Tramtastic

Friday afternoon rolled around and I made a very last minute decision to head down to the Tramway to escape the heat in Bishop. Eric is taking two months off to let his hand heal so I thought it would be fun to make him watch me climb all weekend. Despite my best efforts to get him to climb "easy stuff", the only thing he climbed was a tree to take pictures. Don't tell his doctor.

Day one: green shirts

Abbie sending Spirit of the Forest (V4) without bending her arms at all.

photo - Eric Lang

I might have flashed Gluttony (V8) if Eric hadn't given me the leprechaun beta. Instead, it went down third try with my giant beta. (I'm still only one inch taller than him)

photo - Abbie Mood

Abbie working on Green Hornet (V5)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Me flashing Red Spark (V6)...

photo - Eric Lang

...and Blue Flame (V7)

photo - Eric Lang

Day two: blue shirts

Warming up on Center Crack (V0)

photo - Eric Lang

I flashed these next few and then posed some pictures on them since they were such cool problems. It was fun repeating the moves and it gave Eric some more practice with the camera. Click the photos for the larger version.

Vanishing Point (V9)

photos - Eric Lang

Byron's Roof (V9/10)

photos - Eric Lang

The Wave (V5)

photo - Eric Lang

Man, it is hot today!

Ooh, it's hot out here, man. It is hot today!
You know, it's hot out.
Yeah, I just said that. I said it's hot out here, man.
Yeah, you know, it's hot too.
Yeah, that's why I said it, man! It is hot out here!
I know. I'm just saying it's hot too.

---

I've had this conversation several times with various people (including myself) over the past few days. 80+ degrees in Bishop over the weekend was a little warm for me so I decided to check out some higher areas. But before it got crazy hot, Jeff Honeywell and I spent an afternoon over at Dale's Camp.

Jeff on the full value Green Hornet (V4)



photos - Jeff Sillcox

Saturday was spent up at Rock Creek with Andrew Stevens. There's still snow up there, but I cleaned off the last bit from the top of the Campground Boulder. Every problem I saw was dry and climbable. We put up a few new problems including my really scary Ham to Ham Combat (V6 or 7). It's probably not that scary with a bunch of pads and some real cleaning. There's a lot of lichen on the high slab moves which made the footholds worse than they really are.

Andrew managed to finish off Overzealous (V9) on the Talus Boulder before we headed up the talus field. (Note his amazing style: a tucked in shirt and makeshift manpris)


photos - Jeff Sillcox

Next on the list was Large Talons (V9). Andrew got close, but didn't send. I put this one up a while ago and Wills repeated it shortly after. He said something about it only being V8, but it's probably closer to V10 and definitely harder than Overzealous.



photos - Jeff Sillcox

I've got a bunch more pictures of the newer stuff at Rock Creek... I'll post more if I get motivated.

The Standoff

Day 2: Happy Boulders

After wrecking ourselves at the Buttermilks on Friday, our skin needed a break from granite. Unfortunately, volcanic at the Happies in April isn't much better. The rock was warm to the touch even in the shade. I started to warm up and quickly decided to save it for another day and take pictures instead.

Derek warming up in the shade on Donkey Boy (V0+)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Derek was pretty beat from the previous day, but Eric and I (the slave drivers) made him keep climbing. Hopefully we didn't hurt him too bad. Here he is sending Action Figure (V6)

photos - Jeff Sillcox

Eric didn't climb enough the day before. He still had energy to screw around on the Happy Boulder. The Hulk (V6)


photos - Jeff Sillcox

And Disco Diva (V8)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

And the moment you've all been waiting for: Eric sent Rio's Secret Arete (V3) in a couple tries after complaining about being short (he's 5' 10" if anyone who's actually short wants to punch him). He then spent the next hour or so (I might be exaggerating slightly) trying to get psyched up to jump the gap back to the rim. I jumped back and forth a few times and fell into a pushup position across the gap trying to help him (I don't think it helped). And in the end, he opted for the sketchy chimney downclimb over the pit of death and the shame of being a wuss.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Nate will probably chime in here and defend Eric for not giving in to peer pressure on this jump. But that is only because he too lives in shame from not doing this jump. I think we need to arrange some sort of death match between Nate and Eric on top of this boulder. Or maybe they can hold hands and jump together...

65+100+116=281

Friday at the Buttermilks started out innocently enough; Eric, Andrew, and our friend Derek (who was on his first trip west of some big river) were cruising around doing classics when I showed up after work around 1:00. Eric casually mentioned that he had 35 points already (one V-grade = one point). Big mistake... six hours and a lot of skin later, we had climbed a lot of boulder problems. Here are the stats:

Eric: 100 points, 30 problems (Essential Peabody, North Face Direct, West Corner, Go Granny Go, Go Granny Right, Cave Problem, unnamed V2, Rubber Tester, Soul Slinger, Shelter from the Storm, Cave Route, Dyno Problem, Milk the Milks, Funky Tut, Egypt No Crack, unnamed V4, unnamed V2, Lulalator, King Tut, V1 Slab, Hobb's Problem, Buttermilk Stem, unnamed V2, unnamed V5, The Hunk, Change of Heart, Slip Stream, Roadside Highball, Ruckus, Ta Kill Ya Corner)

Eric earning points 89, 90, and 91 on the Roadside Highball (V3), our new favorite end-of-the-day problem.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Derek: 65 points, 19 problems (Essential Peabody, North Face Direct, West Corner, Cave Problem, Shelter from the Storm, Cave Route, Dyno Problem, Milk the Milks, Egypt No Crack, unnamed V4, unnamed V2, King Tut, V1 Slab, Buttermilk Stem, unnamed V2, unnamed V5, The Hunk, Roadside Highball, Ruckus)

Derek sending Milk the Milks (V6), one of his four V6's.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Andrew: He might have had somewhere between 30 and 50 points, but he didn't turn in his scorecard so we'll never know.

Had Andrew stuck it out to the end of the day, he might have sent Ruckus (V6) AKA Seven Spanish Angels like Eric.


photos - Jeff Sillcox

Jeff: 116 points, 27 problems (Inner Sanctum, Shelter from the Storm, Dyno Problem, Cave Route, One Mule Wonder, Soulslinger, Moonraker, Milk the Milks, Funky Tut, Egypt No Crack, unnamed V4, unnamed V2, Lulalator, King Tut, V1 Slab, Hobb's Problem, Buttermilk Stem, unnamed V2, unnamed V5, The Hunk, Change of Heart, High Plains Drifter, Essential Peabody, Roadside Highball, Ruckus, Ta Kill Ya Corner, Get Carter)

There are no pictures of me from this day (single tear) since I was taking the pictures. So I will use this space to complain about the speck of dust in my camera hovering above Derek on Buttermilk Stem (V1).

photo - Jeff Sillcox

A few more images from the madness...

Derek on Change of Heart (V6)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Derek on Milk the Milks (V6)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Eric flashing Hobb's Problem (V2)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Derek sending West Corner (V4)

photo - Eric Lang

Derek sticking the crux on the Cave Route (V6)

photo - Eric Lang

Check back soon for day two at the Happies. I think our point total was around 24. Not very exciting, but there will be pictures of Eric's standoff with a downclimb.