Bishop is the kind of place I don't mind coming back to year after year. All styles of climbing on all types of rock with all sorts of people. I've said in the past that some of the best days for me are being somewhere I've never been before, climbing something I've never seen, with someone I've never met. This place gives the most oppertunities for that to happen. Volcanic tuff in the gorge, tablelands, around Mammoth Lakes, and granite all over the eastern edge of the sierra make this one of the greatest stops in the western U.S.
I was climbing mostly with a German fellow I'd met at Smith named Christian. He'd purchased a $200 car in Eugene, Or. and joined in on the adventure. The first morning here, I was awakened by a little 6.0 earthquake centered about ten miles north of us. It caused some serious rockslides in the nearby Sierra, but had no noticable effect on the climbing areas.
We spent the first few days climbing in the Owens River Gorge, where sport climbing rules. As usual, I needed some time to warm up, but by the end of our stay, I'd onsighted my first Gorge .11d.
This year, I found myself bouldering more than ever. I guess it's the simplicity and difficulty in one that make it so appealing. My new crash pad got a good break-in during the three weeks I spent here.
The Buttermilks offer some of the most high-ball bouldering in the country. One of my most intense memories is that of Christian, 30' up on the Grandma Peabody boulder, shouting down that he was going to fall while I tried to move two crash pads into position. His landing was perfect.
Another memory that I wish I didn't have came from a visit to one of the many local hot springs. On my last trip, I found Keough Hot Spring, just south of Bishop, to be the finest of all. This year all that changed, with a swimming pool being installed at the headwaters, cooling the water and ruining another natural wonder. But before I was even made aware of this, I nearly spoiled it myself. In the dark I backed my poor bus into one of the pools. Tipping up onto two wheels and the propane tank, it sat teetering on the brink of disaster. Christian thought I was crazy, and $50 later I had to wonder myself. For an hour I sat and wondered if all my belongings would soon be floating toward the L.A. aquaduct.
Also included in this visit was another day at the Happy Boulders, a playground of sunny rocks, and a quick multi-pitch jaunt up the Elderberry Buttress in Pine Creek Canyon. Next we cruised north, back to Mammoth Lakes and the many scattered crags around the area.