75 Days Down, About 165 To Go

Krissy sending the classic Buttermilk Stem V1

The view from the Buttermilks

Josh nearly sending the Mandala Sit Start V14

Ben getting psyched to be really scared on Haroun and the Sea of Stories V12. VERY windy!!

Ben sending Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Staring the upper V9ish section of Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Krissy on Acid Wash Right V7

The crux of Acid Wash Right

Krissy on Mr. Happy v5

Today Krissy and I are sitting in the Black Sheep coffee shop in Bishop, California. For the first time since January we are having some bad weather - cold, snow, and rain. We woke up this morning to bad weather, but free coffee and doughnuts in the climber's campground. This was followed by a trip to the hot springs, lunch in the coffee shop parking lot, and then coffee's in the shop.

We have definatly settled in to the road trip lifestyle over the last couple months. We more or less never know what day or time it is, and our only real decisions are what project to work each day.

Hueco was a pretty big success for both of us. Krissy was able to get some pretty good fitness by the time we left, being able to send Mexican Chicken V6, Bloodline V6, New Religion V7, and Stegasaur V7/8 and a handful of other hard problems. My time in Hueco also went pretty well despite have split tips for nearly four straight weeks. I was able to send a number of problems up to V13 - including a number of problems on my lifetime tick list. Some really memorable problems were Full Service (V10), Rumble in the Jungle (V12), and See Spot Run (V6 - classic highball). We had some great times with a bunch of other Canadians posted up in Hueco as well.

We have now moved onto Bishop, California - the land of larger than life boulders. The name of the game is definitely highballing here!! I climbed what I would consider to be one of the best lines in the Buttermilks yesterday - Haroun and the Sea of Stories V12ish. Houroun is probably something like 30 feet high! The line involves climbing a lower double digit crux to a higher V9 crux - it is probably one of my favorite problems I have ever done! Very, very memorable with the high winds and highball climbing! I love the boulders here - they are some of my favorite anywhere in the world. Krissy on the other hand has been having a little bit of a problem getting use to the size of the boulders here. From her climbing the last couple of days I think she should be sending hard here as well in no time. The climbing here takes time to get used to. The crimps are small and sharp and the feet are small and often polished. You need to have both you physical and mental games firing on all cylinders to climb hard here.

Our current home is "The Pit". We have amenities such as a pick-nic table and pit toilets. There is no running water, therefore we get water from a near by, more expensive campground. We take "showers" in the hot springs whenever we feel like going for a soak - picture a ditch with really hot water in it. When the weather is bad we hang out at the coffee shop, when the weather is good we go climbing.

We plan on staying in Bishop until the end of March. Hopefully all of our projects will be finished up by then...The weather has actually been unseasonably warm lately, making hard climbing even more tricky. We saw a Blackwidow spider a few days ago, and just yesterday we were told of baby Rattlesnake sightings at both the Buttermilks and the Happy's.
Stay tuned for more updates - we are going to make an effort to write more...Any questions for us - post them up?

Till next time,
Ben and Krissy