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 :)
Tociego!
