Bishop
Within a matter of 3 days, I had found out about a trip to Bishop and committed to leave on a flight in 2. This was one of the more impromptu trips, I had ever gone on and was happy to tag along with David B.
We flew into SAC’ airport on Sunday and hopped in the cheapest rental which was the Chrysler 200 and made our way up through and past Tahoe. It was still winter, so the most direct pass to bishop (thru Yosemite) was still closed. A very long drive led us in to the PIT Campground at night. This is where we would call home for the next week. Luckily we only had to deal with 1 of the notorious wind storms that happen to grace the pit.
Buttermilks
In the morning, after finding the best coffee shop in town, we stopped as Wilson Eastside Sports to pick up our crashpads. My first taste of the buttermilks is pretty much what I was expecting, amazing views, big boulders, and very sharp rock. The first boulders we went to where the birthday boulders.
- The Prow V2 – big sharp juggy warmup
- Birthday Direct V3 – Tricky and crimpy climb. Took me a couple goes. It had me worried
- Next we went up the hill to the Flyboy area. It’s nestled in between a bunch of boulders.
- Flyboy Sit down Start V8 – Attempt a couple times couldn’t stick the upper crimp
- Flyboy Arete V5 – Really fun powerful Arete
After David flash the Flyboy SDS he attempt some really hard v10’s while I rested and wept about my skin being trashed already. Next, we went over to the open field area of Bowling Pin and Cave Area.
- Cave Route V6 – I was able to flash this using totally different beta than everyone else.
- Bowling Pin Sit V5 – Ate the rest of my skin away.
I realized it was going to be hard trip after day one as crawled in my sleeping bag with vast amount of lotion on my finger tips and ibuprofen in my veins.
Happy Boulders
Waking up with thrashed skin, we went to the Happy boulders, were the rock was a bit more skin friendly. The Happy’s are volcanic tuff that is part of the owen river basin. They are nestled up above the river north of town. This day I focused on mileage and easy high balls, to give me body a nice rest. Problem I got on:
- Heavenly Path V1 – Classic Highball, and probably almost everyone first in the area
- Donky Boy V0 – weird highball on the Heavenly Path Boulder
- High Roads V0 – Arete beside Heavenly Path
- Cross Roads V0 – easy high ball same boulder
- The Hulk V6 – Tried a couple times but I couldn’t stick the big dyno move
- Big Chicken V4 – right of the hulk, I need a confidence booster
- All Nighter V3r – first blood pumping over hung high ball. Broke a hold at the top.
- Still Life V2 – Felt hard at the end of the day. Big reach jugs in the Sad Boulders
- China Doll V0 – Awesome Weird Tuffa in the Sad Boulders
The Happy Boulders – All Nighter from Nalevanko on Vimeo.
Rest day down near Mt Whitney
Now waking up even more thrashed, it was automatically deemed a rest day. We drove down to sightsee and maybe do some really easy sport climbs with great backdrops. The location was town of Lone Pine and Alabama Hills. This area was famous for filming old western movies. It was a pretty alien landscape. We hopped on a huge boulder called the Shark’s Fin. It had Mount Whitney as the back drop. From there we climbed a very weird two pitch route that disintegrated as we climbed. We also found a sweet natural arch that looked like a heart. On the way back we tried to the see the bristlecone pines, but found out the road was closed right before we got to them. Only 2 hrs wasted, but we still got some nice views. Around dusk, we decided to find a spot my cousin Nathan recommend to us. With lots of driving on back roads, we were able to find a awesome hot spring in the middle of nowhere. We celebrated with some beer, however i broke a bottle trying to open it and slice my lip. Then David tripped on barb wire on the way out. These were the bloodiest injury’s of the trip.
Day 4: Almost Owens, but happy’s again instead.
We attempted to do the towering inferno in the ORG, this day, but I gave us bad beta, which ended up with us trapped in the middle of the canyon by a raging waterfall. In the end, we gave up and headed to the Happy’s again, but it was nice hike through the upper canyon, and it’s weird mining structures and geological formations.
At the Happy’s again, I tried some hard problems and David was able to complete his project, Acid Wash V10. I was able to finally stick the easier version of Acid Wash Right V7. Also, we finally climbed a impressive high boulder called black magic, that we saw 2 days prior.
- Corner Route V0 – Juggy Tall Warmup
- Totty Traverse V1 – Great Long Traverse
- Joseph V3 – Fell on my butt but got it 2nd go
- Acid Wash Right V7 – worked me over pretty good, Sticking the feet can still be heart breaking
- Black Magic V3r – Thin and Tall, very techy
- Serengeti V5 – did not make it, skin was having nothing of it
The Happy Boulders – Black Magic from Nalevanko on Vimeo.
Back to the ORG
Now if the correct approach beta, we made our way to the Eldorado Roof Section of the ORG. The approach drops you down into the heart of the gorge, past several old water/power project buildings. As you stay on the road and round a bend, you see a massive face and over hanging roof. We knew we were at the right spot now. I set up my camera to take a time lapse and we started up “the Towering Inferno 5.11+” The traverse pitch was awesome and long. You climb up then across half the roof following this horizontal crack system. Pitch 2 was slightly overhanging face crimps. Pitch 3 was awkward slabby scoops and waves. Pitch 4 was a really hard crimpy dihedral. Pitch 5 was short powerful huck at the top. It took us about 3:30 hrs up and down.
Owens River Gorge – Towering Inferno from Nalevanko on Vimeo.
Day 6: Back to Buttermilks
The Buttermilks called for us on our last day in Bishop and it was decided this would be the best place to ripped off the rest of our skin. Ticklist of the Day:
- Iron Man Traverse V4 – Classic Rail that is visible from the road, it was slick in direct sun light
- The Rising V4 – sharp crimps and slopes, very ouch
- Inner Sanctum V2 – sharp jugs
- Gleaming the Cube V6 – weird awesome 360 heuco move that led me to panic up the V2 section
- Suspended In Silence V5+ – Best highball, Awesome boulder all by itself. Huge Dyno, and some Hard moves near the top. We took part of a Asian send train, which greatly motivated me.
- Jedi Mind Tricks v4 – great block of rock, my body did not want me to complete this.
We got a hotel room for a real shower that night, and had some of the best bbq in Bishop.
Day in the Car
The next morning we drove south of the Sierras, and made our way to Sequoia National Park. The trees were huge. You really can fathom them until you are stand directly below one. At night, we stayed a pretty skuzzy motel , the red roof inn, that apparently had amazingly horrible Yelp Reviews, but for $35 a night we weren’t expecting much.
Yosemite
Our last day, we spent hanging out in Yosemite. Neither of us had been there before, and we were both in awe of the massive granite walls. Yosemite was the really deal and both of us hope to have a adventure there someday in the future.
