A Mighty Wind

Josh had Tuesday through Thursday off this week so I lured him in to taking Watson on a backpacking trip with me up in the mountains near Bishop. We planned to drive up on Tuesday and get a permit for a single overnight in the Little Lakes Valley area. With permit in hand we would go for a little hike, and camp near the Buttermilks before heading in to the wilderness on Wednesday.

Well, Tuesday went to plan: we got up to Bishop around 3:30 and got our permit in short order. After a walk across the street to grab some chili cheese bread, we then headed up to South Lake to go for a short hike. I was hoping we'd be able to get up to one of the lakes on the way up to Bishop Pass. But we only started hiking around 5:15, so when we had not reached the lake by 6:30 we turned around. I had no desire to be out after dark. We headed back down to the car and went to go find a place to camp. We drove over to the Buttermilks and set up camp after a brief walk around the boulders.




The night was very nice, warm and still and I slept well until around 2:30am. And then the wind started....

We spent a restless night until the light of damn began to grow. The wind never abated and made the tent very loud. Watson did rather well with all the noise and failed to freak out as Josh sort of feared. There was some really nice light on the surrounding mountains, however this was largely due to the very ominous clouds looming over the high country.



We were feeling rather doubtful about the weather and decided to drive into Bishop to see if we could find a weather forecast. I was fully prepared to hike around in the rain, but I didn't really want to, especially with the dog. We failed to find a forecast in Bishop perhaps because it was only 6am. So we decide to bag our plans for overnight hiking and instead head up to Mono Lake and check that out since Josh had never seen it before. Mono Lake was just as interesting as it ever is although the cloud cover rendered the light a bit too poor for good photography.

The wind kept up the whole day and at the Mono Lake visitor center Josh heard that there would be gust of up to 70mph up in the high country. This made our decision to head back to LA very easy. We went to the Tioga Gas Mart for some excellent lunch food to fuel us for the drive home. We stopped in Bishop again on the way south for some gas and a bakery visit. And then we drove back to LA fighting wind gusts the whole way. It was crazy how windy it was all the way from Bishop to Palmdale.

Yesterday, Josh and I hung out and made plans for my birthday on Saturday. We are going to go to a Dodger's game and then have a steak dinner with some awesome beers that we have been saving up. In the evening, we went shopping for food for Saturday, watched the first game of the NBA finals and then organized our current store of beer, aka "the cellar", aka "Josh's closet".

Today, I am going to head back to Stoney Point for some more bouldering to try to get a little bit more exercise than I have been getting recently. I should probably go for a run sometime soon also so that I don't get to weak in the legs. I have big plans for August that depend on lots of walking. In fact I will be detailing my plans very soon in this space.

I am STRONG...

My skin is not.

[WARNING: MONSTER POST]

Today was one of my best days ever bouldering, but my finger tips are pretty beat up and I am going to have to cut my trip up here a bit short and head back to LA tomorrow morning after picking up some bread at Schatz. If I were to try to climb tomorrow I would need to tape all four tips on my left hand. And it is pretty hard to take yourself seriously as a climber with your whole hand taped up. As you know it is all about image with me.

(Scroll down for pictures now if climbing details tend to make your eyes glaze over...)

I climbed at the Sad boulders today and explored some stuff farther up the canyon from the last time I was there. My car was the only one in the parking lot this morning, I guess everyone fled the rising temps and went up to the higher elevation areas. I hiked in staying high on the east rim of the canyon to avoid the cramped caves and passages of the canyon center. I descended down to the canyon floor around the Molly boulder. I tried the Molly problem last time I was at the Sads, but it is very hard for me. I stared at the problem a bit as I walked by making angry faces at it. Since I had such a good day climbing after that I may have to make this a ritual when I climb at the Sads. Hike in, curse out Molly that heartless b*tch, and climb hard. Sounds like a plan.

I wandered further up canyon looking for the Sad Parrot area. The first problem I found in that area was The Fang on the Birdcage boulder. The fang was a very obvious feature and I had bee looking in the guidebook at a problem to the left of the fang called Feeding Frenzy v7. I was unable to resist and walked up to the boulder and checked out the holds on Feeding Frenzy. Oh they looked so good. Jugs and Heel Hooks and Slopers, Oh MY! It looked very cool and if the boulder was removed from under the problem it would be awesome. It not something you'd really fall on for the most part, but it is difficult to avoid on certain moves. The moves and hold looked to be right up my alley, fitting my strongest style of climbing. But, at this point I had not warmed up yet so I had to walk around the corner to the Sad Parrot boulder. There were a few fun problems there to warm up on and I managed to climb a few of them before giving up and running back down to Feeding Frenzy. There was a v4 traverse that I tried a few time and failed on but I gave up when I felt a whole section of holds creaking as I climbed through them. I felt that was a good sign it was time to try FF if I was ready to rip holds off the wall.

I set up my pad and began to work the moves on FF. The start is relatively easy with huge holds to start on and a long reach from an undercling to a good jug rail. On my first try I got both hands on the jug rail, but when my feet let go of the start holds I swung off the holds. I figured that would be easy to fix so I moved on to try to work the other moves. After a while and a bit of reworking/rethinking I managed to determine a semi-convoluted sequence that would allow me to climb from the jug rail to the finish without hitting the rock below. It involved using a decent pocket six inches lower than a really good one because I could not reach an important hold from the good pocket, and also a really strange upside-down toe hook with a heel cam.

So having figured this out I went back to the start with every intention of sending the whole rig. Unfortunately I swung right off the jug rail again. And again. And again. In the end I had to use a hold I have not even considered yet to prevent myself from swinging wildly when my feet left the start hold. I am not sure why I hadn't considered it, there was plenty of chalk on it! The first time I tried to use that hold I was too confused as to how to use it and I wasn't able to do the crux moves that came after. However, on my next try everything felt great and I didn't fumble around at all, sticking the long move and then bumping to the good hold without having my feet cut. I then engaged the very strange reverse toe hook/heel cam and moved through to the finish, sending my first v7 in Bishop. I was so stoked I let out a little "whoo" of celebration. Nothing like my pig squeal from that video though.

After basking in the post-send glow on top of the boulder for a while, I went in search of more rock to climb. I headed over in the direction of the Ice Caves to try a problem called Erotic Terrorist a v6 that had been recommended to me by Linda and Kenny. I arrived to find a couple from Montreal hanging out in the cave. Ben and Claudia offered to add their pad to mine and give me a bit of a spot too. They loaded me up with beta for the problem which I appreciated. Especially the part where Ben said, "...and after that it's all huge jugs to the top." I always like hearing that.

So, armed with advice and a safe landing zone, I grabbed the start holds and started climbing and much to my surprise I kept going all the way to the top. My first v6 flash. Sweet! It was a very fun climb too. Totally my style just like FF. I even managed to get knee bar in on this one. Somehow my best climbing is done on knee bars. I guess I need to buy a knee pad, get out to Rifle and start sending 5.13s.

After those two sends I was on pretty good high for the day. I chilled out for a bit and got to watch Claudia work on Beefcake a v10. It looked burly and she looked very strong. She didn't manage the send today, but she is linking big sections and I would guess that she'll get it before she leaves as it seems to be her big goal for their stay here. I am assuming that Ben is very strong too, but he has a sprained ankle and is not able to climb or even walk yet. Hopefully he will be healed up before they get to Joe's Valley, because that place rules.

I played around a bit on Mothership Connection (v4) trying to get to the big pocket without letting go of my fingerlock under the boulder, but that wasn't happening and I didn't really like the holds before the big pocket so I went over to try Chizam (v5). I was trying Chizam with my gym slippers on and they were not staying on the foothold when I made the first throw to a sloper. After wasting several burns on those shoes I put on my Katanas aka "The Sendin' Shoes" and sent the problem in two more tries.

After that, I followed Ben and Claudia over to a slightly highball v5 called Strength In Numbers. Now, SIN does not have a good reputation in my mind. I mean the problem is classic with really cool moves to a stimulating finish. However, my friend Kenny pulled a pulley tendon in one of his fingers on the climb and hasn't been able to really climb hard since (5 months?), and SIN is also the climb that Ben hurt his ankle on. Claudia only intended to try out the start moves, which are a bit long and dynamic between good holds. I also gave the start moves a try and managed to climb up to the scary part without too much trouble. I think I could have flashed the problem but I gave it up due to the lack of copious padding and ample spotters. Maybe I'll finish it next time I am out there with a whole crew.

After that I bid adieu to Ben and Claudia and I headed back towards the car intending to find an unnamed v6 problem on a boulder called Hidden Roof. It was not easy to find at all as the name would suggest, and I am pretty sure that I was one of the few folks motivated enough to try to find it. The reason I believe this is that I was checking out the moves on the problem and I found a bird nesting in one of the holds! Not just a nest, mama bird was in there sitting on some eggs. So, I left as quickly and quietly as possible and headed out to the car. It was too warm to climb any more outside of the caves, so I packed it in and headed down to town where I am once again lurking in the Looney Bean Cafe.

Taking stock of my finger tip skin, I realized that climbing tomorrow was a losing proposition, so I am ending this trip on a high note.



Hah! Tricked you! Here's the climbing talk I want everyone to read. I had my best bouldering day so far today. I climbed a v5, flashed a v6 and climbed a v7. I don't know if I am getting stronger or finding problems that suit me better, but I am sure holding out hope that it is more of the former than the latter. Okay, now for more pictures from my hike up to the Druid Stones.

Above is the view of the hike up from the (low clearance vehicle) parking spot.

Below: Some of the Druid Stones.


More Stones.


A view of Bishop and smoke from a wildfire fire to the north.


A view of Bishop and the White Mountains in nice light.


Desert Wildflowers.


Another shot I may love or hate. I haven't decided yet.


Let me know what you think...

...And on the 41st Day He Rested.

Whoo. This is the 41st day of my road trip. That is the longest time I have been out on the road by a factor of about 3. It will be interesting to see how I feel after two or three months, because right now I can hardly believe it has been that long. I don't miss home yet (not that I have one anyway), nor do I feel any need to get back to a "normal" life. I should probably work a bit harder to meet up with partners for my various climbing trips, but it has been just fine so far. I have stopped myself from climbing some high/more scary stuff b/c of a lack of spotters, but that has not prevented me from having fun and occasionally sending some stuff.

So I am back in the Looney Bean enjoying some wireless interweb and flush toilets. This morning I lazed about in the sun eating my breakfast of granola and (rehydrated) powdered milk. I recently tried to explain why I eat granola with powdered milk, since I don't much like powdered milk or granola. Here is the explanation, since I don't have a cooler (and don't want one) powdered milk is great cause it doesn't go bad and doesn't take up too much space. It doesn't taste great but it is not disgusting when rehydrated properly. I like cereal but I am not much of a fan of granola in most cases. However, I am fine with the combo of powdered milk and granola because neither one ruins the other. The powdered milk would ruin my cereal experience, but since I am eating it with granola there is nothing to ruin. And granola would ruin my regular milk and cereal experience, but with powdered milk... See? Makes perfect sense to me.

After breakfast today I drove up into the mountains west of Bishop to see how high I could get before I was stopped by closed roads. I tried driving up to South Lake first and encountered a road closed sign at about 8100 feet. So I parked the car and went for a run up the road as far as I could make it. I must say it was more of a jog for a while since I was heading distinctly uphill at an elevation for which my lungs are not prepared.



I went up the road for a couple miles, at least I hope it was couple miles since I ran for about 24 minutes up hill. I passed several patches of snow covering the road and a truck sized snow blower working on clearing up those snow patches. I finally had to turn around when I encountered a plow working on a stretch of road that was covered with a couple feet of snow. I stopped running the first time my foot sank into the snow up to my ankle. Running shoes are not the best for post holing. (the video in the link is guy I know from Bay Area ultimate, funny since I found it just by doing a google search for "postholing")

The downhill run went faster than the way up. Shocking, I know. Although I felt bad cause the giant snow blower had to stop and back out to let me through since I couldn't get around him. I got back to the car in 21 minutes.

Nice Face, Loser.


I next tried to get up to Lake Sabrina but was again stopped by a road closed sign just past Aspendell (like possibly #1 on my list of place to live). This view was as close as I would get to the mountains today:



Later I am planning to head up to a bouldering area called The Druid Stones. There are supposed to be some good boulders and good views up there. I have never been b/c there is a substantial hike involved in getting up there and I have never had the time or partners interested in going up. I figure it might be a fun hike for the afternoon just to go check it out.

Tonight I plan to camp back at the Pit b/c in the interests of saving my finger tips a bit I will climb at the Sad boulders tomorrow. The rock there is not has harsh on the skin as the Buttermilks. So camping at the Buttermilks and driving down to the Sad boulders is kind of a waste of time/gas vs. the two dollar cost of camping at the pit. I think it might be more cost effective to save the gas money, especially at $3.63 a gallon for the cheaper stuff.

First Two days in Bishop.

Guh. Man I love the Buttermilks, but they do not love me back.

I am chilling in a coffee shop in Bishop right now. I was going to camp up at the Buttermilks so that I wouldn't pay to camp or drive anywhere, but the weather forecast was for lows of 28 in town and wind gusts up to 30mph. I wimped out and have retreated down to town and camping at the Pit. The Pit is at about 4800ft so around 1500ft lower in elevation compared to the Buttermilks, so I am hoping for warmer weather and a bit less wind.

Yesterday I drove up from LA and got to the Buttermilks around 12:45. I immediately jumped out of the car and was blown over by the wind. I got back up, grabbed my pad and spent the next few hours getting beaten down by the climbs I tried while simultaneously being frozen by huge wind gusts and clouds covering the sun. I found a few climbs that I could make some progress on, but nothing that I actually sent. I also found some that rejected me completely i.e. Green Wall Center.

I finally gave up, and headed down to the Happies getting there around 4:45. I went to find Rave a v7 which I decided I could not do at all. The holds are too slick for me. I may need to get a lot stronger for that one. I also tried Gleaner v6 (some other dude) for a little bit and got pretty well shut down, although I was able to pull off the ground so that was a step up from Rave.

So I packed up and went up to Action Figure for another try. Maybe the afternnon I sacrificed to the problem was not a total waste, because I walked right up and sent it on my first try of the day. I was pretty psyched. I was totally unsure what to do next, so wandered around the corner and saw another problem that I had tried back in November called Little Country Girl v6. I had seen a video of some dude climbing it on-line so armed with that information, I attempted to figure it out. And much to my surprise I actually made progress. I figured out all the moves sometime just as the sun was going down. And I managed to just barely miss the finish a few times, before promising myself "one last try" before I had to leave due to failing light. And it almost never happens this way, but I did indeed send it on my last try. I hit the last hard move, got my left foot up, and snatched the final jug catching it with my finger tips. I took a held my breath and bumped my hand deeper into the jug, before breathing a sigh of relief. So that was 2 v6s in 2 hours. A pretty good day for me despite getting pretty well beat down by the Buttermilks.

Today I went back for more abuse at the Buttermilks. I took my sweet time getting ready this morning and finally left the car at 11:00am. I headed over to the Checkerboard area. My oh my does Checkerboard look super amazing. I would love to get on that but I'll need more strength, more spotters and more pads. So I warmed up in the Chess area sending a v0 or two. Then I headed over to Painted Cave v6. This problem is really cool and I made some good progress on it getting to the second to last hold. But I ran out of energy, needing lunch badly, and the sun made the sloping finishing holds a little too slick. So packed up and headed back to the car after ogling a few more problems in the area.

I ate lunch at the car and lazed around on my crash pad, before heading to the Get Carter boulder down the hill. I was there to try Seven Spanish Angels v6 and Get Carter v7. I got out of the car and it was way windy. I walked around the boulder checking out the problems and I was too cold. The wind sapped my motivation. I sat down against the boulder away from the wind and nearly dozed off. I got up to get back in the car and go somewhere else, but as I walked by SSA I felt up the start holds and said "f*ck it!" I grabbed the pad and threw them down, put on my shoes flailed away. I actually managed to make the first move much to my surprise. I kept going and took a nice tumble onto the pads. I gave it a few more trying and made it to the last move but I was unable to work up the courage to set up for the final dyno with no spotters. The last hold I could reach was good but not that good and I knew I could pop off it at any moment. I tried Get Carter but was completely mystified by the start. I bailed and here I am at the Looney Bean accessing the interweb. Tomorrow is a rest day for my muscles and finger tips. I am sure I'll be back here. And I will surely go for a run or a hike or both.

Vengeance will be mine!

Well I have a had a lot of fun in the past several days in and around LA. I went bouldering outside at two different location less than an hour and a half from LA. (Of course there are plenty of locations that are roughly in LA and are still over an hour and a half away) I also drank some good beer with Josh (although some of it was slightly disappointing), and yesterday we bottled our first homebrew. Also yesterday, Josh, Meghan and I sampled some typical Vietnamese food in the Little Saigon section of greater LA under the direction of our culinary guide, Jen. I enjoyed it very much, but I have been told it is not "great" Vietnamese food so I have decided to describe it as typical. In any case it was delicious and went far beyond the most common Vietnamese dish in America, Pho. I have some pictures to post from the second bouldering trip, and I want to describe the beer brewing process from my layman's viewpoint since I have been asked about it several times.

But before I do that I would like to throw up a few thoughts about my last trip to Bishop, because I am going back on Tuesday and I will stay there through Saturday. And this time I AM OUT FOR VENGEANCE!!

Well, not really, but I would like to climb a bit better than I did last time. On my last trip (March 27th-30th) I was there for about three full days of climbing. I wasted one whole afternoon on a climb called Action Figure that is fully within my abilities, but involves a relatively low probability move to stick two of your fingers as deep as you can into a small pocket. I got very close to sending the problem but I am pretty sure that in the end I was defeated because I put some tape on one of my fingers to protect the skin when it was inserted into the pocket. However the tape probably made my finger enough wider that I was never able to get the fingers deep enough into the pocket. Frustrating to say the least. I may try to go back and send it this time around, but then again I might stay away so as not to waste any more time on it. We'll see.

Other than that one semi-wasted afternoon, I was climbing with some folks who are not quite as motivated as me. I have a lot of energy at the crags and I always want to run around and get on as many different problems as I can. This was a much more relaxed pace than I set for myself, but I failed to take advantage of it and get lots of good photos. Instead I managed to climb a few good problems over the course of the trip, but I tried fewer than I might have otherwise. I successfully sent three v3s, the ultra classic Ironman Traverse v4, a less classic but popular v5 called the Anti-Hero Roof, and a v6 called Royal Jelly (I linked to a video of that send [successful climb] here) . Not too bad for me but certainly not up to the mini-rampage I went on at Joe's Valley.

So I am getting excited about the return and trying to decided on some good climbs to aim for. I think I want to stay mostly at the Buttermilks, for two reasons. One is that the area is a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the volcanic tablelands. The other is that it is at a higher elevation so I might find a bit cooler temps there. I am hoping I will find some groups of other climbers around so that I can get a spot on some of the higher problem I am aiming for. If not I will just climb some stuff closer to the ground.

Posting Binge!!!

Okay I have time and more important things to avoid today so I'll be posting plenty. I need to do a beer summary for the last week or so. A review of my trip to Bishop. Maybe a few thoughts about my next week or so and when/where I'll do some climbing. Also I have to post this:


Royal Jelly, V6 on the Beekeeper Boulder, Pollen Grains, Bishop.

In my defense, I don't normally make much noise when I climb, usually only a few screams of frustration here and there. Unlike a lot of folks I don't tend to let out a yell when I hit a hold, but more when I miss a move. And that is what happened here, I thought I was going to miss that finishing hold and I began to scream about it in anticipation, but then it turned out I hit it just right and held on. And yes this boulder problem does not top out, or at least it can but the finish is high up over some rocks and on lichen-y rock that is not climbed often, making it even less appealing than the high finish over rocks already is.