Disco Diva, Bogus V2s, and Bloody Knuckles
With the Buttermilks still snowed under, I went out to the Happys again. Warmed up on a couple juggers before joining a group of people at the Happiness Boulder. One of the guys was working on Hulk (V6). I set up next to him and started work on my first project, Disco Diva (V8) and promptly gave myself bloody knuckles, as evidenced above.
I could have boosted contrast and colors to make it look goreier than it is, but I’m all about truth in journalism, kids.
After linking up the moves up to the crux on Disco Diva, I called it a day and moved on to Kling and Smirk (V2), which completely shut me down the other day. Honestly, the grade in the guidebook must be a typo. Its NOT a V2. But since it is rated a V2, I couldn’t walk away from this one at the end of my stay here. So, much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hairs, falling down and plenty of kicking sand at it, I finally figured out how to link past the crux and found myself scrambling out for the top.
I’ll probably head out there again tomorrow, but I wont be climbing. I’ll be doing photos. I should have many more to share with y’all tmrw.
Sunrise on Mt. Tom
If you were to step off my sidewalk onto the street in front of my house and look directly west, you’d see this visually stunning peak standing guard over the town. Its called Mt. Tom, and gets its name from the Thomas Creek that runs by it.
I got the idea one day that it’d be cool to hike up to the very summit one day. But it looks rather intidimating. All that snow and steep ravines. I looked around online and the general word seems to be that it is not a difficult climb, just long and strenous, given that it rises almost 10,000 feet above the valley floor.
I’m going to try to talk to some people around here, see if I find some more information about how to get to the summit, and mabye one day this spring, I’ll just hike up that dang thing.
Cold Morning Sun In Bishop
Even though I’m over in the Pacific Time Zone, I’ve been keeping my schedule on the Eastern Time Zone, primarily for my employer (which still is back in Virginia). So that means I get up at 5-6am and turn in at 10pm.
It’s really a total turn-around from the typical schedule I kept when living in the big-city. I’d be out late and stumble into work at 10am.
This morning when walking over to get my cup of coffee from the Looney Bean coffee shop, I saw this amazing sunrise. Its almost as if the cold frosty clouds are being blasted to bits by the incoming morning sun.
Bishop Climbing Report #1
First things first… Adam, one of the sweetest friends one could ever have, sent a postcard of San Francisco to my new mailbox here in Bishop. It arrived yesterday afternoon. I promptly posted it up on the kitchen wall next to the refrigerator. (I dont have refrigerator magnets, duh…)
The previous residents put up a lot of nails in the walls around this house. They’re still up there and when I’m puttering around the house, I find myself looking at those nails and wondering what used to hang off those nails. I decided that I’d follow their vision and find something to hang off every nail in this house before I move out. The postcard is the first.
Today was the first day since I got here in Bishop that I didn’t have anything related to work, or moving in to take care of. The whole day was my oyster, to speak of.
With clear sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s, I said to myself that I came all the way out here to climb, and I still haven’t climbed? What’s up with that?? I located my climbing shoes, threw the crash pad in the car and drove out to the Happys. I was really anxious about this very first day of climbing. I was afraid of just how rusty I would be. I haven’t really climbed seriously since last spring and I’d been hitting the gym every once a while, but really just minimal maintenance.
So the baseline to compare myself against, would be the problems I climbed the last time I was here, Thanksgiving weekend 2006. How badly would I compare, that was the question.
I hiked up the long approach trail and made my way to the Solarium (V3). The sun was shining brightly but the winds were strong and chilly. I warmed up on a juggy problem next to Solarium to get my fingers loosened up. I was feeling good, I’d give Solarium a try - it is rated at V3, but its really more out of tradition considering its such a classic problem - than the actual grade. It’s more like a really hard V3, or more appropriately, a V4.
Sent it.
So, okay. I was doing better than I expected. Looked to my left and saw Big Chicken (V2). Always a fun problem, no matter how many times I’ve done it. I repeated it and it was actually a bit easier than I remembered it.
I stepped back and looked at the problem to the left. One of the classic problems in the area, Hulk (V6). It’d been a longstanding project for me before I finally sent it the last time I was here. It was (then) the hardest problem I’d ever done in Bishop. I truthfully did not think I was in any shape to attempt to repeat Hulk.
Or was I? I told myself it couldn’t hurt to try. I chalked up and sat down at the starting holds and started to recall the sequence of holds long buried in my mind. I got up to the crux before missing the hold completely and finding myself on the ground.
I turned to look at the holds at the crux and it became clear to me that I most likely could do it. It wouldn’t be easy, but I had the strength to pull it off, just barely enough. The question would be how many attempts I’d have to stick the crux move, before I became too fatigued for the day?
Threw myself on the problem over and over. The sun dipped lower and lower in the sky. Soon it would disappear behind the canyon walls and it’d get too cold to continue. I was racing not only against fatigue but time as well.
After countless of attempts, I tried a slightly different foot positioning and found it to be much better. I knew I’d get it in the next few tries.
Three tries later I found myself in a static lock-off, one hand on the crux hold and the other on the little sidepull. I’d done the hard part. Now I just needed to pull myself to the top of the boulder. And I was TIRED. I summoned up every last reserve I had to pull myself up the last two holds before clambering over on top of the boulder, screaming to the sky, ‘HELL YES!’
I was so pumped after this, I could only muster enough effort to send another problem, Ketron Classic (V4). And now my arms were jelly. I packed up my crash pad and walked back to the car. It was a great first day, and I look forward to the many days to come.
- Solarium (V3)
- Big Chicken (V2)
- Hulk (V6)
- Ketron Classic (V4)
There’s a weather warning posted for the area. A big snow storm system is moving in the area and should hit the mountains with at least 2-3 feet of snow and bring generally horrid conditions for the next two days.
I’ll get pictures, of course!
Icy Morning in Bishop
I woke up this morning to find everything covered with snow and ice. And of course, have a camera, have pictures for all of you, my readers.
Mile 3579: Bishop!
I actually rolled into Bishop yesterday morning at 6am. The first official order of business I conducted in Bishop was to deposit a check at the local Bank of America.
So you can imagine me being all bleary eyed and half-cocked from driving 10 hours through the Sierras on a single lane highway. Shambling into town with the pre-dawn light peeking up from the mountains after a 3500 mile drive over 10 days and the first thing I do is deposit a check. But hey, money’s gotta go where its gotta go.
Here’s a rundown on the total statistics as per my Garmin GPS unit.
- Total Miles: 3579.5
- Moving Average: 64.1 mph
- Moving Time: 55 hours 50 minutes.
- Max Speed: 112 mph (somewhere on I-10 in Texas)
Other random statistics I should share.
- Roadkill: 1,254 (95% of it being in Texas)
- Biggest roadkill: Looked to be a horse carcass (again in Texas)
- Highest Legal Speed Limit: 80mph (again, Texas)
- Crazy motherfucking dog chasing cars in the middle of the interstate (yup, Texas): 1
- Nights I slept in my car: 2
- Car accidents/wrecks seen: 4
- Amount spent on gasoline: $386.34
Sooo.. second order of business was to find a place to live. I needed to rent, and I needed to rent now. I didn’t want to spend another night in my car for a long time.
I found two places the first day - looked at both places and picked up applications. I didn’t have a good feeling about either place however because the landlords were looking for something longer than a 4 month stay I was looking for. I turned in the applications anyway and at the end of the day I realized I’d need to stay somewhere. I checked into this motel. The short native-american woman at the counter gave me my room key, #2 and said “checkout is at 10am”.
I was feeling kind of dejected. What if it took weeks to find a place? I didn’t want to spend $55 a night sleeping in motels. The other option was to head out to the winter campsite where the climbers hang out and sleep there. I did have a sleeping bag but no tent. So I’d need to buy one. And truthfully I didn’t want to spend my nights out there - because in the desert, the nights get to be really really cold. The part I hated most about my past Bishop climbing trips were the cold nights. And I wasn’t looking to relieve that experience.
I opened the door to my motel room and found myself in a tiny 8×8 room. A TV perched over the foot of the bed. I peeked into the bathroom. It was a little thing of a bathroom, barely any space for moving around once the toilet and sink had taken up their spaces. At least it was clean, I thought to myself.
I pulled back the sheets to the bed, expecting to find some natty old sheets. But they were clean, soft and comfortable. I laid down, thinking to myself that it could have been worse. But I really wanted to get a place. I kept thinking that if things just went so badly, and I’d be forced to head to S.F. earlier than I expected. I didn’t want to do that. I told myself the next day would be better and went to sleep.
I woke up early the next morning feeling tremendously better. I now think it was the overall fatigue from all that driving that had gotten me into that little bout of desperation.
I headed over to this property management company that I had discovered the other day (but were closed). Explaining my situation to the woman there, she waved her hands and said, “not a problem, we’ll get something for you.” We drove out to look at two places and after seeing the second place, I told her I wanted the first place we looked at. She said to come back in 3 hours and sign the papers.
I started to have hope that I’d not need to check back into that motel again.
Three hours later, I had the keys to the place and I stood there at the doorway, not quite believing it. It’s a cozy little 1BR cottage a few blocks off the main street in the city. It has a spacious front yard, back yard, and my own private parking spot. And it’s unbelievably cheap. Basically almost half what I was paying for a single bedroom in D.C.
W. Pine Street (the street that the cottage is located on). You can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Bishop High School is on the right.
View of the cottage from the driveway entrance. Its so small that the trees and bushes obscure it almost completely.
Front view of the cottage.
The kitchen. Note the new Martha Stewart dishware from K-Mart. They’re actually quite awesome and I like them a lot.
The living room. I’ll be using this area for working.
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Annnnd, the bedroom. The love cove. The room where the magic happens.
I haven’t had time to get out and explore Bishop (as in take pictures). But that’ll be coming soon now that I’ve finally gotten a place and can begin to settle down.
And I need to actually do what I came here to do. Go bouldering.
Whee!!
Mile 2932: Leaving Tucson, Making Decisions
I’d planned on staying in Tucson only until Friday night, then I’d head up to Utah for the weekend, taking in the sights, doing photography and traveling towards Vegas. But my uncle’s spread in Tucson was so nice, and enjoying home-cooked meals and relaxing all day long, I extended my stay one day, two days into Sunday. 
I didn’t want to have to worry about work while traveling through Utah. Also after 10 days on the road, I was getting a bit tired of driving and living on gas-station food. 
So I made the decision to head directly to Bishop. I’d make a trip to Utah sometime in the next month over a weekend. It’s not that far. 8 hours drive. 
After watching the New England Patriots run down the hapless San Diego Chargers, I threw my stuff in the car, bid my dad and uncle farewell and sprinted for the outskirts of Los Angeles.At one gas station just outside of Los Angeles, I was fascinated by this shrine built up around the Blessed Mother Mary sitting on the side of the road. 
Exiting off I-10, I began the final leg of the journey, the 200 mile drive up US-395 to Bishop.
Mile 2789: Gay Rodeo Night
This night didn’t just start off slow and pick up. It just slammed into high-gear and didn’t stop till I passed out on the floor of my friend’s apartment.
Mile 2683: Tucson’s Gone To The Dogs
Arrived into Tucson last night from El Paso. While my dad and great uncle headed out to play golf, I stayed in the house and caught up on work stuff.
I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of Sadie, however.
Mile 2324: Make Like The Wind To El Paso
Boy! I’m ready to put Texas behind me! I spent a lazy day in Austin with a friend and his family. He’d bought a house down there, packed up his entire family - kids and all and moved them down there from Minneapolis. I spent the day teaching his daughter how to play hopstoch, threw ball with the family dog, and discussed new-house-buying-experiences with my friend. Didn’t even pick up the camera. Quite a u-turn from the photo-extravaganza and party-till-you-drop weekend in Lousiana with the Tulliers.
I got up early this morning to make the straight shot from Austin to El Paso. Tomorrow will be a short (relatively) four-hour drive to Tucson where I’ll get a few rounds of golf in with family.
I made sure to stop and grab pictures along the way. Enjoy!
