a very Bishop Christmas...

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"a very Bishop Christmas.."
for: http://blog.mountainhardwear.com/
by : Matt Keebler
photos : http://blerphoto.blogspot.com
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Bishop in winter means different things to different people. To climbers it means bouldering season! Bishop is most popular late in January or February when the temps start to get warmer, but my favorite week is Christmas week.

I choose this time because the people are great. Only the die-hard brave twenty-degree weather for perfect climbing conditions at the Buttermilks. The people are here because they love the outdoors and are willing to give up family time for a great outdoor experience!

Arriving well before Christmas at 'The Pit', the local climbers' campground, I had first dibs on sites. Choosing one that provides a blockade from the harsh winter wind makes getting there early all the better. This campground is called 'The Pit' for good reason. Any old topo maps before 1980 will show this area as a 'gravel pit'. After discovering that people were already camping in the pit, the Bureau of Land Management took put in pit toilets and created an official campground.

The Pit hosts a collection of dirt-bag climbers, some local, some foreign, and some just looking for a cheap place to live for 60 days. This year as I woke up early the first morning to take photos and walk the dog, I noticed about 7 cars with B.C. (British Columbia) plates! Later that morning I met a large group of Squamish locals out for the week, who would become great friends and climbing partners.

Most will wonder why someone would spend a family holiday like Christmas in such a remote part of the country. Everyone is so happy to be outdoors and breathing the fresh air, we couldn't care less about the rest of the world. On Christmas day we all spent a great day climbing in the Buttermilks basking in the sun, bouldering and enjoying life.

Some are so die-hard that they visit Bishop a few times a week, driving all the way from the Redwood coast, travelling a god-awful 1,500 miles and 26 hours just to call Bishop a 'local spot'. One climber that I met had been there for a week and had to head home to visit family for the holiday. I said my fare-well to a new good friend. Two days later, he arrived back from his thousand-mile trip ready to get on his projects.

It is hard to describe the experience of bouldering in Bishop in the winter. S&M comes to mind first and the next thing that comes to mind is numbness! It is a constant battle to keep the toes and hands warm and still climb.

The majority of people are glad to suffer this for the sake of world-class bouldering on very diverse rock. The rock consists mainly of volcanic and granite, with complete opposites in climbing styles. Granite areas consist of both beautiful orange and green patina that is a pleasure to climb on, and usually provides quite technical climbing. Volcanic rock provides a much stronger climbing experience, with steeper rock.

Bouldering at one of the popular areas is quite an experience. I usually relate it to climbing in the gym. Some of the popular boulders will have at least 10 crash pads lined up to provide a 20'x20' landing zone! This can be nice. I can always find a great spot, plenty of pads to work on your newest project, and a crowd to help me on. Sometimes I do not like climbing with a slew of people and want to be alone with a boulder. As much as these popular areas get traffic (Buttermilk’s, Happy’s, Sad’s), there are other areas that are not as easily accessed. The Druid Stones have a good concentration of some of the best rock in Bishop, although the 45 minute uphill hike deters many! There are also many other undeveloped or very lightly developed areas.

I love going to Bishop for photography, because it is a very beautiful and photogenic place. On this trip, I caught a beautiful sunset as I drove up the 395 towards Mono Lake.
I had hoped to get some decent shots of the sun setting behind Mono Lake tufa, but wasn't able to make it on time. I watched the sunset as I drove, and it only got better and better. I had to stop to take some photos that would include the mountains. So I pulled off at the next turn, planning to drive around a hill to get a better shot. As I drove, I came upon a shanty-town, which I decided to avoid for my own safety. So I pulled off and decided to use an old broken down corral as foreground interest. I heard people from the shanty-town on radios talking about me, making me quite worried. I did my best to shoot and run the hell out of there! I was able to grab a great photo and a once in a lifetime photography experience.

Conditions for photography in Bishop are about as good as it can get, which is why I return every year to take photos of the beautiful sunrises over Mt. Tom and sunsets over the White Mountains. The solitude and light move me in an almost spiritual way, it is for me an enlightening experience and to photograph it is something I appreciate being able to do and share.

After a hard day of climbing, a pizza and a cold beer, the next thing I do is find one of the natural hot springs. These appear everywhere on the Eastside, from Mono Lake all the way down the Owens Valley. There are trails of natural thermal vent hot springs all along the Owens River. Some of these have been built up to be commercial bath-houses (like the Keho Hot Springs). The bath-tub style dams (probably built in the 60s) are harder to find.

I keep returning because I believe that Bishop is one of the most beautiful places on earth and provides a playground for outdoor enthusiasts, especially climbers and photographers like me. Bishop feels to be the new hot spot of a movement not seen or heard of in the climbing community since the days Mari, Yabo, Long and others, with their closely-knit group of friends and die-hard climbers just out to have fun in Joshua Tree, the epicenter of climbing in their time. Other places, like Hueco Tanks, can't compare with Bishop because they lack the adventure and freedom that can be found in the Owens Valley.

Berkeley (12/8/07)

Headed out to Berzerkley for some messing around on some rocks.

I saw Mark, Ben (two of em ;)), Gabi, Simon and a whole bunch of other people who would otherwise be in the valley :)

We warmed up on indian rocks, doing a whole slew of the eleminates on the steep wall where the bubble resides. I almost got this cool huge dyno that was fun and did a few of the other problems.

Then headed up to mortor and I got in a few good go's on the 'impossible wall' standard start. I shoulda had the thing, but I just got too tired after a few hard go's.

no climbing last weekend

didn't get anywhere, i was a lazy piece of shit, i planned on going, but i never went heh... i'll post a few pics here of a few weekends ago in the valley.

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

Rainbow/Donner 10/27

headed up to Donner/Rainbow after, well after a nights sleep after the concord comp.

drive was not bad, we had Brett, Pascale, Taz and myself.

I brought them to the yosemite boulder near the 1070 house, we got on all the good problems, brett got sweet n' low, I worked out some of the moves on it and made some progress. Pascale got on the rail crack and owned the thing, she was a really strong climber and did really well, considering she said she had never done anything over a v1, she cranked out the v4 rail ;) good job!!!

we then headed up to a project I found a few weeks ago. we worked out the stand start, but the sick sit start was.. how you say... haaaaaarrrrd Pascale actually had an easier time with the lower moves because she was a bit shorter then brett and myself.

after that, we headed up to donner summit to get on white lines! I made negative progress on the problem :( , brett was able to make it up to the slopey ledge and making the move out to the face holds, and Pascale was able to get some of the hard first moves worked out.

we gave up on white lines since it had been in the sun all day, we decided to head back out to rainbow and go the jawbone boulder. we got over there and did a whole slew of the awesome problems around there; the lone asthetic arete, the short bulge and a few of the slab problems. Pascale was ripping it up on the steeper stuff, mad props to her for working out a few v4's that took me a while to get ;)

brett got some awesome progress on ismael, he got up to the sloper and he got up to but did not latch the layback/crack that gets you over the lip. i did not make much progress besides working out some better footwork, i was pretty beat from the day and my muscles stopped working!

had a great trip with brett, pascale taz and myself.

Castle Rock State Park

Well, Brett & I were thinking about heading to the valley for the whole weekend, but I had a party friday night and got wasted... was not going to make a drive up to the valley after I had only 2 hours of sleep. we decided not to drive up sunday either, but decided instead to do a session at Castle Rock.

i was soo lazy on sunday, that I barley was able to head out to the castle that is the rock. i had been ughmm *COUGH COUGH* being lazy all day with the dog, took him to the park to get some excersize out of him and see if there were any weekend hotties, sat around and read 'watchmen' by Alan Moore (great book by the way) till it was about 2pm, we were tenativley meetin around "3ish".

drove out to the park and got there around 3:30p. headed up to the magoo's to meetup with Brett. warmed up on Mr Magoo, screwed around on some misc stuff, and then cranked out Bates Problem. its a decent problem, the stand is just one hard crimp move up to a decent sloper, then easy topoout.

we then decided to hitup the hueco wall. this is a pretty cool problem; sit start on large hueco, hit intermediate hueco, then bump up to bigger/decent hueco with a little incut option on it. then setup for a huge move up to a huge jug, pretty fun crankin off the not-too-great hueco. i didn't get the problem, but on my last ditch attempt, i got up and overshot the huge jug :*( next time gadget...

then headed over to bates arete, this is such a cool classic problem, definatley one of the best problems at the park there.

after that Brett wanted to get on 'cave route' witch looked sweet as hell and I worked out some of the moves, but was beat by then; the climb goes up some large jugs to a hueco undercling witch you get this high foot and use a lot of body tension to slap up the arete to a decent notch/hold and then hump up the arete ;)

I had a great time in Castle, I usually hate the place, but we got on some of the good problems and I had a really fun time, it have me a new perspective on the area and I actually like it now :)

stoneface park..

well, i was supposed to head to tahoe with brett to get on white lines but i had some stuff to do on sunday, so we didn't head out.

i felt an itch to get on some rock still though, so i decided to head out to berkeley to kill a few hours on the rocks there.

i went to stoneface park, i had seen it before but never really went to check it out. the boulder there is actually pretty sweet. there are a decent amount of trees on the steeper side, but i got on two problems there.

one is 'the great stone face'. v4 stand/v7 sit. the sit starts on a layback rail, then look like goes to a pocket and then to a decent pinch jug. from there, it is the stand start of a big move up to a good edge then you hit the top sloper and jug. fun problem, i did the stand but didn't really get on the sit.

the other problem, i dunno the name, but it starts on a large shelf than goes to two underclings, then a left hand crimp, to another undercling and then you hit the top and its an easy topout. this was a fun problem that went up the 'face' on the boulder.

didn't really get on anything else, just started a little project and then headed out.. hella little kiddies walking around swordfighting with sticks heh, funny stuff.

all in all, i was glad i was able to get out for even a little bit.

-bler

Castle Boulder, Tahoe, CA

WOW, let me start by saying, this boulder could quite possibly be the coolest boulder I have seen to date, this boulder has everything, from jug-hauls to projects :

Castle Boulder

I headed up late fri with taz, maybe 11pm and arrived at rainbow at maybe 2am. I passed out early.

I woke up maybe at like 9am, warmed up on the 1070 boulder. I got on the dihedral, got some good progress on it, considered it my warmup and headed on over to Ishmael. I got down the first few moves, and realized that it is quite a strong problem so I decided to head on and find the Castle Boulder.

When I arrived at the Castle Boulder, after a decent drive through about 4 miles of dirt road (you want some clearance, but my little 2wd pickup made it with minimal scrapage), I saw a truck already parked there. I headed up to find Lyn, Paul, Tim and Patti already there!

Tim gave me the roundup of all the problems on the boulder. Let me say, this boulder is as big as a two-story house and has every thing from a perfect verticle patina face, to steep stuff.

(WARNING BETA ON PROBLEMS)

I got on Spicy and got it after a few tries, its a cool problem that goes up some somewhat strong moves to a shelf, then a big move up to a mini-apron. You then use some garbage on the apron to gain a decent hold in the back of the seam and then highstep up to the apron and go up the jugs. Awesome problem, definatley a classic on the boulder.

Then got on Trojan Horse, a sweet problem that goes up and over to the right on some decent holds, then there is a lot of beta through many various holds to gain a decent sloper, then up to some pockets. Didn't get the problem, but it is a cool one.

Then got on Come on Tex, a cool problem that goes up some opposing facing jug sidepulls with good feet that uses a lot of body tension, up to a good edge and a triangle hold. you can get a really good knee bar in there and reach right up to the lip. I got up and over the lip on sunday night, but was soo tired I couldn't pull the mantle, o' well :) next time

(OK BETA OVER)

So all the problems were really cool. I headed out, got some awesome all you can eat mongolian bbq/chinese, just outside 89 before you get into truckee. after eating, I was soo tired, so I decided to drive up to the top of snowshed parking lot. I was able to back in with the truck and face out with an awesome view, it was soo cool. I passed out real quick like ;)

The next morning I grabbed some food and gas and headed back to the boulder.

This time a few more people were there, a few locals and then some REAL locals.

I got back onto Trojan Horse, but I straight popped off this big slope while I had a heelhook and it looked like a really bad fall, and could quite have been, but I had my right hand on a straight jug and was able to control the fall somewhat. thanks for the great spotting guys.

I got on another problem, Pit and the Pendulum, and was able to work out all the moves on it, but not able to link it up. I can see why its named that because you almost have to cut your feet and swing over this pit, witch is not a bad landing when padded.

I was pretty beat, so I messed around on some other things. I got back on Come on Tex, and got up to the lip and over it, but I was soo tired.. After that I decided I was done and just helped out and watched. Tim got on the project, I really don't know what to say about it.. it is sickness. We climbed as much as we could, then decided it was a day.

Hetch Hechey

Well, I headed to Hetch Hechey to locate some bouldering around there.

We rode bikes in from Camp Mather, so I was pretty tired and didn't get to do a whole huge amount of exploring, but I did find a few sweet projects along the road down there.

But I did find a decent moderate rock witch I aptly named after my friend who invited me to the Strawberry music festival, 'buck rock'.

Put up a few lines on it, Buck's Way (vb/v0), a slabby/edge route that went at like v2, another decent slab route at like v3(slobadon), and then two steeper problems probably at like v3(bluegrass country) as well.. a decent rock worth visiting and warming up on if your in the area.

To get there, take the trail out (maybe 1.5-2mi) till it starts to go up a hill then hits a little plateau, keep walking and you will pass this obvious boulder.


GPS : W119 47'4.15" N37 57'28.15"

bear valley epic

(me on the Bear Valley project)
(photo courtsey of : Daniel)

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well, brett, scott, taz and i headed up to bear valley for the http://www.adventuresportsfestival.com/ bouldering competition at hells kitchen.

we headed up saturday in the later morning, the comp didn't start till 4, so we figured we would take our time. but just as we got almost arnold, the road was blocked. there were apparently 4 roadside fires that blocked the road. we almost turned around because they said it would be 4-5 hours until they opened the road again. it still was about 3 hours. needless to say we did not get to the comp untill around 7.

right off the road was a boulder that seemed to house some potential. i checked it out and there was a cool sloper problem on the left, and a project up the middle of the face. the sloper problem was pretty cool 'g-ma', my tips got thrashed up on the coarse granite up there, its really fucking gritty.

there was a really cool project that started low, went up to a decent crescent, then went up to a pretty henius gaston, and then big reach out to a sidepull, where it is really hard to get your feet set up and hard to crank just on the gaston with your left arm. it didn't go down while we were there, but it will eventually.

we stayed the night and next morning walked around, but needless to say did not find a whole huge amount of potential there for really good bouldering. it was really slopey, gritty with minimal features. but i'm sure there is a few gems out there and probaly a decent little colony of sickness.

so fucking stoked

so fucking stoked to get out and climb again.. been doing well in the gym getting in shape..

going to be up in hetchy the memorial day weekend, I got the DL on the area from Tim Tuomey, he guided me to the best bouldering area he had found..

can't wait to get out and develop some problems out there in the awesome fjord

The season is coming upon us..

been training a bunch latley, working on stretching/balance/core

ready to start heading up to tahoe, then bishop and yos...

what the hell is going on here?

well.. not much.. as you can see..

been getting back into it.. got sat/sun off, so the weekends in the valley will be starting up soon..

went to mortor and did some laps on the ramp, good to get back out on real rock and grate my tips up.

lemme know if you do wanna go climbing with me.. probably stay local untill it gets good in the valle.

Climbing ? whats that ?

Yah, been quite a while since I've been climbing.. but been keeping in shape and working hard to fix my bad posture/shoulder.. been trying to build strengh in it and workin on stretching/flexibility/core strenght.

waiting on the spring temps coming through and for me to start working a steady M-F 9-6 job.... yay heh

Yos (april 13,14)

Cave Route/Sentinals

Went up to the valley for the weekend with Scott Monica and Drew Dog..

We started at the Sentinals at the midget boulders to warmup on. Scott brought me over to a problem he had put up a while ago (Sent Arete) that was really cool, it has some technical/powerfull moves down low, then some really technical moves to gain the lip. I found some new beta that may make it a lil bit easier. the line is definatley ***.

We then headed down to the B1 boulder and I got on No Holds Bard & Cave Route, both great problems. I got beat up so I didn't finish either of them, but I got most of the moves worked out. I had some trouble with the first strong move of No Holds Bard.

We then headed in for the evening to camp.

Saturday morning looked like it was pretty overcast, and we didn't really get an early start. We headed to Camp4, warmed up at the wine boulders then headed to the Goodrich Boulder to get on Tendons Give. This problem is awesome; long, pumpy, with a definate crux in the middle. I had worked out some of the moves a while ago, but I put it all together to get all the way up to the last few moves, but my lack of endurance pumped me out. I can't wait to get back on it and blast through the thing :)

I did a problem that may be a new one, it starts on the lowest jug just after the crux of Tendons Give. It goes up to the crimp you use for Tendons, and then you use a crimp in the small seam and another little fin to gain a good jug up top and a fun mantle. If it was an FA, I am naming it Moss Monkey.. I think it went at v4 maybe because it used some smaller overhanging crimps.. no one else around tried the problem, so it will need a repeat to get a solid grade. We did get rained out and spend the rest of the day at camp.

While drinking i was upset because we got rained out and decided to go check out this project I have seen a few times a little better. It is awesome; starts on a prow, matched on this huge pinch. you then move to to another pinch that is a flake with your right hand. then move to this undercling/gaston thing. then it looks like you grab some bad sloper pinches and the crux is through here to get to a really good ledge (hasn't been cleaned yet, so there may be more then meets the eye). from here you mantle and then a little slab bit.

I had to head back home; luckily enough I made it back home through the snow without getting stuck in the valley and missing work the next day :)

An awesome trip ! And I'm so glad to get back into climbing and be out in Yos again :)

Stinson/Mickey's

Z and I headed to Mickeys & Stinson on friday.

we hitup stinson first. we headed to the are you experienced boulder and got on the v4 arete first. the sit-start seemed like it was pretty hard, you start on a decent shelf and then huck up to an undercling. I was able to find a decent edge to avoid the huge undercling move, but this was my warmup and the crimps weren't feeling so great so we decided to move onto another problem. Next we got on this cool problem called 'super slope'. you start on good holds, then move out to a gaston, where you get a heel hook and rock all the way up to this huge bulge. but it's not over yet.. you then move to the lip witch is just bad slopers :( didn't get the finish, but the bottom steep moves are great fun.

We then headed over to the south-side and got on High Rev Motorsports.. neither of us got it, but we made some good progress... I started some work on a crack problem that goes up the north face..

great day of climbing, espically since it had been quite a long while since i've climbed !!

YAY Z :) looking forward to getting out to the valley soon :)

yah, i stopped climbing..

for just a bit.. i think i need to do some fixing on my shoulder and this time off is good for it, although it will hurt my strength horribly. I got a lot of shit that I want to do in the valley this season and a lot of new stuff and a lot of stuff for the website.

i think i'm going to finally get back into it after a few months off from.. yah stupid shit.

been working hard on the betabase website design.. hopefully randy will do some sick backend programming for it, so we get all the cool jazzy stuff.

well...

it's been definatley over a month that I have climbed outdoors.. I cut my hand and that put me out for a bit, but then a few weeks ago, I got this huge lockup of some muscles in my back.. this was a major pain in the ass and they were locked up for good week.. laura was able to massage them back to a better state and I used some muscle relaxors (I hate those f'ing things, but I got some mild ones that the Dr. said would do some good to help unlock the muscle and have very little mental side effects.) to help as well.

So i've been out of the climbing scene for a bit, but I have been working with Paul on the new BetaBase site witch I am stoked on and it should be a really really cool resource for yosemite/tahoe boulderers.

hopefully I will be able to get out and climb.. and probably not this weekend (may try to get to mickeys/stinson or mortor this saturday) but the weekend after.. soon gadget.. sooon !!! hehe

Healing

Well, the wound seems to be healing well, but the weather seems to be fairing poorly. Should be almost fully healed (in climbing condition) for this weekend.

Hopefully there will be a break in the weather for fri/sat and I can make a trip to Stinson Beach or somewhere nearby.

Confirmed.

Well, the Dr. took a look at my wound yesterday and bandaged me up a bit better..

but his initial reaction said it all, I definatley needed stitches. He said that it looks pretty good, not infected or anything, but keeping the wound clean and dry and closed is the best and will help it heal much faster. So he used some butter-fly type thing to keep the wound closed so it will heal in a few weeks rather then a few months ;)

I think i'm going to need and take off a week or so from climbing, the better I let it heal, the faster it will heal :(

The Jungle Gym

Well, I headed up to the valley on friday untill saturday with the dogs.

But my trip got cut short and I headed back home friday night.

I went to explore this new area that I had seen last year and wondered if there was potential. I got there and looked around and found a cool arete that I wanted to do. I setup my stuff and then wandered around with the dogs to see what else lie around. There is much potential for problems, but not much steep stuff I saw as of yet, maybe some stuff up the hill a little bit.

I figured I would call this little area 'The Jungle Gym' because it is decently wooded, damp and there is a lot of lichen/moss around.. a little jungle in the yosemite valley.

Soo, onto what cut (literally) my trip short. I was walking back to my spot, when I slipped on something and put my hand down to catch myself.. on a razor sharp edge of a rock ! It cut my palm pretty deep and took a little while to stop the bleeding, but I figured I should just head back home and take care of my wound. I wasn't feeling too well to start the trip out, Laura has just broken up with me, so that is really hard. We had been together for almost two years now, and I hope that she will reconsider our breakup after she has had some time to herself that she so badly needs.

Yosemite.org Article on Bouldering

http://yosemite.org/newsroom/clips2006/may/051706.htm

Found this article on yosemite.org . Always good to see what others think of our climbing and impact :)

Yosemite Bouldering

(Root Canal ***v7)



Made a trip up to the valley on Friday with Scott, Monica and A-Dog :) had a sweet time !

First headed over to the Awahnee boulders, I got on a cool v2 named 'vague crack' and did this awesome unnamed traverse that went at like v3/v4 (the start to the Myles traverse). Monica got the traverse as well, it was really fun !!

We then headed over to Curry Village. I wanted to get on Root Canal(v7***), a sweet leaning corner/dihedral that has some cool moves, but maybe a little soft for the grade (the crux was pulling off the ground for me). We then wandered around and I put up this cool (v4?) overhanging arete that was also a lot of fun. I named it 'Tree Climbing' because you need to downclimb the tree to get off the boulder ;)

We then headed out of the valley and stopped by this awesome v6*** (Pop Top) near yos falls that had AWESOME moves on it, but no one got the problem. Our excuse... we were too tired ;)

A very very fun trip, hopefully I'll get some pic's to put up soon!

Rainbow, CA (in the snow)

Well, I had a free day yesterday and decided that Taz needed to see some snow. I had been watching the weather and decided that the snow level was low enough to go climb at Rainbow!

I had a great trip, but when I got there, it started to remind me of a experience I had in Rock Creek. I need to buy some snow-shoes :)

First when I got there, I pulled into the usual 'parking' area, only to find out it was completley iced over and my car got stuck in the snow. (2wd yota pickup with hard street tyres). I was fortunatley smart enough to use some towels to gain enough momentum to get out of my prediciment.

After wasting a whole crapload of energy getting my car out, I decided to head over to the Jawbone area. I warmed up on the short slope and bulge next to the jawbone boulder. I wanted to get on Ishmael, but there was ice up at the top, so I figured it could wait.

I started to get on the 'evil arete' but got shutdown because (lame excuse to come...) my shoes were wet ;). I walked over to the other arete of this boulder and found a cool technical crimping problem with GREAT feet that I aptly named 'Righteous Arete' (v5). Lynn and Paul put up 'evil arete' because it was evil and had no feet, so I named this 'Righteous arete' because god gave it good feet :)

The rest of the day I spent hiking around with the dogs and trying this crimper dyno thing that was pretty fun and I almost got.

All in All, a great trip and fun day :)

(update)
Forgot to mention, that it looked like someone had done a sit-start to Ishmael

Black Plague (v6) or Pinkey Paralasys?

Well, a project I had been working on at Mortor Rock finally went, I dunno if this had been done before, the holds I used seemed to be used as gastons on two different problems rather then sidepulls for this 'double arete' bulge problem.

The problem starts just under 'the wave' start on some underclings and uses the first few jugs of 'the wave' to gain two sidepulls to use as a double arete. You then work your way up the bulge to some sharp slopers and topout, the problem has some cool knee-barring techniques. Topping out straight up over the sharp slopers probably goes at like v7, while if you topout right or left on better holds probably goes at v6.

HP40, AL

working moves on Popeye (v5)

Well, on a trip to visit the parents in Georgia, I planned on trying to hitup some of the local bouldering and the classic Horse Pens 40 in Alabama.

The bouldering there is awesome, the rock is bullet hard sandstone, and some of the stuff has little quartz pieces embedded, while other is smooth as glass.

I did some of the classic problems; Bum Boy, Popeye, Hammerhead witch all were great problems with good moves on them. I also got on a couple problems that weren't so great; like Boy Scout Route witch seemed a most contrived problem and a couple v2's that felt more like VB even in my tennies. I even put up a cool new problem out there that requires a huge shouldery move off the bat then some cool moves with a comitting heel hook up an arete, aptly named 'Keebler's Arete' after my family helped with the FA :)

All in all, I really liked this place. I don't know if it would be worth a trip to go to JUST HP40, but a trip to hit-up all the bouldering in the south would be well worth it. This resolved my past experiences with sandstone at castle rock, and HP40 makes castle a choss pile of crap.

Orange Buddah Arete (v8)

Got to go out to Mickey's Beach on friday afternoon before the rain moved in saturday. It was a glorious day and I got a glorious send of one of the best lines out there, 'Orange Buddah Arete' (v8).

Valley 11/4 weekend

Hitup the valley this weekend..

saturday ; got on the 'glass house' area stuff, fun.. then Monica got on Cocaine Corner and got so close to finishing it. We went to try and find the candy-lands, but got a little lost due to road closure, so Monica & Andrew needed to head back to the bay, so Scott and I headed over to curry. I got on Root Canal a sweet dihedrial, and we both cleaned a short arete that Scott got the FA on.

sunday ; we warmed up at camp4, I worked a little bit on blue swede shoes and then we went over to the Thriller boulder. Scott and Lyn got on Thriller while I worked on the Force/Farce. We then headed over to the flatline boulder to do some highballing. We met up with the majority of the yosemite bouldering crew and a bunch of people did the highball. I tried Flat that ends on a jug halfway up the boulder witch had some awesome moves on it.

She Hates Me (v4)

Posts

Well, it has been quite a while since I've posted, but I figured I would post something today. I have been trying to climb a lot latley and been up to tahoe, yos and mickey's beach.

Tahoe has been great, went with scott and got a good stand/jump start to Midnight Train and a cool unnamed climb at the top of snowshed wall.

Just went to yos last weekend and got soo close to a project I have called 'Crossroads Moe'. We have been working on some bouldering development in the valley.

Went to Mickey's Beach and put up three new lines; Wipe Out, She Hates Me and Bye Bye Laura. I got on High Rev Motorsports, but I got shutout by the rising tide getting the holds wet. I also got on Orange Buddah Arete at the end and worked out all the moves and even got to the jugs at top, but was too tired to send the whole thing. Next time...

Yos 4/15

Scott and I headed up to the valley for a day trip, we were to meet Lyn and Paul up there for a day of bouldering.

Scott and I left a little later then planned, but it worked out because when we got there Paul & Lyn had barley got up ;)

First thing, we headed to the wine boulder area to warmup and get on cocaine corner. Lyn and I had both not done cocaine corner, and with a few attempts and some good beta, both got the problem!!! YAY

After that, we headed up to 'sonic wave' aka 'fuck my right bicep'..

Lunchtime... Then headed over to the Crystals where I had a problem that I had found a few months ago and Scott and I cleaned like last month. Paul got the problem and one of the huge jugs that we thought were good came off with a 3' piece of granite..

Paul got the problem and then everyone else got on it and got the problem WOOT :) Its a sweet problem, very technical with the footwork. You have to step through while smearing, what fun.

Scott then showed Paul his problem 'fold your pad' witch is a short, yet wicked hard bulge.

We then warmed down? on another good problem at the crystals that both paul and scott got.

you can see some pictures at Bler Photo and Raw Fingers

untouched

god, its been at least a month since i have been climbing outdoors...

my project remains (hopefully) untouched.. and clean... ready to be sent down this summer..

mantle start into henious slab..

too bad i'm not heading to the valley.. rain this weekend, but bishop (and surrounding areas) the next.. hopefully we will make it out to crystal ridge as well, sounds like a sweet spot..

saw a photo in the new UC mag of Rock Creek (another bishop bouldering area that I want to visit)..

the valley 2/25 to 2/26

headed to the valley for the weekend..

got in fri evening with the GF and setup camp around 11PM.

sat morning got up early and wandered over to mirror lake(almost) to take some pictures and hang with the GF. we then headed back to camp4 to meetup with scott and do the breakefest rituals (coffee, lots of it). after coffee, we headed to the crystals to warmup and I had a project there as well.

at the crystals, scott found a sweet warmup arete and cool (and much charder) stand start direct.

i spent a decent amount of time cleaning my project and trying to figure out the beta. the problem starts standing in a scoop that you mantle into and onto some slab. the slab either continues up about 20' left to a bold, proud topout, or bails out right to a slopey ramp.

after this, laura and I decided to head to get food. upon reaching into my bag to get my keys, I found my car key at a 90* angle. after trying to bend it back, it broke. i spent the rest of the day helplessly at the garage while they looked for a blank that fit my truck (to no avail). the mechanic recomended that I just put the broken key in there and drive it home. the rest of the evening I hung out at camp and cooked dinner. scott went and got another FA of the trip on a project that he had been around and helped clean a few weeks back. i checked it out but was toot tired and hungry to do anymore climbing.

Sunday ; we planned on making the hike to vernal falls. we were hoping to do this via the mist trail, but it was closed for winter that we found out from a ranger.

headed over to the trailhead after packing up camp and started our hike. the dog was not allowed, but we decided that since it was not busy and there were probably not going to be any rangers we would take the dog. it turned out really well.

we started the first part to the bridge and mist trail entrance, but it was locked and gated shut.. do you think that stopped us? hell no. we went up to find a somewhat slippery approach up the stairs that others had ventured up with us. we noticed that it actually got better with less snow once we started to get up to the top!

after reaching a small area blocked from the barrage of cold damp mist, we thought we were home free only to find... the next 20' of stairs were completley covered in 12" of ICE ! and to top it off, there were 6' icicled hanging above our head and saw many that had fallen in the past (some were almost 8" in circumfrance).. haha talk about a hike..

once at the top, we decided to take the 'open' trail back down witch was longer, but not as henious.

the dog loved the hike as we all did and it was quite the adventure that I will never forget.

you can checkout some of my photos at RAW.FOTO

sunday, 2/12

headed up to the valley for some photography and bouldering.. tried to get on 'crossraods moe' and failed agiain, also got on 'athletes die young' and worked all but the big throw..

headed over to the crystals and messed around there and found a cool new scoop problem that i didn't get an probably will go around v4-v5 (forgot the stick brush and trying to clean slab while smearing is, well, can you say, not fun ;) ).. then went to curry village to wander around and see whats out there.. found a cool v2-v3 problem that starts on a large 'chockstone' hence I named it 'chockstone'

Sat 2/11

Well, while wandering around in a nameless are of Mt. Diablo, I found some bouldering potential that I will be working to develop soon!

Bishop 1/27-1/28/06

Made a trip to bishop with Scott C. last weekend.

Got stuck in snow chain requirements on the way down, so it took forever to get there.

All in all, it was a good trip, we didn't get a copious amount of climbing in, but it was still fun.

1/27 ; went to the sads, scott got on 'enter the dragon' and made some great attempts at a brutally hard v10 that has a hard mantle at the end. I got on molly and made some progress but still have not got this (definatley the most projected problem I have). we hitup 'hotpants' on the way out, but I didn't get that either (although I did get most of the beta worked out).

1/28 ; at first we wanted to go the buttermilks, but when we heard that they were snowed in, we thought about going to 'crysta ridge' witch a few people scott had climbed with before were heading. But we decided to go to the petroglyphs because we didn't want to drive so far and then home again(i think it actually took longer to get to the petros instead of crystal ridge).

scott got to go four wheelin in his jetta to get to this place, it was awesome, scott is a four wheelin pro!

we mostly explored and found some other petros and a few good boulders nearby. we found a new line up a slopey rail. i guess i got the FA, because scott found a good edge just beyond the lip that i used to bailout and mantle to the top ;)

we aptly named this problem 'jetta four wheelin' due to our experience just gettting there!

we found some other good stuff and a hard v9-v10 project that we found some people working on.

will post pictures soon

Bishop, 12/26

Made a trip to Bishop with the girlfriend for Dec 25-Dec28th...

Seems to me like the less I care or effert I put into bouldering the better I do ;) go figure..

DID :
Ironman Traverse
Funky Tut
some v6? (with weathered edges) on Tut bldr
and awesome problem at some unknown boulders (near the huge petroglyphs)

Yosemite (12/3/05)

One Move Wonder (v8)Munchkin Lunge (v6)Cocaine Corner (v5)

Bishop (11/12/05)

'on' Ironman Traverse (v4)
'on' Cave Route (v6)

'on' Gleaner (v6)

Joshua (v3)

J-tree

Slick Willy (v2)Campsite #21

Laura, J tree & a boulder

JBMF (v5r)

J tree sunset

Joshua tree is an awesome park witch begs for scrambling and solo'ing !

The rock is gritty and kicked my ass the first day there, leaving my tips and palms bloody.

Yos Bouldering

The Hexcentric (v6)One Move Wonder (v8)Cocaine Corner (v5)

weekend trip to yos.. got on cocaine corner & one move wonder... soo close on both, but shutdown.

next day climbed with lyn and paul, we got on 'the hexentric' and i sent it after only a few tries, woot :) makes up for the shutdown..

scott got 'the king' on his second try (the first his foot slipped when starting) and another crazy jump start v9

saddle boulders

went to the saddles, i got a few decent v4's.. the area has a lot of potential.. scott almost got 'midnight train' , a sweet v7.

we went to the snowshed boulders and found a sweet v5? rail that was a lot of fun.

rainbow

'the slope' next to ishmael boulder (v4?)

Evil Arete (v5/6)

'unknown' Sugar Cube (v5)

'unknown' Sugar Cube (v3)

ahhh, rest...

Rainbow has some awesome bouldering !!!

Checkout the 1070 boulders, the sugar cube boulder(just next to the 1070 house) is home to some awesome problems.

secrets & bliss

bouldering crueunknown (v3?)

'Oh Yah', night bouldering

went to the secrets with liane, scott got clandestino (v7).. i was still injured so i layed low, but got on a few good repeats at the secrets and this sweet problem at bliss..

why ask why

Don't you just hate it when what you absolutley do not want happen does ?

Injury blows the big one, and espically when your climbing hard. But what can you do ? I injured myself on 'the bubble' at indian rocks establishing in the pocket.

I guess there is nothing to do but RICE it and work on my other weaknesses such as core strengths. Give it a few weeks then wean back into it !

YAY injury !

shhh, its a secret

Ever get tired of a million people bouldering next to you outside and feeling like your at a gym ? Ever wait in line to have a try at a boulder problem ? Feel like your bouldering at the happys ? Well, you will never deal with that at 'The Secrets'. In the cource of a whole weekend there we saw three total people and only one there to do any sort of 'actual' climbing.

Scott and I visited this area and got in some great climbing. The rock here, is.. well.. bomber, granite, tough, gritty, knobs, typical tahoe granite.

Saturday we visited The Sticks & The Mystics, both great bouldering areas. Both Scott and I got FA's (Moonshadow [Scott] & Flesh Wound [Me]) on some great problems.

Sunday we visited The Snags, witch also had great bouldering.