Glass, so we headed up there to get on it.

There was already someone there checking it out. I decided to take some photos since I wasn't getting on it. I was able to get a great photo out of it of Thomas, the only guy to send it, I posted on http://blerphoto.blogspot.com . This is such a cool problem, it is a awesome looking brown/orange dihedrial with some serious crimps up a thin crack. This is a problem that is definatley on my ticklist!

After that we all headed down to the Tut boulder and I was able to send the Tut variation that is actually a really awesome problem with fun fun moves! I had worked on this thing years ago as well and got shutdown at the last move, witch is actually pretty tricky.

After that, Scott and I headed to Junior's Achievement, a crimpy ass problem up some decent patina. Scott and I got on this years ago and this time we didn't really get much further then that once haha. I think I'd have to have some energy and crimping powa' to really send this thing. After that we all were pretty beat and decided to call it a trip.

Drove home through the pass with a little light left to catch the scenery!

AWESOME TRIP, god I love Bishop, maybe I'll move there someday but I'm stuck here and have plenty of climbing here in yos and tahoe to keep me busy for a long time!

Yos 11/17-18

This weekend Brett and I headed to the valley.

First stop was Camp4, we saw a huge crowd out this weekend, definatley more the normal. So we metup with Scott, Chris, Morgan, CUZ, Dan, Flea, and god many others, my memory is bad...

So we started out in Camp4 at the wine boulders. we warmed up on some easy stuff then did Kor Problem. after that i got on font problem unsuccessfully again. then we headed to get on 'sex factor X', witch is a pretty cool problem, Scott and Ben both got the problem, witch has a wicked hard first move. then we headed up to honor among theives. I headed to the boulder just below that has a few good problems on it, and god the hard start to the rail using some body tension move. i walked back up to honor and worked out most of the moves on the problem.

after that we decided to do a night session over at the crystals and checkout a new problem called 'diesel power'. it is a sweet tall line that comes out of the moat up the arete to the top of the boulder. it will definatley be seasonal problem, but is awesome none the less. no one really got this, so we headed to work on the team projects on the slab up the backside.

now i origonally planned this line to follow just the slab up a very proud slab line, but the first time it went, we bailed out early to a jug, but this time Brett wanted to do the origonal line we imagined. Flea did one of the variations without using the jug that does go up to the top and then Brett repeated it, AWESOME JOB GUYS!

we decided to call it a night and headed back to camp4 to drink, eat and sleep :)

sunday, brett was pretty beat, so I wanted to get on font problem again. i got up on the thing and almost got the mantle of it, but after a few tries i was too tired to give it any more goes, so we decided to head on. we stopped by blue suede shoes to give it a few goes, and I got crux nailed down pat the first few tries. so after that I got up to the good edges a little further up, and i was on the last few edges and decided to scrap up to the top, but i FELL!! heh scrapped down and had a decent fall but all was well :) brett did end up getting the problem, but everytime i got up there i got too scared, so i'll definatley send it next time, espically with better conditions.

we then headed out to battle of the bulge and titanic, and I got on both of them. both problems were pretty intense on the fingers, so I just worked out some moves and headed on.

we decided to head over to happy isles and check out the new problems and scope around for other newness.

we found some boulders with some decent lines on it, the rock around there does not get climed at all, so some of the stuff was really chossy and dirty, but there definatley is potential around that area. the only drawback is there is a slight walk-in to the boulders (but not really that bad).

we saw a few people getting on 'motorcade' while we were there, but we just walked around, still tired and sore fingertips.

we headed home and saw a few crews stopping by good ole' Robertitos (plug, haha). this place rocks, authentic greasy mexican food at authentic prices ;)

peace out, till next time;

'knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss...'
-bler

and god said ; reset..

so on the, well a few weeks of climbing, rest..

so I did, i rested all weekend. but others did not;

Tommy on : King Air

I'm planning on heading out to bishop for the thanksgiving weekend, so I figured I would take one of these weekends off and get ready, like get snow chains and an oil change heh.

so I took the weekend off, yos next weekend, bishop the weekend after.. w00t, ready for some climbin :)

some days your on..

and some your not :)

This weekend was one that I was not on.. but I still had a blast climbing and got some decent pictures!!

Brett, I and Taz headed up to the valley this weekend. Now don't get me wrong, I love bringing Taz, but the valley is not a great place to have dogs (espically a husky pup who wants to roam free everywhere). i realized that it is kind of a pain bringing him, so i think i'll be limiting his trips up there for both our own good (i'm sure he doesn't like being tied up in a place he thinks he can roam free at).

so we headed up Saturday morning and got in around noon. on the way in, we spotted a few fellow climbers that we knew and stopped by the LeConte memorial to warmup there. we warmed up on a few of the short steep problems just next to the memorial and then headed up to the prowess/torque boulder witch has some awesome problems on it.

Brett got up Torque quickly, i turned my back and he was already at the top of the boulder. he also did rabbit habit, witch was also a really cool problem, betabase just put up a vid of Courtney doing it here. i got on Torque and got most of the lower moves down, but for some reason was not able to put it all together with the few attempts gave it. i think i got all the moves, i just need to work on stemming out and the problem should be over for me as long as i can stick with it through the striking topout.

a whole bunch of climbing went down on that boulder so i'll let the pictures do the talking.

after that, it was time for a night session on the flat line boulder. we had a cool night sesh setup with a whole crap load of lamps, I got on 'flat' and worked out the first few moves a lot better, but didn't get the problem. Brett and i walked to chocholate bunny and got on that. i worked out most of the moves, but didn't get the problem, Brett got it pretty easily after a few tries and working out the moves, he said it felt way easier now then it did last time, hopefully it will be the same for me!



then we headed back to Harden to camp. i was tired as hell so we passed tha' fuck out.

the next morning, we headed to check out happy isles. we found a whole bunch of boulders with potential, but i can see why no one wants to boulder there, its a fucking madhouse (and this is in the off season). i convinced some tourists that taz was a wolf that i had captured and they took pictures with him.

i did find a few new lines on a pretty decent boulder i named 'the impalation boulder'. one is a shorty on the backside that I named 'old beer can' from the old ass Budweiser can i found just next to it, the problem probably went at like a v2? but it was fun either way, the other was a project that i started to clean.

so i cleaned a few small crimps down low and looked like the problem would go up these heinous crimps to a huge block, but Brett noticed the block looked really loose and cracked, so we threw a few small rocks up at it to test it out and the fucking thing fell, hard. it IMPALED my CRASH PAD !!! it went through the crash pad and about 6" into the dirt, the edge was razor sharp and pointed like an arrowhead. good thing this did not fall on me or a spotter, it would have been instand death. thanks for saving my life Brett!

needless to day some duct tape fixed it good. thank god for this stuff, it works wonders.

the project will still probably go, but will be much harder now. so i call it the 'impalation' boulder.



we then found a few other established problems that were fun. one was a cool dyno problem that was great fun! it was behind the obvious face climb right on the trail, it starts on a large sidepull and a crimp and goes up to a huge shelf. it is a lot of fun and went at maybe like v4? i'll get these documented here soon. here's a pic of Brett on the dyno.



after that we decided to head to good ole' camp4. we wandered around and found some friends getting on King Cobra witch is such a classic **** problem that climbs a tall, proud and very challenging dihedral to a jug system.

we decided to get me on 'the font problem' and then go up to 'honor among thieves'. i got on the font problem and worked out almost all the moves but didn't link them all together. this is such another awesome problem, although it is low (espically the start where you basically dig out so your heels do not touch the ground) it has AWESOME moves on it and the holds are great. from a crimpy start to a jug, then an awesome move where up to match on some cool slopers and then more sloperfest up to the top. i definatley gotta do this thing next time!




Brett got on 'honor among thieves'. this is another awesome problem that i overlooked and didn't think anything of it, but Brett got on it and showed me the moves. the moves looked so fun i am now really stoked to get on the thing! Brett worked out the sit-start and almost all the lower moves, but it was the last thing we got on, so I know he was tired as hell. he should be able to send the thing next weekend!





so that was that, we decided to head back to the bay, what a great trip, see ya next time!



-bler