El Fin

I have returned home to my parents’ house in the Bay Area for Christmas, thus ending the adventure.  While the return is somewhat anti-climactic, I have found that there is a bowl of Christmas colored M&Ms that sits by the door and is mysteriously refilled every time that I empty it.  I may stay.

Here are some stats from the trip:

Total mileage: 11,823

Total days: 106

Total states: 9 (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California)

Total crags/areas: 14 (Smith Rock, Trout Creek, Ozone, City of Rocks, the Tetons, American Fork, Maple Canyon, Joe’s Valley, Indian Creek, Rocky Mountain National Park, Eldorado Canyon, Flagstaff Boulders, Clear Creek Canyon, Bishop)

Longest stay: Indian Creek, 18 days

Longest drive: Littleton, CO to Incline Village, NV- 17 hours

Longest route: Exum Direct, Grand Teton

Highest temperature: 90 degrees- City of Rocks, Idaho

Lowest temperature: 10 degrees- Bishop, California

I left on this trip with high hopes for a grand adventure and I was not disappointed.  I left with two crazy puppies and returned with two loyal companions.  I left with a best friend and returned with a best friend; we don’t want to kill each other, we can still stand each other’s company, and I in fact miss her already after only two days apart.  I left with a mild allergy to splitter cracks and returned with a new affection for them.  I left without my greatest climbing partner, and returned still missing him as much as ever.  I left with a sense of adventure and returned with an even greater yearning for exploration.    

      

 I may be back home, but plenty of things occurred since my last post.  After leaving Bishop after our first ten days there, we made quick stops in San Luis Obispo and the Bay Area and then returned to Tahoe for several days of skiing.  Then it was back to Bishop for another four days.  This time we were fortunate enough to meet up with a bunch of great friends from school who had just finished finals. 

Psyche was extremely high as evidenced by the huge number of V-points that the group racked up.  Our posse reached 12 at its largest and made ascents of Beefcake V10, Beefy Gecko V11, Standing Kill Order V10, Queen Sweet Nectar V9, Disco Diva V8, Morning Dove White V7, The Hulk V6, Strength in Numbers V5, Molly V5, Pow Pow V8, High Plains Drifter V7, Atari V6, the sit start to Bowling Pin which probably has a different name V8, and many, many more that I can’t think of at this moment.  Almost as impressive as the number of V-points that were amassed, were the number of stars, as most of the ascents were classics. 

It was awesome to climb with good friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen for six months!  We finally convinced Ian that he could stop studying long enough to come to Bishop for four days and he impressed us all with his ability to climb V10 off the couch.  Alex was as psyched as always and amazed me with his ability to continuously pull down on burly moves throughout the day, spot like a champion, and be my bestie.  Eric quietly sent climb after climb, cruising through the moves with unparalled finesse.  Drew put down his long time project and arch nemesis, High Plains Drifter, in a beautiful display of effort and inspiration.  Trevor’s finger exploded and started to hemorrhage blood within the first hour of his arrival, but that didn’t stop him from pulling down hard.  Chelsea continued to hop on harder and harder climbs as her bouldering confidence builds.  Kent sussed out the beta on Molly and on the send he hit the finishing hold in an awesome dynamic upward surge, feet flying out, huge smile on his face.  Tiber was exuberant and possibly the most excited person in all of Bishop.  Sam was as impressive as ever, amassing a very proud ticklist and working inspiring lines.  Fabien was stoked, super encouraging and ever explorative.  Matt impressed me with his determination and made many notable ascents after some good effort.  And as for me, I was just excited to be in a beautiful place with beautiful people (I was also excited that the temperatures were double what they were on our last visit). 

We left Bishop and drove through a snowstorm back to Tahoe.  The next day we woke up to 24” of fresh powder and bluebird skies.  The next week consisted of skiing, eating, and movie watching.  We were stoked to get to watch the opening night of an ongoing competition at High Altitude Fitness (the gym in Incline where we worked this summer), in which the winners will be flown out to Hueco Tanks to be guided by professional rock climber Jason Kehl.  Not a bad deal.  The end of our time in Tahoe was slightly dampered by a huge storm that brought insane winds that whipped the lake into an ocean like frenzy, knocked out our power for 10 hours, and dumped rain onto our beautiful powder. 

My trip was amazing.  I love being dirty, living in my car, sleeping outside, playing with my dogs, climbing rocks and doing whatever strikes my fancy at any given moment.  I love the freedom of the open road, the unpredictable weather, the way that nature surprises you when you least expect it.  I love meeting people that make me laugh, people that make me say ‘wow,’ people that inspire me and move me, and plain, simple people that I can sit under the stars with and not say a word.  I love having time to stop and think, and have no obligations and no one to answer to.  I love the ways that God has blessed me, the way my friends have shaped me, the way my family supports me.  I love that I do not feel tied down, or worn out, or trampled on by the ways of the world, that I am not caught up in the routine, or the expectations of others.  I love that there are people in this world who understand that there is more to life than the car in your driveway, the degree on your wall and the money in your bank account.  I love people who quit their jobs to pursue something they are passionate about.  I love the way that I see beauty.  I love how much money we spent on chocolate on this trip.  I love that in a world that is often filled with despair, there are still people who know how to love.     

Peace. Joy. Love. Christmas cookies.

     

I would like to thank the following people for making this trip possible, providing hospitality, funding, meals, guiding, entertainment, gear, a Yakima SkyBox 16s, and much more.  Please forgive me if I didn’t mention you!

The Patton Family, the Kaes Family, Greg, Steph, the Checketts Family, Donell, Alan and Dana, Max, Dan, Kristal, Jason, the makers of the 2007 Honda CRV, Black Diamond Camalots, and Nutella    

And just because my trip is over, don’t think that my blog is over.  I will continue to write!

Bishop Video

Here is a short video I made of Eric bouldering in Bishop.  The high quality video was taking way too long to load so let's hope that this one will do.

Oh California!

We have returned to the land of immaculate granite.  In doing so I am reminded of a question that we were asked more than once on our trip.  “Why did you ever leave California?” Great question! California is home to some of the country’s, if not the world’s, best climbing.  We’ve got Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Bishop to name a few of the big ones.  Whenever anyone asked us where we were from, we would triumphantly answer, “California!”  Most people would then ask, where in California?  That question stumped us, as we didn’t know if we should answer our hometown, our most recent place of residence, or San Luis Obispo.  Most of the time we would just mumble and stutter and just say, ‘all over the place!’  Wherever we are in California, we are stoked to be back in the state!   

We are currently en route to San Luis Obispo.  We are reaching the 10,000-mile mark right…now!  Oh shoot!  That was super disappointing!  I was really excited to see the odometer hit 10,000 but it just reset itself to 0.  Rats.  Now, you may be wondering to yourself, ‘isn’t this entire country 3,000 miles wide? How is it that the furthest east you reached was Colorado, but you have driven the distance of our country 3 times?’ Don’t ask. Let’s just say we aren’t very efficient road trippers. 

We spent the past 10 days in the beautiful town of Bishop, California.  Sitting at the foothills of the magnificent eastern Sierras, Bishop is not only picturesque, but also home to some world-class bouldering.  It was awesome to spend so much time in the three main areas- the Happies, Sad and Buttermilks, climbing with great people.  We got to see Eric put down a bunch of projects including Center Direct V10, Beefcake V10, Lawnmower Man V7, Redrum V7 and Atari V6.  Quite an impressive ticklist!  I wasn’t quite as successful in sending projects, but I was able to overcome my constant fear while bouldering and send a highball V3 called Black Magic.  I was slightly discouraged by my lack of ascents, until I realized that I was trying exponentially more problems than usual, which meant there was a lot more room for failure. 

When all was said and done, I walked a way with a ton of exciting new projects!  I am super psyched to go back to Bishop next weekend and make some progress on them.  In the meantime we are making one of our abnormal, high mileage detours that includes a stop in San Luis Obispo to pick up my snow pants and say hi to friends, a stop in the bay for a quick hello to the family and a cocktail party, and then a stay in Tahoe for some skiing!  Wait, skiing?  I though I was on a climbing trip…  Well it was a climbing trip until we got tired of freezing temps and decided to switch sports temporarily. 

The weather was somewhat brisk in Bishop, with nighttime temperatures in the teens.  Every morning we woke up to find that our water was solid ice, our peanut butter was frozen and had to be sliced to put on bread, and even our poor bananas had freezer burn.  The sun set super early and it was pretty much pitch black out at 5:00.  Sitting in the dark in the freezing cold wasn’t too appealing, so we would head for our tent and sleep for 12 or more hours a night.  So that’s how we decided that after 87 days on the road, it might be nice to switch it up for just a bit before heading home for the holidays.  So we will be trying our hands at skiing starting on Sunday.   

We were fortunate enough to be in a beautiful setting and amongst beautiful people for Thanksgiving Day.  On Thanksgiving morning, we woke up to bright blue skies.  We headed into town to pick up some supplies then drove up the road towards Mammoth.  After a bit of searching we arrived at our destination – some natural hot springs in the middle of a snow-covered field looking at the gorgeous mountains.  We cooked up a delicious Thanksgiving dinner consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, rolls, and apple pie.  We scarfed down our dinner (it was 20 degrees out, we didn’t want to linger) and crossed the snowy field and jumped in the hot springs.  We soaked our tired muscles as we watched the sun dip below the mountain range.  It was a lovely day. 

Climb on, rock on, ski on, dance on, party on!