On a whim this last Thursday I decided to take a micro-adventure and check out a new climbing area 6 hours north of San Diego with a group of my climbing buddies.
It was a motley crew. 4 spaniards (only 2 of which could speak 75% english, 1 who could speak about 25% and the other 5%), one American (me), a persian who fortunately speaks perfect english, and one CRAZY RUSSIAN who was the life of the party.
It was my first trip to Bishop and based on everyone’s rave reviews and encouragement to check the place out I must say it didn’t dissapoint.
We left in the early evening on Friday and arrived about 1am, set up our tents, and woke up early the next morning to our first destination: “The Happies” (not the “Sad’s” which are on the other side of the plateau).
The rock at the happies is a really nice volcanic stone with great texture, plenty of footholds, and for the most part, nice on the skin, accept for the occasional sharp pocket or edge. The day turned out to be PERFECT conditions for climbing.
After climbing for about 8 hours we took off in search of the “Secret Hot Springs” that ended up not being so secret, yet it was refreshing and we met some cool/interesting locals and had some good laughs and drank some Turkish wine.
The next day we visited an area about 30 miles north called “The Buttermilks” which was at a much higher elevation yet again, we had another picture perfect day with just the right amount of sun and air temperatures.
The rock at the Buttermilks is a form of Joshua Tree granite although it’s texture is in many ways superior and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Hard to capture it with a camera.
Was a fun filled trip as always with video highlights below and I was able to work on my Spanish a bit :)
On July 26th of 2008 myself, Gordon Ogden (a seasoned expert climber) and Dylan Addison (a newbie) headed north from Phoenix about 3 hours to climb in “Clear Creek Canyon” which is just south of Winslow Arizona (East of Flagstaff) to check out a new climbing area.
Gordon had a good friend who operates a river rafting company and we were able to borrow 2 inflatable rafts which served us well on the trip.
I’ve done Deep Water Soloing in Thailand where the rock is limestone and you land in the ocean and have to deal with all the muck and salt buildup on the rock, where as climbing in Clear Creek we got to climb on sand stone and land in fresh water.
We lucked out as the weather was PERFECT and made for one of the most amazing days of climbing I’ve ever had.
Climbing, cliff jumping, warm weather good friends, what else could a person ask for?
I’ve been climbing for about 15 years, but I NEVER had any interest in “Big Wall” climbing. I must admit there was a small part of me that wondered if I’d ever face the MASSIVE fear of doing big wall.
It was unattractive for several reasons:
It required TRAD climbing which never appealed to me. I’d rather “sport” climb all day on 45 degree overhanging cliffs that are 35-50 feet tall.
For the most part it required crack climbing skills which I could never figure out. All I felt when I would try it was complete and utter pain. Pain in jamming my fingers and twisting them to “lock” inside the crack and my feet were miserable enough in the small tight shoes, but then cramming my already squished feet into a crack was a double whammy.
Generally “Big Walls” take a full day of climbing and heights of 1,000 feet or more. I like skydiving and don’t mind heights, but there has always been something about the exposure that freaked me out.
Never the less, when I heard that my hardcore climbing friend Gordon and his good friend Kalvan were going up to climb Moonlight Buttress (one of the most popular big walls in the US) and that they needed a rope gun (a glorified 3rd wheel) I jumped on it realizing I’d likely NEVER get a chance like this.
In the movie it’s hard to really get a feel for the experience. Kalvan aid climbed most of the route and Gordon and I followed him up using Jumars, but aid climbing or not, the fact that I’d not been climbing in about 8 months, had NEVER used Jumars, had never done a big wall was a pretty bizarre adventure to take on.
What you can’t see in the movie accept for a bit of dialogue between myself and Kalvin is that he took about a 40+ foot whipper (fall) and a few of his gear pieces came out of the crack and I was belaying him from down below a huge 10 foot roof and couldn’t see him until he came pitching off the wall and when I caught him he’d fallen a very long way and ended up above my head about 25 feet hanging upside down panting a bit. Keep in mind that we were about 600 feet up at that point. Pretty wild.
Also the most difficult portion of the route is just before the roof I mentioned above. We all had packs that were about 60-80 lbs filled with water and supplies and when I was working my way up using the Jumars I found myself being pulled backwards from my heavy pack and it took me literally 90 minutes to climb 40 feet. I literally thought I would pass out from sheer exhaustion. I’ve never ever in my life been that tired/frustrated/exhausted. I wasn’t going to quit or all of us would have had to bail on the climb. That’s why at that part in the video I inserted some cow sounds as I was grunting up that part and it was almost an event that ruined the whole day.
Luckily I made it through it and eventually got the hang of jumaring. It was a long day (about 14 hours of climbing) but it was worth it. We then had to climb down the mountain in the dark and make the 2 hour trek walking down the road as we missed the last shuttle out of the canyon.
