Bishop over New Year

Just after Christmas Chas and I headed down to Bishop California for a week of bouldering. It was a cold week to be down there but we still ended up getting a lot done. We set up camp at the Pit, and ended up climbing only at the Happies all week, the Buttermilks were snowed out. I was worried about my injured finger, but I taped it up pretty good, and tried to avoid anything crimpy. Hanging off pockets didn’t hurt it, which was good because the Happies are all about pockets. On our first couple of days we managed a quite a few V4’s and V5’s pretty quickly. Chas was climbing really well for his first real bouldering trip, we didn’t find anything project worthy though. The temps were chilly, it was nice in the sun, but it was really tough when a strong wind was blowing. The forecast looked called for very cold temps and strong gusts, so we thought it would be a good chance to drive up to Mammoth to visit and old friend of Chas’. It was nice to sleep indoors and have a hot shower, but Mammoth was a little too crazy for me, and I was glad to return to Bishop the next day.

Chas sending a V4 "one finger!"



Me pulling on pockets on the west rim

We returned to the Pit to find my tent missing! It had blown away and was lying in a heap a hundred yards away, some people had pinned it down with big rocks. Apparently there had been crazy gusts and lots of people had lost tents, boulder mats and other things during the night. We decided it would be a good call to go in for a motel for the next couple of nights. It was definitely worth it. With a rest day behind us we were climbing really well, at least we thought so when I thought I had flashed a V7! And Chas was close on sending it too, but after about an hour of effort he checked the guide again and it turned out what we were doing was a undocumented traverse into a V2 that probably only clocked in at about V4. We were pretty bummed, but I did manage to flash a couple of V5’s afterwards and then we found a sweet V6 to work on. Its called WORK is a four letter word, up on the west rim. It starts with a powerful  steep move off small pockets to a left hand sloper, then you work your feet over and slap again to a slightly better sloper, hold the tension and bring your right hand up to a slopey dish then slap up to better holds. It was really sweet sequence with each move close to our limit. Chas came the closest to sending, but as dusk approached and the temps dipped below freezing , we knew we’d have to wait on it. That night for new years eve I enjoyed a couple of beers in the motel room and we watched a climbing movie, it was pretty low key, but we knew we had to save ourselves for the project.

The first powerful move of WORK is a four letter word

The next day we had one goal in mind, and after a quick warm-up we headed straight to it. With the beta wired, I knew all I had to do was execute the moves, on my first go I got to the last hard move, then on my next go I got it! I was pleased to have done it quick so I could try some other things. Chas however was getting frustrated on the problem. He worked it for a couple of hours with not much progress. Eventually, much after the point at which I would have given up, he summoned all his strength and got up the thing! I was just as pleased for him as he was. With not much time left in the day or skin left on my fingers, I taped my fingers all the way up and worked on pulling on the pockets as much as I could. I had a ton of fun working a V5, but I couldn’t link it all together (see second video). With another storm forecasted to be on the way, we decided to hit the road that night. We were both really satisfied with our sends. It was just exactly what I needed to get out for a quick trip before school starts up again, thanks Chas!

Me thinking I flashed a V7!

Almost sending a V5

The end of a good trip!