Jeff and I made our way from LA up to Bishop for a spectacular weekend. Up there we met up with longtime climbing buddy Patrick "Fish" Luther, who had a pretty decent Saturday to say the least. After a lengthy warm up session at the birthday boulders, we went up to Haroun and the Sea of Stories so Patrick could "send it real quick." In a display of pretty serious rock climbing prowess, he did indeed do it "real quick," first try of the day quick. Unfortunately, the lighting was so mixed over there I didn't take any photos. We vowed to be back at the end of the day for pics, but it did not happen.

Next was Xavier's Roof, which was on the top of my list of problems to do this trip. Since I saw the video over at Alex's site I have wanted to climb this line, and I had been obsessing for the last week. I said before the trip that I would be super psyched to send it on Saturday, and although with a bit of an epic two hour session and seven or so attempts, I did hold true to that goal. Here are some pics, but none of which are of the actual send, as Jeff put the camera down to spot after Patrick decided to bask in the sun.









After FINALLY droppin the clutch and sending Xavier's, we made the serious trek over to the Bardini Boulders so Patrick could try to send A Maze of Death, which he also impressively sent in short work. Here are some pics of that immaculate piece of stone and Patrick ascending it.







Our friend friend from back East, Jason Danforth, of the NE2C, decided an attempt on This Side of Paradise seemed like a good idea. As much as I find it difficult to watch people climb stuff of this scale, it certainly is a striking line, and at least we had a bunch of pads for him.




Sunday was another good day out, though significantly colder.



After a warm up and some beta-gleaning attempts I finally sent Soulslinger, a project of mine from about 6 years ago. Unfortunately no photos of that either, or even of Jeff on it for that matter.

Just 50 yards away, Lucas Ménégatti did The Buttermilker, with a little bit of work




and later sent Saigon, which Jeff was agonizingly close to sending as well, having gotten past the "thank god it's over jug" and then taking an unexpected fall.

Lucas and Jeff on Saigon






It was windy as hell in the afternoon, which led us to believe it was time to leave.
In a crazy wind storm, we hustled back to the car and made the 4 hour drive back to LA.

Oh Bishop, how we'll miss you. Until next time.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in case you didn't know. This year, I went with Maya and her family up to their family friends' ranch/vineyard in the hills outside of Paso Robles for the second time in three years. The scenery is amazing up there, and the weather was beautiful too. Not only that, but the five dogs create great photo opportunities. Unfortunately, all the lazing around, eating, and walking the property didn't really allow for any climbing, so no climbing photos will be seen this week. Here are select photos from the three days we were up north, mostly from the Abernathy Ranch and some from the surrounding area, including an old cemetery and a neighboring vineyard/winery.

I figure I better post about last week's climbing before this week's happens or I will never get around to it. Despite my rallying cry that we take advantage of our few weeks left of Black Mt before they close the gate, I went with some of the LA crew to Echo Cliffs on Sunday instead. Echo is SoCal's volcanic breccia (often referred to as choss) mecca. Aside from the cliffs' chossy nature, the climbing at Echo is generally quite fun and most routes have been climbed and/or glued into a more solid state. As an added bonus, Echo holds the largest concentration of sport climbs in the greater LA area, including a few very hard ones.

Jeff got his first sport climb and first lead simultaneously in the morning. Needless to say he was psyched.

Jeff Blum crushing 5.9




Later we headed to the Kamikaze Cave, which holds all the particularly steep (and most of the hard) climbing at Echo Cliffs. I fell off the top of a 4-bolt 13a called "The Gimp" three times in a row, and Steve sent on his last attempt of the day. I actually would not mind going back and sending some of the lines in the cave, which have fun, gymnastic climbing on good holds.

Sean from Ventura aaaalmost sending "Crash and Burn" (12d).



Although it was a short day and I didn't send anything, it got me kind of psyched for route climbing again, which is a good thing, since that's what I'll be doing in Israel in Decembuary. The plan for tomorrow is Malibu Creek State Park, which has great short sport climbs on rock that is similar to Echo, but much cleaner. I used to climb there almost weekly with Michael Reardon, and haven't been back since his memorial in August of '07, so I kind of look forward to reacquainting myself with the area.

I'll leave you with this beautiful view from the Kamikaze Cave at Echo Cliffs.

Yesterday seemed to be a high gravity day at Black Mountain, at least for Cory French, Jon the Brit, and myself. Maybe the McIntosh/Savage/Moore et al crew fared better, but the three of us who remained at the general OK Corral area for the day got legitimately spanked.

First after warming up we headed down to Morphic Resonance, a very tall and hard pure line a little down the hill from the main OK area. Cory, who had been very close on a previous visit failed to send the beast on this day as well, and I failed to even reach the third move.

I did have the privilege of sending this beautiful V3 to the right of Morphic, however. Bad sunspot photo courtesy of Jon.


After hiking back up to the OK Corral, we sessioned both Cosmos and OK Arete, which are actually just left and right variations of the same feature. All three of us failed to send either one, which is very strange, but I guess everyone has off days, even Cory French.

Jon on Cosmos


Cory on OK Arete


When we decided we'd had enough punishment, we hiked back up the hill a little ways to send train Gimme Some, another striking arete. Or at least that was our intention. Once again, none of us sent. After a few bad attempts, I surprised myself by getting through the majority of the problem and staring right at the thank god jug that indicates the end of the hard climbing, but right as I was firing for it my right foot popped and I found myself falling once again.

Jon, me, and Cory on Gimme Some.





In the end, although none of us sent anything harder than V4 yesterday, it was still a beautiful and fulfilling day in the outdoors with good friends. I've been sending a lot of cool and (for me) hard problems lately, so it's about time for some all out failure. I mean, we need the bad performance days to truly appreciate the good ones, right?

Majesty.


Only a few more weeks of Black before the Forest Service arbitrarily closes the gate. We'd better take full advantage.

For those interested in seeing how it climbs, Alex Savage has posted a video of Beowulf at his site: savageclimbing.com. Check out the sickness.

Today I finally sent Beowulf at the YMCA camp area of Black Mountain after three consecutive Sundays of work. After Anthony Tarascio's ascent a couple of days ago this makes mine the fifth, unless someone else snuck a send in there in the last two days, but I'm gonna venture to say that's not likely. Consensus grade seems to be V11, which I guess means it's the hardest thing I've bouldered, although when I actually sent it (third try today) it didn't feel super hard. I guess that's how redpointing works though. It is a power-endurance, or "resistance" as the Euros say, problem, with a pretty hard throw to a jug at move thirteen, followed by a topout on a very very tall, yet highly featured slab. If you are interested in hard problems in SoCal, Beowulf should most definitely be at the top of your list. I asked Maya's brother Alon if he wanted to lend me his fancy new video camera, but he did not, so you'll have to settle for a still photo of one of the cooler moves (which is also pictured several times in the last two posts.)


Afterward, I tried a heinous little sit start to a beautiful V2, then drove back to Boulder Basin, where I repeated Where Boneheads Dare (highball V5, but the crux is the second move) and attempted Buzz Saw, a V10 with some bad edges on the same boulder, which did not go down.

If anyone wants to go climbing anywhere next weekend, Black Mt, Malibu Creek, Boney Bluff or Echo, Horse Flats, Tram, literally anywhere in SoCal, I am SO down now that I am free of this project. PSYCHED.

I have been working 12 hour days on average here in LA, but I have still found the time to make it to the rock gym two nights a week and outside on the weekend. Today a group of us drove up to Black Mountain from LA and enjoyed a perfect day of bouldering. My main desire was to try to send the line Alex and Ian sent last week (see previous post), which Ian has dubbed Beowulf, and Maya thinks looks like an overhanging butt. On the way in, we stopped at group camp 4 and 5 to warm up.

Here are a couple shots of Michelle sending a nice crimpy warmup.



After a couple problems we got on Soul Snatch, which I tried during the Birthday Bash weekend, but greased off of repeatedly. Today the temps were much better than back in August, and both Steve and I were lucky enough to send this gem, with Spencer, Will and Jeff all coming very close too.





Then we drove up to the YMCA Camp area and met up with Ian, Alan, Alex, A.ron and others. Pretty much as soon as we got there A.ron got the probable FA of this little line.



Then Will, Jeff and Steve (who flashed in great style) climbed on Ghost Dog, the beautiful V8 highball I posted photos of last week. Here are some more shots of it.





Finally A.ron told me to get off the boulder and put on my shoes to climb on Beowulf and I started giving it some effort. Unfortunately, I did not send, but I easily completed the crux throw that I could not do last week and made several good links. Sent it in two parts with good overlapping linkage.

Two pics of Steve on the lower section of Beowulf.



Myself linking through the finish of Beowulf, or as Maya calls it, "the butt problem."






Next week the same LA crew plus some others are going to Bishop. I'll join them if I can, and if I can't perhaps I will get back to Black and send this all time classic problem.