so i was hopin to post this forever ago, but it's been about a month and i can't get ahold of mr. fresh, who has photos. so the trip will be covered in text! plus i'm gonna throw in a little update on recent stuff. so this one will be pretty long....
here's an excerpt from an email i wrote a few days after i got back from bishop:
"got back from bishop two days ago, and returned bearing a shopping cart full of climbing holds for stonewalls! we ended up having to leave early...
but yeah, here's a summary of the trip.
the first few days i spent looking around for somethin hard to work on. kinda devastated my tips, but what evs. the second morning i started workin' on soul slinger. it was really cool, and i spent about 4 days trying it for about half an hour each day, once the sun went down behind the mountains and it was cold enough to get a good grip. the buttermilks area is pretty condition dependent to get a good day in. the rock is grainy and full of crystals, and in the sun, things feel so hard, and it really hurts to climb there. but when it's cold, you can't feel it so much, and magically things are easier. i think it has to do with shoe rubber being stiffer, and also tendons being stiffer, which unfortunately makes them more prone to injury. (but my tendons are doing fine! and recovering nicely from overuse injuries i got over the winter climbing at stonewalls)
anyways, on the fourth day of effort, i found a crystal out left on the problem that was tiny, like barely fit a finger, and fuckin sharp (my left index finger still has a bruise from it), but strangely, it allowed me to get my feet set and finish the problem. i was actually about to call it a day right after i found the new hold, to save my skin for later attempts, but somethin happened that made me feel the time was right. i think i said somethin like, "well, i may only give it one more go... try it later... or fuckin put it away right now." and when i grabbed the final jug i let out this incredible yell that encapsulated so much emotion and excitement. it made me feel so so good to stick that hold.
that was definitely the highlight of the trip, but also the people we met were really cool. we climbed a lot with this guy named J that had been working in yosemite for the last 8 months. and one night we went to the big fire ring in the campground and chilled with 4 girls from sonoma, and some of their friends, and had a blast. we ended up climbin with them the next day for a little bit until one of them rebroke her ankle in a fall. then they headed out. we also chilled with this dude named jamie, who had been living in a tent since october with this kinda crazy girl, but they were really chill and so much fun to talk to. and finally, one day we saw a flyer for a clean up day at the boulders. we ended up doing a lot of trail maintainance(sp?), and that night went to a presentation about some dude who has been climbing on devil's tower for the past forty years. it was really inspiring, and i'm planning on heading out there in late may to go check it out. also carson got his first V3(carrot top), which was really cool. it was a problem that scared the bejesus out of me and land 5 years ago, but i got it easily this time, and watching carson climb it was really motivating.
yeah, the trip was really inspiring, and it's crazy that i'm climbing harder than ever before. there are a lot of reasons that i wanted to get that climb, mostly to prove it to myself, and to push myself harder,... "
yeah, that was the jist of bishop. i got my first V9 "soul slinger", which should probably be rated V8/9 but whatever, the line is so, so, so good! plus chillin and climbing with carson was a blast. that dude is the man. carson, if i ever see ya again, we need to go climbin!!! also, if i ever get some photos, i'll try to put them in here. i know there were some good ones of soul slinger and of carrot top (the v3 that carson did)
so recently, i've been hittin up the city of rocks every weekend. pluggin gear, and enjoyin the granite.
i really want to climb as hard on natural pro(ie, cams, nuts, etc.) as i do when it's just bolts. and as every budding climber should, you gotta work up through the grades. so mostly i've been climbing 5.10a's and down. i'm comin' up on about 30-40 onsight leads for the year(all on gear!)
anyways, last weekend was a real eye opener. i decided to step it up to the world of 5.11. the route i chose is "terror of tiny town" on the buzzard perch formation. and... i came within two moves of the onsight! omg! that was annoying. the route is a super thin finger crack in a corner, and i had to layback the whole thing. about half way i got scared. the biner on my cam was flipped, and i panicked while clipping it. i punched out another 20 feet before the pump became so bad i couldn't place anything well. (i didn't want to fall on my last piece, it inspired absolutely no confidence at all!) unfortunately i was two moves from hitting a no hands stance where i could have sat for hours! then busted out the last fifteen feet or so to the anchor. (never fear! i'm headin back this weekend with a vengeance!)
also i learned never to underestimate a 5.9. "funky bolt" on parking lot rock has just that, a funky bolt. i climbed the opening splitter, got to the bolt, and realized i spaced all my quickdraws, all my slings.... omg.... so i stole biners from my cams to clip the bolt and then went the whole second half of the route with crazy rope drag. there wasn't a lot of gear, maybe like three pieces in the last 60+ feet, but it was easy slab. however, runout slab= don't fall. throw massive rope drag into the equation, and well, i was terrified. i was almost to tears when i finally reached the anchor (a massive horn with slings around it). i straddled the thing, clipped in using cam slings for my safety, then belayed up katie. it was a strange experience. i don't know why i freaked so much, normally i wouldn't think anything of 5.9, but the wrong things were goin on upstairs, and it got to me. but i held it together, finished the route, and am here to tell the tale.
but yeah, this weekend i'm hopin' for some revenge on "tiny town", and on thursday i'm headin' out to the fins with the teNgaiolator to send a couple .12's i didn't do while projecting "bushido" a few years ago. also, hopefully scope out some projects, and maybe find something amazing. (not hard to do at the fins)
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