Bishop ...

I spent last weekend, my "week after birthday weekend," in Bishop with a great group of friends. After a cold Friday night we arose to a beautiful Saturday, which we decided to spend in the Buttermilks.

Basin Mountain and Mt Tom, as seen from the Birthday Boulders

Anthony working out the bottom of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," my new obsession.

"Little T" working the magic on "Haroun..."

Bishop local, Andrew, shows us the beta on "Fall Guy" (the v9 stand to "Haroun.")

Mt Tom

A friend of Itai's from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Joe, sending "Fall Guy."

Max only gave it a couple shots, but looked strong, as usual.

Liberty making a fast send of "Fly Boy Arete" (v5)

One of many in the lineup attempting "Fly Boy Sit" (v8)

Myself on "Fly Boy Sit," just before the send.

Anthony cruising "Fly Boy Sit" with multiple stuffed animals taped to his arms. Yes, you read that right.

Joe on "Seven Spanish Angels" (über hard v6)

Anthony sippin his victory Maker's and Brett sending so he can share.

That's what Brett dynoing looks like.

Send!

On Sunday there was a low-lying cloud over the valley. Word on the street was three inches of snow in the Buttermilks, so we headed over to the Volcanic Tableland and climbed at the Sads.

Brett contemplating the name "Half Sharkalligator Half Man"

Anthony attempting the "Half Sharkalligator Half Man," an infamous Dan Mills v11.

From there we went up to Pow Pow, (v7/8? I seriously can't tell what's V8 anymore as some of them feel super easy and some of them feel suuuper hard) which I sent in a few tries, and then deep into the Ice Caves, where Anthony worked Beautiful Gecko and Max sent Beefcake. As Max topped out, we realized it was full on raining, so Brett and I packed it up and headed back to LA.

It was a great fun, action-packed weekend, and I can't wait to get back up to Bishop. Now I am in Vegas for Thanksgiving and will be doing some bouldering around Red Rocks over the next few days.

Stay psyched everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Another non-update

Well I probably should have not climbed this weekend because of my hurt pinky, but really the only thing that kept our crew from climbing up at Black Mt this Sunday was the fact that it had rained or snowed a few days last week, including Saturday, and we didn't want to risk the road being too messed up and/or dripping wet boulders. Instead, I opted for hard sessions of setting and bouldering at the gym on Sunday and Monday.
I'm still waiting to hear a report from Ian or Anthony about how their Sunday went up at Black.

I'm pretty psyched about getting up there and trying Twilight of the Idols, a beautiful line put up a few years ago that has been referred to as "the best v10 in California" by more than a few ascensionists. Rad pic here: 

pic by the BMB, borrowed from: http://blackmountainbouldering.blogspot.com/2011/05/april-2011.html

 As for this weekend's plans, I'll be celebrating my birthday a week late (yes I turned 26 last Thursday, and I feel exactly one year older) in Bishop. That means two days of shredding my tips on Buttermilk granite, and even with my bum pinky I am super duper psyched about it. Be there or be square (this is an open invitation to all reading this to show up in Bishop this weekend, November 18-20.)

Stay psyched and see ya out on the rocks!

I Paid $40 to Enter a Comp and All I Got Was This Lousy Finger Injury

Haha, well the title pretty much explains itself.

Saturday, after I finished coaching during the youth portion of the ABS competition in Riverside, I decided to participate in the adult comp. The setting at Hangar 18 was great, and all the competitors had a great time on the technical and powerful problems. Unfortunately, at about seven or eight problems in (still warming up), I decided to try a pretty hard, steep, crimp line, and on my second try I felt my right pinky buckle, heard an audible pop, and came flying off the wall. I taped it up and climbed for the rest of the comp, but using only three fingers on my right hand I had difficulty actually finishing a lot boulder problems. I guess this is what I get for coming out of eight years of "retirement" from comps, haha.

It seems to be a partial tear of my A2 pulley in my right pinky finger. I'm icing at night and hoping that it heals up quickly and that I didn't hose myself for the rest of the winter (Buttermilks) season. I can still climb, and was able to participate in the new boulder set at the LA Rockreation yesterday, but my right hand is probably only at about 80%. This coupled with the fact that it's been precipitating pretty hard the last couple of days and they may close the upper gate at Black Mountain this week, make me pretty happy about the fact that I finally sent Ex-Patriot last Saturday.

It's a 2.5 mile hike from that second gate on the Black Mt road to the OK Corral, and then another 45 minute hike from there to the Where the Wild Things Are boulder, so assuming the gate is closed we'll be splitting our time between there, The Republic, lower on the mountain, and  Bishop for the rest of the season.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts with actual climbing media in the near future.

In the meantime, you can tune into Blochead's final installment in their "5,000 Miles Series" here: http://blocheadclimbing.blogspot.com/2011/11/5000-miles-part-4-joes-valley.html

Halloween Weekend of Awesomeness at Black

This weekend before Halloween was pretty good to the Tarascio brothers and myself. On Friday, Anthony and Michael Tarascio went up to Black Mt and both ended up sending something, with Michael flashing Moondrops (v6/7?) and Anthony getting the first ascent of a project he and Ian have been working on for a while, dubbing it Brotherhood, v10. The new line climbs some powerful moves out a steep bulge, tops out on perfect jigsaw-puzzle-esque patina and sits on the hillside below the lookout tower and above Ex-Patriot.

Anthony Tarascio on the FA of "Brotherhood" (v10), photo by Michael Tarascio

Saturday the brothers T rested, and after coaching at the ABS competition at Mesa Rim in San Diego, I hauled ass up to Black to try to finally put Ex-Patriot to rest. I arrived at The Visor at sunset, ran two warmup laps on Center Visor without so much as putting on my climbing shoes or chalking up, then ran down the hill to Ex-Pat, which faces away from the sunset and was already shrouded in darkness. I set up my three crashpads, positioned one headlamp to shine right on the series of crux crimps in the roof and the other on my head, slipped on the climbing shoes and went for it.

I'd like to report that I sent first try and that it felt easy, but truthfully it was a battle for me. I snagged the crux crimp as usual on my first go and fell, then had a few bad goes where I didn't quite get the first hard right hand crimp correctly, then tried Anthony's beta once, going left hand out to the opposite arete that I don't touch with my beta, and then I came to a realization: it was already dark and I was alone, so it didn't really matter how much time I spent out there, and I needed to rest longer. After a few more tries and plenty of adequate rest, I let out a "Sharma call" that only the man himself could rival, then proceeded to scream on the next two moves on my way to the finishing jug. Thankfully the topout sloper actually felt quite good in the 55 degree temps, and exhausted and adrenalized, I screamed in celebration by myself on top of the boulder, overlooking the desert and the thinnest strip of pink at the farthest distance of the horizon. I believe Ex-Patriot was my longest boulder problem project ever and one of my proudest ascents to date.

After a lonely night camping at the group sites, I went down into the little mountain town of Idyllwild to enjoy a victory breakfast by myself at a quaint cafe, and later met Anthony and Mike T, who both showed up in their Halloween costumes, back at the Boulder Basin campground. 

Fuller Ridge (left) and San Jacinto peak in the distance, as seen from "Born Under Punches" on the road up to the lookout tower

We went over to the very nice relatively new problem Born Under Punches (v7), which Anthony was able to repeat and I was able to send after a few tries of slipping off the greasy right hand crux pinch.

SWAT officer (costume, lol) Mike Tarascio brushing 

Chef Anthony (pretty lame costume, since he's actually in culinary school) goin for the send.

"Officer" Mike on the slopers

The crux

"I got ya bro," Michael Tarascio with a classic "Rockreation spot."

After our time on BUP, we headed down to the OK Corral to do the old Dan Osman compression problem way up the hill. I guess Mike had come close before, but neither he or I could muster up the courage to commit to the high crux move and send. Luckily, Anthony was able to pull out a send (about his hundredth of this line), so our trek up the hill was not entirely in vain.

View from the Dan Osman problem

The Tarascio brothers in their Halloween costumes throwing down attempts on the highball Dan Osman compression problem.

Anthony celebrating on the topout jug

And no trip to the OK Corral with Anthony would be complete without a couple of super close calls on Man is a Bastard, the classic Dave Struthers dyno testpiece.

 Climbed up into the tree for a second angle.

So close, get some!!!

Anthony and his mouse friend, Feta, on "Man is a Bastard"

And so another great weekend at Black Mountain came to an end with another perfect sunset. Somehow, I never get tired of this. See you all soon out on the rocks!

Another spectacular Black Mountain sunset.